POSTAGE BY STRATEGY
Life at Pretoria was at this time far from pleasant for the Boers who
remained loyal to their cause.
Most people who had the means, or were not bound to the country by the
closest ties, let their houses and went to Europe until the war was
over. Many of those who did not leave of their own free will were sent
away to the coast, where they were considered safe from plotting
against the British, and the few remaining Boer families were
apparently on their best behaviour, above all dreading the fate of
their fellow-countrymen.
The inmates of Harmony, perhaps more than any other Boers, feared
being sent away, because they knew that watching events from afar
would be a thousand times worse than enduring the restrictions of
English martial law, and that banishment would make it impossible for
them to render their fighting men any services. But they found the
time of inactivity terribly trying, so much so that they began to cast
about in their minds for work, for mischief--for anything, in fact, to
relieve the daily, deadening suspense and the dread, of what they knew
not, with which they were consumed.
Very galling was the severe censorship of their letters. Mrs. van
Warmelo's high spirit rebelled against the continued surveillance of
her correspondence and she determined to outwit the censor.
Then began an exciting period of smuggling and contriving, which led
to the most complete independence on their part of the services of Mr.
Censor, and ended in a well-organised and exceedingly clever system of
communication with friends in every part of the world.
On one occasion a sympathiser, leaving the country for good, offered
to smuggle through to Mrs. Cloete any document Mrs. van Warmelo might
wish to send.
There was nothing ready at the time, but Mrs. van Warmelo decided to
make use of this opportunity for some future occasion, and wrote to
her daughter on a tiny piece of tissue-paper, "Whatever you may
receive in future, marked with a small blue cross, examine closely."
This was smuggled through in some way unknown to the sender and safely
delivered to Mrs. Cloete, for people were leaving Pretoria daily, and
it was not difficult to find suitable envoys.
Hansie had--and has to this day in her possession as a priceless
memento of the war--a small morocco case with a maroon velvet lining,
which travelled backwards and forwards between Harmony and Alphen
until some better way of communication was contrived. With a sharp
instrument Mrs. van Warmelo had removed the entire tray-like bottom of
the case, packed two or three closely-written sheets of tissue paper
in the opening, and pressed the little tray firmly down in its place
again. A tiny blue cross carelessly pasted on the bottom of the case
carried its own message to the conspirator at Alphen.
A few weeks later the case came back to Harmony with an antique gold
bracelet for Hansie and a long uncensored letter, in the snug
hiding-place, for Mrs. van Warmelo.
The next adventure was with a charming lady, whom we shall call "the
English lady," she was so _very_ English. (If the truth were known,
she was not really English, but Cape Colonial, and, as is often the
case, more English than the English themselves, and more loyal than
the Queen.)
She unwisely said to a friend of Hansie's, who naturally repeated her
words to Hansie, that she would take good care not to convey letters
or parcels for the van Warmelos when she left for England, as she
shortly intended doing, because she was quite sure they "smuggled,"
or, if she did consent to take anything, she would examine it
thoroughly and destroy whatever it contained of a doubtful character.
When this reached Hansie's ears she made up her mind that "the English
lady," and no other, would be her next messenger to Alphen. She
dismissed the morocco case from her mind as unsuitable for the
occasion, and deliberated long with her mother. At last she was sent
to town to buy three medium-sized dolls.
It did not matter much what kind of dolls they were, but they had to
have hollow porcelain heads, and they were to be bought from one man
only, an indispensable fellow-conspirator in one of the principal
stores in Church Street.
When she came home with the dolls her mother seemed pretty well
satisfied with the heads; they looked fairly roomy from the outside,
and so they were found to be when one of them had been carefully
steamed until the glue melted and the head dropped off.
Hansie had been writing, without lifting her head, while her mother
prepared the doll. The sheets of paper, rolled up into pellets, were
then forced through the slender neck, and the dolls weighed to see if
the difference in weight were noticeable. It was not. The head was
glued on again, a blue cross was marked on the body, and the dolls
were neatly wrapped in a brown-paper parcel.
"The English lady" soon after came to pay her farewell call. After the
usual formalities had been exchanged she remarked that she hoped to
visit Alphen soon after her arrival in Cape Town.
Mrs. van Warmelo was charmed and delighted, and asked whether she
would be good enough to take a parcel of three dolls for Mrs. Cloete's
little daughters.
There was just one moment's hesitation, then "the English lady rapidly
made up her mind." "Yes, with pleasure, but I must have the parcel
to-morrow, because my trunks have to be closed and sent on ahead."
Mrs. van Warmelo turned to her daughter in grave consultation. "Let me
see, it is too late now, the shops will be closed, but you can perhaps
go to town on your bicycle early to-morrow morning to buy the dolls
and have them sent straight to Mrs. ----'s house."
