THE BRITISH SOLDIER IN SOUTH AFRICA
When Lord Roberts desired to sum up the character of the soldiers whom
he had led, he declared that they had behaved like gentlemen. I believe
that statement to be no exaggeration, and I think that when the bitter
animosities of warfare have subsided, it will be acknowledged by the
Boers themselves that it is true. They have had some unsavoury work to
do--for guerilla warfare brings much in its train which is hateful--but
officers and men have ameliorated and softened the asperities of warfare
wherever it has been possible to do so. Their character has been most
foully attacked by politicians at home, and by the ignorant or
malevolent abroad. Let us examine the evidence.
There were many military attaches present with our Army. Have any of
them reported against the discipline of our soldiers? So far as their
reports are known, nothing of the sort has been alleged. Captain Slocum,
the American representative, writes from Bloemfontein:
'The British have been too merciful, and I believe, had a more rigorous
course been adopted when the Army first entered this capital and the
enemy thoroughly stampeded, the war would have been materially
shortened.'
The French military attache said: 'What I admire most in this campaign
is the conduct of your soldiers. Here they are trekking and fighting
daily in an uninteresting country, scorched by day, cold by night,
without drink, without women. Any other soldiers in Europe would have
mutinied long ago.'
There were several foreign war-correspondents with our army. Of these
the only Frenchman, M. Carrere of the 'Matin' was an ardent pro-Boer.
Read his book, 'En pleine Epopee.' He is bitter against our policy and
our politicians. His eyes are very keenly open for flaws in our Army.
But from cover to cover he has nothing but praise for the devoted Tommy
and his chivalrous officer.
Three American correspondents were there--there may have been more, but
three I knew. These were Messrs. Julian Ralph, James Barnes, and Unger.
The first two were much impressed by the humanity and discipline of the
British troops, though Mr. Ralph was, I believe, like Captain Slocum, of
the opinion that it was occasionally pushed too far. Mr. Unger's
published impressions of the war confirm the same idea.
Here, then, is practical unanimity among all the impartial witnesses. On
the opinions of our own correspondents I will not dwell. I have the
advantage of knowing nearly all of them, and though among them are
several gentlemen who have a chivalrous and idealistic sympathy for the
Boers, I cannot recollect that I have ever once heard one of them record
a single instance where they had been shocked by the conduct of a
soldier.
I may, perhaps, be permitted to add my own testimony. I went to South
Africa with great sympathy for the individual Boer, and with a belief
that I should find soldiers in the field very different from soldiers in
peace. I was three months in Bloemfontein when there were from ten to
thirty thousand men encamped round the town. During that time I only
once saw a man drunk. I never saw a man drunk during the short time that
I was in Pretoria and Johannesburg. I once heard of a soldier striking a
Boer. It was because the man had refused to raise his hat at the burial
of the soldier's comrade. I not only never saw any outrage, but in many
confidential talks with officers I never heard of one. I saw twenty Boer
prisoners within five minutes of their capture. The soldiers were giving
them cigarettes. Only two assaults on women came to my ears while I was
in Africa. In each case the culprit was a Kaffir, and the deed was
promptly avenged by the British Army.
Miss Hobhouse has mixed with a great number of refugees, many of whom
are naturally very bitter against us. She is not reticent as to the
tales which they told her. Not one of them all has a story of outrage.
One woman, she says, was kicked by a drunken soldier, for which, she
adds, he was punished.
An inmate of the Springfontein Refugee Camp, Mr. Maltman, of
Philippolis, writes: 'All the Boer women here speak in the highest terms
of the treatment they have received at the hands of soldiers.'
Here is the testimony of a burgher's wife, Mrs. Van Niekirk:
'Will you kindly allow me to give my testimony to the kindly treatment
of the Dutch women and children by the British troops? As the wife of a
Transvaal burgher, I have lived in Krugersdorp since 1897, until three
weeks ago. The town was taken in June last, and since then there has
always been a fairly large force of men in, or quite near it; indeed, on
several occasions the numbers have amounted to ten thousand, or more,
and have been of many different regiments, English, Scotch, Irish, and
Colonial.
