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Though this is no place for RL I have, in my need to write something, decided to publish and old article from the Anglo-Boer war.


Extract for the War Reporterby J.E.H Grobler

The Concentration Camps

"It is clear that frustration is clouding the capacity of the British commander-in-chief to think realistically.The letter Kitcherner dispatched to Acting President Burger of the ZAR, President Steyn of the OFS and Chief Commandant De Wet at the beginning of December would have been laugable had he not intented it to be serious. In this letter he informs the addressees that since they complain about the treatment of the woman and children in the consentration camps, he accepts that Boers would treat those women and children better. Therefore he offers to send all the families in the camps who are wiling to the commandos as soon as he is informed where they should be delivered."

Our first reaction was that Burger, Steyn and De Wet should answer that Kitchener should send those women to about 10 000 farms in England, or atleast as many farmsas the British has destroyed in the Republics, and that the Boers would look after them there. Such an answer would sound ridiculous to Kitcherner as his offer sounds to us, However, President Steyn did not need our counsel. On 10 December he answered Kitcherner in bitter words from the Free State:
'As if martyrdom is not enough for the women and children, Your Excellency is now making a proposal that would, if we accept it, make life impossible for those unfortunate victims. Since you know and the British government knows, or should know, that there is hardly a single house left in the Orange Free State that has not been burnt down or destroyed, that all furniture and specifically the blankets and clothing of the women and children has been burned or looted by British troops. Ifwe wereto take our women back, they would have to survive in the open sky. It is of no importance how glad each father or husband would be to have his wife and children with him, since for those reasons we must refuse your offer. I am convinced that you will now make it known all over the world that the Boers have refused to take their wives back. Consequently I expect from you as an honourable man to make the reasons why we refuse your offer public.'
Chief Commandant De Wet's answer to Kitcherner was briefer than that of Steyn and more challenging:
' I refuse point blank to recieve the famalies before the war has ended and we are in a position to state our claims for just compensation for the unlawful abduction and humiliation of our families and for compensation for the uncivilised action of England in taking our famalies away.'