"Yes, mother, I'll do that with pleasure, but I won't have them sent.
I'll take them to her myself to be quite sure that she will have them
before twelve o'clock."
The next morning Hansie took the dolls to her fellow-conspirator
behind the counter and had them made up into an unmistakably
_professional_-looking parcel, tied and sealed with the label of the
shop.
Thus were the suspicions of "the English lady" lulled to rest. For her
comfort, should this ever reach her eye, I may say that there were no
dangerous communications in the doll's head, and should she feel
resentful at having been outwitted, she should have known better than
to _dare_ one of her country-women under martial law.
On other occasions sympathetic friends were willingly made use of, and
the methods of smuggling were so carefully planned in every case that
none of the bearers ever got into trouble, with one exception.
A foreign gentleman of high position, through his own carelessness,
found himself in a difficult and unpleasant situation. He was leaving
for Europe and expressed his willingness to take letters or documents,
provided they were packed so carefully that there would be no danger
of their being discovered.
Mrs. van Warmelo asked him if he could let her have any little article
in daily use and which he was in the habit of carrying about in his
pockets. He said that he would think about it, and sent her, next day,
a silver cigarette-case with a watered-silk lining. It did not take
long to remove the lining and to pack the letters under it. When the
lining was replaced and the cigarettes lay in neat rows against it,
the most careful observer could not detect anything unusual. These
letters were destined for Mr. W.T. Stead and contained a full account
of the condition of the Irene Concentration Camp.
In addition to this, Hansie gave her friend a photo of herself in a
sturdy frame, containing a hidden letter for Mrs. Cloete, whilst
instructing him to destroy the epistle if he could not hand it over to
Mrs. Cloete personally, moreover, not to remove the letter from the
cigarette-case until he arrived in London.
At Cape Town he met at the hotel a man who professed to be a great
pro-Boer and with whom he soon became so friendly that he, finding it
impossible to go out to Alphen himself, indiscreetly entrusted Mrs.
Cloete's letter into the hands of this stranger, with the result that
it was taken direct to the military authorities.
Our friend was arrested the next day as he was boarding the ocean
liner, and was kept under strict surveillance while his luggage was
being overhauled.
We were told afterwards by friends who witnessed the scene that,
during the process, he sat on deck with the utmost unconcern, smoking
cigarettes and toying with a silver case! No further evidence having
been found against him, he was allowed to sail away in peace, and Mrs.
Cloete too escaped without so much as a warning, perhaps because the
contents of the letter were not considered sufficiently incriminating.
Mr. Stead received the documents hidden in the cigarette-case in due
time and made full use of their contents in his monthly magazine, _The
Review of Reviews_.
Although, surprising to relate, no steps were taken against the
conspirators at Harmony, they soon noticed an extraordinary increase
in the vigilance of the censor, so much so, that the most harmless
communications failed to reach their destination, and when by chance
anything was allowed to pass through it was mutilated beyond
recognition, whole sentences being smirched with printer's ink or
pages cut away by the ruthless hand of the censor.
It may seem a small thing now, but this state of affairs, when letters
and papers were the only consolation one had, became a source of such
keen annoyance and distress that Hansie decided to approach the censor
and ask him the reason for such petty persecutions.
The head censor being away at the time, she was shown into the
presence of a man whose very appearance excited her strongest
antipathy. In the first place he had a purely Dutch name, and she knew
that he could not occupy a position of so much trust under the British
without being a traitor to his own countrymen.
Secondly, he seemed to derive much pleasure from her visit and, when
she told him who she was, had the audacity to say:
"I always enjoy your letters very much, Miss van Warmelo; they quite
repay me for my trouble!"
When taxed with confiscating and mutilating them, he was all concern
and innocence personified.
No, indeed, he could never be guilty of such a breach of gallantry and
etiquette, the fault must lie elsewhere; he was her friend, and if she
would promise to bring all her letters to him personally, he would see
that they were passed.
"Miserable Renegade!" she thought, with boiling blood.
Instantly it flashed through her mind that it would be foolish indeed
to make an enemy of this man. Her whole manner changed.
"How _very_ kind of you!" she said. "Yes, I shall come myself if you
are sure I shall not be giving you too much trouble."
"A pleasure, I assure you," bowing with great gallantry, and Hansie
went home to tell her mother what had happened.
After this interview with the censor, he allowed their letters to pass
with unfailing regularity.
True to her promise, Hansie took her European mail to him herself
every week, and this brought her into contact with him frequently. He
was always affable (hatefully affable) and obliging, and the thought
of this man made it more and more difficult for her to write,
especially those letters destined for the north of Holland.
One day she asked her mother to think of some plan by which she could
use the censor for her own purposes, without his knowledge, and this
set Mrs. van Warmelo's active mind and resourceful brain working, with
what result we shall see in our next chapter.