'At such times the streets and the few shops open were thronged with
soldiers, while, even when the town was quietest, there were always
numbers of them about. The women were at first afraid, but they very
soon discovered that they could move about as freely as in ordinary
times, without fear of any annoyance. During the whole six months I
never saw or heard of a single instance where a woman was treated with
the slightest disrespect; the bearing of both officers and men was
invariably deferential to all women, and kindly to children.
'Last July a detachment of Gordon Highlanders was camped on the veldt
for a week in front of my house, which stands almost alone on the
outskirts of the town. My husband was away during the time, and I was
alone with my young children. The nearest camp-fires were not a dozen
yards from my gate, yet I never experienced the least annoyance, nor
missed from my ground even so much as a stick of wood.
'I could multiply instances, but after this little need be said; if I
had not seen it I could not have believed that a victorious army would
behave with such humanity and consideration in the territory of a people
even then in arms against them; and if they behave so in Krugersdorp--a
place mind you, where during the last six months their doings could not
be openly criticised--is it likely that their conduct in other places
will be so entirely different?--I am, &c.'
This is the testimony of a woman. Here it is from a man's point of
view--an old burgher who had very special opportunities for studying the
conduct of British troops:
'Allow me to state here, once for all, that throughout the entire war
all the English officers--and a great many of all ranks came to see
us--treated us with the greatest kindness and courtesy. They knew, too,
that I was a burgher, and that I had several sons who were doing their
duty in fighting for the independence of our country.
'I return once more to the conduct of "Tommy Atkins." We saw numbers of
convoys, some of which were more than sixteen kilometres long, bringing
a great many Boer prisoners and their families to Pretoria. Tommy was
everywhere, watching the wagons, marching without a word in clouds of
dust, frequently in mud to the ankle, never rough towards women or
children, as has been so often repeated. We have heard the contrary
stated by our tried friends and by our own children.
'During halts, Tommy was the best and readiest creature imaginable; he
got the water boiled, laid himself out to attend to the children in a
thousand ways, and comforted the broken-hearted mothers. His hand was
ready with help for every invalid. At our farm he helped of his own free
will in saving a drowning beast, or in removing a fat pig that had been
killed, sometimes even in rounding-in cattle that had strayed out of
bounds, and so on, giving help in a thousand ways. For all that he
wanted no reward. Rewards he refused altogether simply because it was
good-feeling which made him do these things.
'Sir, these are indisputable facts, which I have repeated as accurately
as I could, leaving your readers to draw their own conclusions.
'OLD BURGHER OF THE TRANSVAAL.
'Rustenburg, Transvaal: July 1901.'
A long and curious letter appears in the 'Suisse Liberale' from a young
Swiss who spent the whole time of the war upon a farm in the Thabanchu
district of the Orange Free State. It is very impartial in its
judgments, and remarks, among other things--talking of the life of the
local garrison:
'They make frequent visits, send out invitations, and organise picnics.
In the town they get up charity concerts, balls, sports, and
horse-races. It is a curious thing that the English, even when they are
at war, cannot live without their usual sports, and the conquered do not
show the slightest repugnance to joining the victors in their games or
to mixing in society with them.'
Is this consistent with stories of military brutality? It appears to be
a very modified hell which is loose in that portion of Africa.
Mr. and Mrs. Osborn Howe were the directors of the Camp Soldiers' Homes
in South Africa. They have seen as much of the army in South Africa as
most people, and have looked at it with critical eyes. Here are some of
their conclusions:
'Neither we nor our staff, scattered between De Aar and Pretoria, have
ever heard of a single case of outrage or ill-treatment. One and all
indignantly denied the accusations against our soldiers, and have given
us many instances of great kindness shown by the troops towards helpless
women and children.
'We ourselves saw nothing which we could not tell to a gathering of
schoolgirls.
'When living in the Orange River Colony we were in the midst of the
farm-burning district, and witnessed Lord Roberts's efforts to spare the
people suffering by issuing warning proclamations. We saw how the
officers waited till the farmers had had time to digest these repeated
warnings, and then with what reluctance both officers and men went to
carry out the work of destruction, but we never heard of a case where
there had not first been some overt act on the part of the enemy.
'A story of reported outrage at a Dutch mission-house in the slums of a
large town was found after personal investigation to have been anything
but an outrage as the result proved. The young soldiers who entered the
house when the door was opened in answer to their knock, withdrew after
they had discovered that the ladies who occupied the house were
missionaries, nor had anything been removed or injured. But the garbled
story, with its misuse of the word "outrage," reached a district in Cape
Colony where it did no little mischief in fanning the flames of
animosity and rebellion. Thus the reported "outrage" was not even a
common assault.
