General Be Wet was sentenced on Monday to six years'
imprisonment and a fine of £2,000. He had been charged with high treason, and alternatively sedition, and pleaded not guilty to the first and guilty to the second, charge, but subsequently withdrew the second plea. He was found guilty on eight counts of the treason indictment and not guilty on the remaining two—viz„ of destroying telegraphs and pro- ceeding to join the Germans. The Court did not accept the contention that the movement was an armed protest against the policy of invading German South-West Africa, but held it to be clearly an armed rebellion, and Judge Lange, in passing sentence, declared that had it not been for Be Wet and others associated with him they would have heard nothing about rebellion. Be Wet, be added, had stirred up rebellion amongst his own people against a Government which he had assisted to put into power, and that at a time when the Government were at war with a foreign enemy. His action had not merely led to serious loss of life and heavy casualties, but had inflicted an indelible stain on the Africander race. The sentence cannot be said to err on the side of harshness, though to a man over sixty and said to be in broken health it is a heavy punishment.
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