I declare the Original War ended and a New One begun—Enteric's ravages.
"The Friend" of April 4th contained a column of offers of a new name for the Orange Free State in response to our promise of a five guinea prize to the propounder of the most suitable new title for the country. We published a ballot form for use by our readers in voting for whichever five of the proposed names they preferred. All our readers were asked to vote, and it was to be our part to discover what person was the earliest to send in either the five most popular names or the greater number of them. This gave us such an addition to our labours that I suspect we were all as sorry as I know that one of us was for having gone into this gift enterprise.
I was the author of the "leader" of the day upon "The End of the War." In this I said that the war first planned by the Boers was already over and won by the British. That was a war of extermination of the British in Natal and the Cape, which two colonies were to be the scene of the fighting, and to be captured by the Dutch. "It was to be fought out on British soil to the damage of British property and the slaughter of such British as did not flee from their homes. That war ended quickly in a complete failure. Now," I continued, "another struggle is going on to settle whether the two races are to live in peace together, whether the Boers are to continue to obstruct modern progress, and whether white men who live in South Africa are to enjoy white men's rights and white men's liberty."
We published an interesting review of the life of the late Sir Donald Stewart, who had just died in England.
Mr. Landon wrote an editorial requesting the editors of the mischievous Capetown organ of the Bond, Ons Land, not to send their wretched paper to our office, and he added that if we could have our way no such publication would exist.
Mr. Gwynne was the author of the witty paragraph on "How History is Made."
Enteric, the ravages of which were assuming extraordinary proportions, now began to exact attention from our contributors. One of these wrote recommending the transfer of enteric patients to a building put up as a retreat for lepers six miles away, at Sydenham. He argued that it was "not fair" to mass the fever patients in the buildings of Bloemfontein. I cannot have seen this article at the time, or it would have been either left out or answered by me with a modest suggestion that the "unfairness" might possibly be in allowing those of us who were well and strong to remain in the hotels, all of which, together with as many dwellings as were needed, could, perhaps, be turned into hospitals. To leave the fever-stricken men out in rain-soaked tents set up on muddy ground, where the most ordinary demands of nature had to be met at a risk of death—if this could be avoided, this was the unfair thing. I would have proposed that the sick soldiers and the too vigorous pro-Boers of Bloemfontein change places, putting our enemies in the tents, if such a course were possible.
THE FRIEND.
(Edited by the War Correspondents with Lord Roberts' Force.)
No. 16.]