'It may be said that our love for the soldiers has warped our judgment.
We would say we love God, and we love truth more than the honour of our
soldiers. If there was another side we should not hide it.'
So much for the general facts. But it is notoriously difficult to prove
a negative. Let us turn then to particular instances which have been
raked together, and see what can be made of them. One of them occurred
early in the war, when it was stated that there had been two assaults
upon women in Northern Natal. Here are the lies duly nailed to the
counter.
The Vicar of Dundee, Colony of Natal, on being requested by the Bishop
of Natal to inquire into the truth of a statement that four women of a
family near Dundee, named Bester, were outraged by English soldiers,
reported that he had had an interview with the father-in-law of Bester,
Jacobus Maritz, who is one of the most influential farmers in the
district. Maritz said to him:
'Well, Mr. Bailey, you do right in coming to me, for our family (Mrs.
Bester is his daughter) is the _only_ family of Bester in the district,
and you can say from me, that the story is nothing but a pack of lies.'
The other case, alleged at Dundee, furnished no names. The only thing
specified was that one of the men was in the uniform of a Highlander.
The Vicar replies to this: 'As you are aware, no Highland regiment has
been stationed at Dundee during the war.'
The weapons of slander were blunted by the fact that about May 1900 the
Transvaal Government, wishing to allay the fears of the women in the
farms, published an announcement in the 'Volksstem' advising every
burgher to leave his family upon the farms as the enemy were treating
women and children with the utmost consideration and respect. We know
that both President Kruger and General Botha acted up to this advice by
leaving their own wives under our protection while they carried on their
campaign against us. At the very instant that Kruger was falsely stating
at Marseilles that we were making war on women and children, his own
infirm wife was being so sedulously guarded by British soldiers that the
passer-by was not even allowed to stare curiously at the windows or to
photograph the house.
There was a lull in the campaign of calumny which was made up for by the
whole-hearted effort of M. van Broekhuizen. This man was a minister in
Pretoria, and, like most of the Dutch ministers, a red-hot politician.
Having given his parole to restrain his sentiments, he was found to be
still preaching inflammatory political sermons; so he was advised to
leave, and given a passage gratis to Europe. He signalised his arrival
by an article printed in the 'Independence Belge,' declaring among other
statements that 30 per cent. of the Boer women had been ruined by the
British troops. Such a statement from such a source raised a feeling of
horror in Europe, and one of deep anger and incredulity on the side of
those who knew the British Army. The letter was forwarded to Pretoria
for investigation, and elicited the following unofficial comments from
M. Constancon, the former Swiss Consul in that city, who had been
present during the whole British occupation:
'I am more than astonished, I am disgusted, that a Lausanne paper should
print such abominable and filthy lies.
'The whole article from the beginning to the end is nothing but a pack
of lies, and the writer, a minister of the Gospel, of all men, ought to
know better than to perjure himself and his office in the way he does.
'I have lived for the last eighteen years in or around Pretoria, and
know almost every Boer family in the district. The two names mentioned
by Broekhuizen of women assaulted by the troops are quite unknown to me,
and are certainly not Boer names.
'Ever since the entry of the troops in the Transvaal, I have travelled
constantly through the whole of Pretoria district and part of the
Waterberg. I have often put up at Boer houses for the night, and stopped
at all houses on my road on my business. In most of these houses the men
were away fighting against the British; women and children alone were to
be found on the farms. Nowhere and in no instance have I heard a single
word of complaint against the troops; here and there a few fowls were
missing and fencing poles pulled out for firewood; but this can only be
expected from troops on the march. On the other hand, the women could
not say enough in praise of the soldiers, and their behaviour towards
their sex. Whenever a camp was established close to the homestead, the
officers have always had a picket placed round the house for the object
of preventing all pilfering, and the women, rich or poor, have
everywhere been treated as ladies.
'Why the Boer women were so unanimous in their praises is because they
were far from expecting such treatment at the hands of the victors.
'Our town is divided into wards, and every woman and child has been fed
whenever they were without support, and in one ward we have actually
five hundred of these receiving rations from the British Government,
although in most cases the men are still fighting. In the towns the
behaviour of the troops has been, admirable, all canteens have been
closed, and in the last six months I have only seen two cases of
drunkenness amongst soldiers.
