formally protested about the murder of Hesse, whom he describes as a German citizen. He says that the German people support the Boer cause, that their government covets the gold and diamond mines of the Boer Republics, and that the British Government fears German entry into the war. This, Kitchener explains, is why Morant, Handcock, and Witton must be convicted at all costs. According to the South African historian Charles Leach, the legend that the German Foreign Office protested about the murder of Hesse "cannot be proved through official channels". "No personal or direct communication" between the Kaiser and his uncle, King Edward VII, "has been found despite widespread legend that this was definitely the case". Questions raised in the House of Commons on 8 April 1902 were answered by an insistence that the War Office, the Foreign Office, or Lord Kitchener had not received "any such communication on this subject" "on behalf of the German government". Under international law, the German government had no grounds to protest. Despite being attached to the Berlin Missionary Society, Hesse had been born in Cape Colony and "was, technically speaking, a British subject, and not a German citizen". Yet, the scene contains a kernel of truth. Leach writes, "Several eminent South African historians, local enthusiasts, and commentators share the opinion that had it not been for the murder of Hesse, none of the other Bushveldt Carbineers would have been brought to trial". Three defendants Although only Morant, Handcock, and Witton are shown as being on trial, there were three other defendants: Lieutenant Henry Picton, a British-born Australian officer of the Bushveldt Carbineers, was charged along with Morant, Handcock, and Witton of "committing the offense of murder" for delivering a coup de grâce after the execution of the wounded prisoner Floris Visser. Picton was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to be cashiered from the British Armed Forces. Captain Alfred James Taylor, the Anglo-Irish commander of military intelligence at Fort Edward, stood accused of the murder of six unarmed Afrikaner men and boys, the theft of their money and livestock, and the subsequent murder of a Bushveldt Carbineers Trooper. He was acquitted. Major Robert Lenehan, the Australian Field Commander of the Bushveldt Carbineers, stood accused of concealing the murder of a Bushveldt Carbineers Trooper who had disapproved of shooting prisoners. The official charge was "When on active service by culpable neglect failing to make