Concentration Camps.
On our side, we cannot, I think, contemplate the history of the concentration camps with equanimity. Let us recall a few of the facts. The following are amongst the death rates recorded in July, 1901: Norval’s Pont, 218.4 (per thousand per annum); Bloemfontein, 242.4; Springfontein, 462.0; Kronstad, 459.6. In June the average death rate was practically 200 (199.3). In the year ending February, 1902, the official returns (which are incomplete) show more than 20,000 deaths in camps with an average total population of about 100,000.[33] Our accusers said the camps were instituted for the purpose of killing off the Boer population. The truth is, the feeling against Britain, even amongst the onlookers, was extremely bitter, and great bitterness does not make for sane judgment. What is certain is that the camps illustrated some of the callousness and carelessness which war always produces. “The sites chosen for the camps were mostly chosen on purely military grounds, and were often unsuitable; the medical and sanitary staff was at first insufficient,” writes Dr. Spaight. But, “unsuitable sites, and insufficient” sanitation may produce terrible results, where human lives are concerned, and one would not convert an adverse critic by simply quoting the “Times History” to the effect that “the Boers themselves proved to be helpless, utterly averse to cleanliness, and ignorant of the simplest principles of health and sanitation.” The attempt to shift the chief burden of responsibility on to the prisoners is surely scarcely chivalrous. Carelessness and ignorance amongst the prisoners are certain in all such cases to be contributory causes, they are amongst the difficulties to be combatted, but to suggest that they should have been permitted to produce such appalling results is to court derision. Moreover, the chief authority on the subject, Lieut.-Col. S. J. Thomson, C.I.E., I.M.S., who became Director of Burgher Camps in February, 1902, by no means supports these charges. “Much has been said,” he writes, “about the want of personal cleanliness among the Boers, but it must be remembered that ablutions are apt to be less frequent and popular when water has to be laboriously brought from considerable distances, as is often the case with farms on the veldt. When bathrooms were provided in the camps, they were very freely and regularly used. Nevertheless it is a fact that the Boer’s notion of sanitation as understood by Englishmen is very vague, and all classes resort for purposes of nature to the open country. This custom, probably innocuous enough under the conditions of existence on an isolated homestead, made it extremely difficult to maintain the cleanliness of a camp site, and it was very long before the people could be brought to see that foul matters and dirty water could not be most satisfactorily disposed of by the simple process of flinging them out of the tent. It was found indeed that such proceedings had hopelessly fouled certain camps, and the removal of the people to a fresh site was followed by the best results. In a later chapter, the procedure which was found most successful is described in detail.”[34] In July, 1902, the average death rate for the Burgher Camps had sunk to 23.0, and it fell afterwards even lower.
Tents were, in general, the only housing allowed, and this, though “the cold in the ‘upper veldt’ country in winter was intense.” (Thomson.) What were known as bona fide refugees were allowed meat, but those who had their man on commando were, at first, allowed none. This was altered, however, in March, 1901. As to the families of this class, Major Goodwin reported in this month: “I would, therefore, beg respectfully to here place on record my opinion that had we compelled class 3 to decide between unprotected starvation on their farms, and at their homes, or taking up their quarters in or behind the enemy’s lines, we should have facilitated the work of proselytism.” Thus readily, we observe, may the starvation of women and children be advocated by an English Major as an aid to “proselytism.” There were other ways in which “military necessity” showed itself. A Board of three reported on the site of Merebank Camp in December, 1901. The President was Surgeon-Gen. Clery, C.B., and the two members, Col. McCormack, R.A.M.C., and Mr. Ernest Hill, Health Officer of Natal. “The Board is of opinion that the site is by no means an ideal site, and has imperfection as regards elevation, drainage, etc., but do not recommend that the camp should be removed ... for the following reasons: (1) It is necessary that any camp should be on a railway line. (2) Purely sanitary arrangements as to site have to be held subservient to military exigencies. The latter do not permit the camps being located in the uplands, as military and civil traffic arrangements make it essential that the main line should not be further congested,” ... and so on. The Camp had been condemned by the Ladies’ Commission.[35]
The view I have given is the view admitted gradually and reluctantly by officials themselves. Miss Hobhouse gives a rather different account of things. In the earlier days of the camps, she tells me, the condition of things might be summarised thus: “Overcrowding (up to sixteen in a bell-tent)—no water supply—no soap—no beds or bedding—no fuel supplied—no utensils—barest rations—sanitary staff inefficient or non-existent.” In “The Brunt of the War” Miss Hobhouse writes on page 118 of Bloemfontein Camp: “My request for soap was met with the reply, ‘Soap is a luxury.’ ... Finally it was requisitioned for, also forage[36]—more tents—boilers to boil the drinking water—water to be laid on from the town—and a matron for the camp. Candles, matches, and such like I did not aspire to. It was about three weeks before the answer to the requisition came, and in the interim I gave away soap. Then we advanced a step. Soap was to be given, though so sparingly as to be almost useless—forage was too precious—brick boilers might be built—but to lay on a supply of water was negatived, as ‘the price was prohibitive.’ Later on, after I had visited other camps, and came back to find people being brought in by the hundred and the population rapidly doubling, I called repeated attention to the insufficient sanitary accommodation, and still more to the negligence of the camp authorities in attending to the latrines. I had seen in other camps that under proper administrative organisation all could be kept sweet and clean. But week after week went by, and daily unemptied pails stood till a late hour in the boiling sun, and the tent homes of the near section of the camp were rendered unbearable by the resulting effluvia.”
A sentence at page 120 has a bearing upon other wars and other helpers of distressed “enemies”:—“It became clear to my astonished mind that both the censorship and system of espionage were not merely military in character, but political and almost personal, so that even to feel, much more to show, sympathy to the people was to render yourself suspect.... Everyone knows what class of men accept the work which means spying upon neighbours, and can draw their own conclusions as to the value of such reports.”
As regards the food ration it has been seriously contended by others besides Miss Hobhouse (e.g., T. S. Haldane, M.D., F.R.S.), that it was totally inadequate. Dr. Haldane considered that “nothing but seething discontent” and “an enormous death-rate” could be expected from the dietary allowed. (l.c. p. 159.) But those who wish to learn more about this and many other matters should consult Miss Hobhouse’s remarkable book.
The truth is, the prisoner’s lot is always hard, and all nations have at times made it a terrible one. It is only the recognition of brotherhood that can alter this, and the recognition of brotherhood would end war.
Footnotes:
[32] See the full statement, pp. [75] ff.
[33] See the summary of the official returns given by Miss Emily Hobhouse on p. 328 of “The Brunt of the War.” The careful Boer compilation made after the war records the death of 26,370 women and children—more than four times the mortality among the Boer combatants. The full details are recorded in the archives at Pretoria, and it is to these that Miss Hobhouse refers in the pamphlet containing her speech at the unveiling of the National Monument at Bloemfontein on “Vrouwen-Dag,” 1913.