'We are quite a little Swiss colony here, and I don't know one of my
countrymen who would not endorse every word of my statement.
'Many may have sympathies with the Boers, but in all justice they will
always give credit to the British troops and their officers for the
humane way this war is carried on, and for the splendid way in which
Tommy Atkins behaves himself.'
With this was printed in the 'Gazette de Lausanne,' which instituted
the inquiry, a letter from Mr. Gray, Presbyterian minister in Pretoria,
which says:
'A few days ago I received an extract from your issue of November 17
last entitled "La Civilisation Anglaise en Afrique." It consisted mainly
of a letter over the signature of H. D. van Broekhuizen (not
Broesehuizen as printed), Boer pastor of Pretoria. Allow me, sir, to
assure you that the wholesale statements with regard to the atrocities
of British soldiers contained in that letter are a tissue of falsehoods,
and constitute an unfounded calumny which it would be difficult to
parallel in the annals of warfare. It is difficult to conceive the
motives that actuate the writer, but that they have been violent enough
to make him absolutely reckless as to facts, is evident.
'When I got the article from your paper I immediately went out to make
inquiry as to what possible foundation there was for the charges hurled
so wildly at the British soldier. Having lived in Pretoria for the last
eleven years I am acquainted with many of the local Boers. Those of them
whom I questioned assured me that they had never known a case in which
British soldiers had outraged a woman. One case was rumoured, but had
never been substantiated, and was regarded as very doubtful. Let it be
granted that some solitary cases of rudeness may have occurred, that
would not be surprising under the circumstances. Still it would not
furnish a ground for the libelling of a whole army. The astonishing fact
is, however, that in this country one only hears of the surprise
everywhere felt that the British soldier has been so self-restrained and
deferential towards women.'
To this M. van Broekhuizen's feeble reply was that there was no
ex-consul of the name of Constancon in Pretoria. The 'Gazette de
Lausanne' then pointed out that the gentleman was well known, that he
had acted in that capacity for many years, and added that if M. van
Broekhuizen was so ill-informed upon so simple a matter, it was not
likely that he was very correct upon other more contentious ones. Thus
again a false coin was nailed to the counter, but only after it had
circulated so widely that many who had passed it would never know that
it was proved to be base metal. Incredible as it may seem, the infamous
falsehood was repeated in 1902 by a Dr. Vallentin, in the 'Deutsche
Rundschau,' from which it was copied into other leading German papers
without any reference to its previous disproof in 1901.
Now we will turn for a moment to the evidence of Miss Alice Bron, the
devoted Belgian nurse, who served on both sides during the war and has
therefore a fair standard of comparison. Here are a few sentences from
her reports:
'I have so often heard it said and repeated that the British soldiers
are the dregs of London and the scum of the criminal classes, that their
conduct astounded me.'
This is the opinion of a lady who spent two years in the service of
humanity on the veldt.
Here are one or two other sidelights from Miss Bron:
'How grateful and respectful they all are! I go to the hospital at night
without the slightest fear, and when a sentry hears my reply, "Sister,"
to his challenge, he always humbly begs my pardon.
'I have seen the last of them and their affectionate attentions, their
respect, and their confidence. On this head I could relate many
instances of exquisite feeling on the part of these poor soldiers.
'A wounded English soldier was speaking of Cronje. "Ah, sister," said
he, "I am glad that we have made so many prisoners."
'"Why?" I asked, fearing to hear words of hatred.
'"Oh," he said, "I was glad to hear it because I know that they at least
would be neither wounded nor killed. They will not leave wife nor
children, neither will they suffer what we are suffering."'
She describes how she met General Wavell:
'"You see I have come to protect you," he said.
'We smiled and bowed, and I thought, "I know your soldiers too well,
General. We don't need any protection."'
But war may have brutalised the combatants, and so it is of interest to
have Nurse Bron's impressions at the end of 1901. She gives her
conversation with a Boer:
'"All that I have to say to you is that what you did down there has
never been seen in any other war. _Never_ in any country in the world
has such a dastardly act been committed as the shooting of one who goes
to meet the white flag."
'Very pale, the chief, a true "gentleman" fifty-three years old, and the
father of eleven children, answered, "You are right, sister."
'"And since we talk of these things," I said, "I will say that I
understand very well that you are defending your country, but what I do
not excuse is your lying as you do about these English."
'"We repeat what we are told."
'"No," I said, "you all of you lie, and you know that you are lying,
with the Bible on your knees and invoking the name of God, and, thanks
to your lies, all Europe believes that the English army is composed of
assassins and thieves. You see how they treat you here!"'
She proceeds to show how they were treated. The patients, it may be
observed, were not Boer combatants but Cape rebels, liable to instant
execution. This is the diet after operations:
'For eight, or ten days, the patient has champagne _of the choicest
French brands_ (her italics), in considerable quantity, then old cognac,
and finally port, stout, or ale at choice, with five or six eggs a day
beaten up in brandy and milk, arriving at last at a complete diet of
which I, though perfectly well, could not have absorbed the half.'
'This,' she says, 'is another instance of the "ferocity" with which,
according to the European press, the English butchers have conducted the
war.'
The Sisters of Nazareth in South Africa are a body who are above
political or racial prejudice. Here are the published words of the
Mother Superior:
'I receive letters by every mail, but a word that would imply the least
shadow of reproach on the conduct of the soldiers has never been
written. As for the British soldier in general, our sisters in various
parts of the colony, who have come a great deal in contact with the
military of all ranks, state that they can never say enough of their
courtesy, politeness, and good behaviour at all times.'
These are not the impressions which the Boer agents, with their command
of secret-service money and their influence on the European press, have
given to the world. A constant stream of misrepresentations and lies
have poisoned the mind of Europe and have made a deep and enduring
breach between ourselves and our German kinsmen.
The British troops have been accused of shooting women. It is wonderful
that many women have not been shot, for it has not been unusual for
farmhouses to be defended by the men when there were women within. As a
matter of fact, however, very few cases have occurred where a woman has
been injured. One amazon was killed in the fighting line, rifle in hand,
outside Ladysmith. A second victim furnished the famous Eloff myth,
which gave material for many cartoons and editorials. The accusation was
that in cold blood we had shot Kruger's niece, and a Berlin morning
paper told the story, with many artistic embellishments, as follows:
'As the Boer saw his wife down, just able to raise herself, he made an
attempt to run to her assistance, but the inhumans held him fast. The
officer assured him that she was shot through the temples and must
anyhow die, and they left her therefore lying. In the evening he heard
his name called. It was his wife who still lived after twelve hours'
agony. When they reached Rustenburg she was dead. This woman was Frau
Eloff, Kruger's niece. In addition to the sympathy for the loss Kruger
has suffered, this report will renew the bitter feeling of all against
the brutality of English warfare.'
This story was dished up in many ways by many papers. Here is Lord
Kitchener's plain account of the matter:
'No woman of that name has been killed, but the report may refer to the
death of a Mrs. Vandermerve, who unfortunately was killed at a farmhouse
from which her husband was firing. Mrs. Vandermerve is a sister-in-law
of Eloff. The death of a woman from a stray bullet is greatly to be
regretted, but it appears clear that her husband was responsible for the
fighting which caused the accident.'
So perished another myth. I observe, however, now (Christmas 1901), a
continental journalist describing an interview with Kruger says, 'he
wore mourning on account of his niece who died of a gun-shot.' Might not
his wife's death possibly account for the mourning?
And yet another invention which is destined to the same fate, is the
story that at the skirmish of Graspan, near Reitz, upon June 6, the
British used the Boer women as cover, a subject which also afforded
excellent material for the caricaturists of the Fatherland. The picture
of rows of charming Boer maidens chained in the open with bloodthirsty
soldiers crouching behind them was too alluring for the tender-hearted
artist. Nothing was wanting for a perfect cartoon--except the original
fact. Here is the report as it appeared in a German paper:
'When the English on June 6 were attacked by the Boers, they ordered the
women and children to leave the wagons. Placing these in front of the
soldiers, they shot beneath the women's arms upon the approaching Boers.
Eight women and two children fell through the Boers' fire. When the
Boers saw this they stopped firing. Yelling like wild beasts, they broke
through the soldiers' lines, beating to death the Tommies like mad dogs
with the butt ends of their rifles.'
The true circumstances of the action so far as they can be collected are
as follows: Early on June 6 Major Sladen, with 200 mounted infantry, ran
down a Boer convoy of 100 wagons. He took forty-five male prisoners, and
the wagons were full of women and children. He halted his men and waited
for the main British force (De Lisle's) to come up. While he was waiting
he was fiercely attacked by a large body of Boers, five or six hundred,
under De Wet. The British threw themselves into a Kaffir kraal and made
a desperate resistance. The long train of wagons with the women still in
them extended from this village right across the plain, and the Boers
used them as cover in skirmishing up to the village. The result was that
the women and children were under a double fire from either side. One
woman and two children appear to have been hit, though whether by Boer
or Briton it must have been difficult to determine. The convoy and the
prisoners remained eventually in the hands of the British. It will be
seen then that it is as just to say that the Boers used their women as
cover for their advance as the British for their defence. Probably in
the heat of the action both sides thought more of the wagons than of
what was inside them.
These, with one case at Middelburg, where in a night attack of the Boers
one or two inmates of the refugee camp are said to have been
accidentally hit, form the only known instances in the war. And yet so
well known a paper as the German 'Kladderadatsch' is not ashamed to
publish a picture of a ruined farm with dead women strewed round it, and
the male child hanging from the branch of a tree. The 'Kladderadatsch'
has a reputation as a comic paper, but there should be some limits to
its facetiousness.
In his pamphlet on 'Methods of Barbarism,' Mr. Stead has recently
produced a chapter called 'A Glimpse of the Hellish Panorama,' in which
he deals with the evidence at the Spoelstra trial. Spoelstra was a
Hollander who, having sworn an oath of neutrality, afterwards despatched
a letter to a Dutch newspaper without submitting it to a censor, in
which he made libellous attacks upon the British Army. He was tried for
the offence and sentenced to a fine of 100_l._, his imprisonment being
remitted. In the course of the trial he called a number of witnesses for
the purpose of supporting his charges against the troops, and it is on
their evidence that Mr. Stead dilates under the characteristic headline
given above.
Mr. Stead begins his indictment by a paragraph which speaks for itself:
'It is a cant cry with many persons, by no means confined to those who
have advocated the war, that the British Army has spent two years in the
South African Republics without a single case of impropriety being
proved against a single soldier. I should be very glad to believe it;
but there is Rudyard Kipling's familiar saying that Tommy Atkins is no
plaster saint, but a single man in barracks, or, in this case, a single
man in camp, remarkably like other human beings. We all know him at
home. There is not one father of a family in the House or on the London
Press who would allow his servant girl to remain out all night on a
public common in England in time of profound peace in the company of a
score of soldiers. If he did, he would feel that he had exposed the girl
to the loss of her character. This is not merely admitted, but acted
upon by all decent people who live in garrison towns or in the
neighbourhood of barracks. Why, then, should they suppose that when the
same men are released from all the restraints of civilisation, and sent
forth to burn, destroy, and loot at their own sweet will and pleasure,
they will suddenly undergo so complete a transformation as to
scrupulously respect the wives and daughters of the enemy? It is very
unpopular to say this, and I already hear in advance the shrieks of
execration of those who will declare that I am calumniating the gallant
soldiers who are spending their lives in the defence of the interests of
the Empire. But I do not say a word against our soldiers. I only say
that they are men.'
He adds:
'It is an unpleasant fact, but it has got to be faced like other facts.
No war can be conducted--and this war has not been conducted--without
exposing multitudes of women, married and single, to the worst
extremities of outrage. It is an inevitable incident of war. It is one
of the normal phenomena of the military Inferno. It is absolutely
impossible to attempt any comparative or quantitative estimate of the
number of women who have suffered wrong at the hands of our troops.'
Was ever such an argument adduced in this world upon a serious matter!
When stripped of its rhetoric it amounts to this, '250,000 men have
committed outrages. How do I prove it? Because they are 250,000 men,
and therefore _must_ commit outrages.' Putting all chivalry, sense of
duty, and every higher consideration upon one side, is Mr. Stead not
aware that if a soldier had done such a thing and if his victim could
have pointed him out, the man's life would be measured by the time that
was needed to collect a military court to try him? Is there a soldier
who does not know this? Is there a Boer who does not know it? It is the
one offence for which there would be no possible forgiveness. Are the
Boers so meek-spirited a race that they have no desire for vengeance?
Would any officer take the responsibility of not reporting a man who was
accused of such a crime? Where, then, are the lists of the men who must
have suffered if this cruel accusation were true? There are no such
lists, because such things have never occurred.
Leading up to the events of the trial, Mr. Stead curdles our blood by
talking of the eleven women who stood up upon oath to testify to the
ill-treatment which they had received at the hands of our troops. Taken
with the context, the casual reader would naturally imagine that these
eleven women were all complaining of some sexual ill-usage. In the very
next sentence he talks about 'such horrible and shameful incidents.' But
on examination it proves that eight out of the eleven cases have nothing
sexual or, indeed, in many of them, anything criminal in their
character. One is, that a coffin was dug up to see if there were arms in
it. On this occasion the search was a failure, though it has before now
been a success. Another was that the bed of a sick woman was
searched--without any suggestion of indelicacy. Two others, that women
had been confined while on the trek in wagons. 'The soldiers did not
bother the woman during or after the confinement. They did not peep into
the wagon,' said the witness. These are the trivialities which Mr. Stead
tries to bluff us into classifying as 'horrible and shameful incidents.'
But there were three alleged cases of assault upon women. One of them is
laid to the charge of a certain Mr. E----n, of the Intelligence
Department. Now, the use of Mr. and the description 'Intelligence
Department' make it very doubtful whether this man could be called a
member of the British Army at all. The inference is that he was a
civilian, and further, that he was a Dutch civilian. British names which
will fit E----n are not common, while the Dutch name Esselen or Enslin
is extremely so. 'I have never been to the Intelligence Department to
find out whether he really belonged to that Department,' said the
woman. She adds that E----n acted as an interpreter. Surely, then, he
must have been a Dutchman. In that case, why is his name the only name
which is disguised? Is it not a little suggestive?
The second case was that of Mrs. Gouws, whose unfortunate experience was
communicated to Pastor van Broekhuizen, and had such an effect upon him
as to cause him to declare that 30 per cent. of the women of the country
had been ruined. Mrs. Gouws certainly appears by her own account to have
been very roughly treated, though she does not assert that her assailant
went to the last extremity--or, indeed, that he did more than use coarse
terms in his conversation. The husband in his evidence says: 'I have
seen a great deal of soldiers, and they behaved well, and I could speak
well of them.' He added that a British officer had taken his wife's
deposition, and that both the Provost-Marshal and the Military Governor
were interesting themselves in the case. Though no actual assault was
committed, it is to be hoped that the man who was rude to a helpless
woman will sooner or later be identified and punished.
There remains one case, that of Mrs. Botha of Rustenburg, which, if her
account is corroborated, is as bad as it could be. The mystery of the
case lies in the fact that by her own account a British force was
encamped close by, and yet that neither she nor her husband made the
complaint which would have brought most summary punishment upon the
criminal. This could not have been from a shrinking from publicity,
since she was ready to tell the story in Court. There is not the least
indication who this solitary soldier may have been, and even the date
was unknown to the complainant. What can be done in such a case? The
President of the court-martial, with a burst of indignation which shows
that he at least does not share Mr. Stead's views upon the frequency of
such crimes in South Africa, cried: 'If such a most awful thing happened
to a woman, would it not be the first thing for a man to do to rush out
and bring the guilty man to justice? He ought to risk his life for that.
There was no reason for him to be frightened. We English are not a
barbarous nation.' The husband, however, had taken no steps. We may be
very sure that the case still engages the earnest attention of our
Provost-Marshal, and that the man, if he exists, will sooner or later
form an object-lesson upon discipline and humanity to the nearest
garrison. Such was the Spoelstra trial. Mr. Stead talks fluently of the
charges made, but deliberately omits the essential fact that after a
patient hearing not one of them was substantiated.
I cannot end the chapter better than with the words of the Rev. P. S.
Bosman, head of the Dutch Reformed Church at Pretoria:
'Not a single case of criminal assault or rape by non-commissioned
officers or men of the British Army in Pretoria on Boer women has come
to my knowledge. I asked several gentlemen in turn about this point and
their testimony is the same as mine.'
But Mr. Stead says that it must be so because there are 250,000 men in
Africa. Could the perversion of argument go further? Which are we to
believe, our enemy upon the spot or the journalist in London?