protect the weak against the strong, the few
against the many. In so doing have they committed the unpardonable sin?
Or will there be mercy even for these?

The Colonists were left unprotected at the tender mercy of the Boer
forces. When the Boers, on the declaration of war, crossed the colonial
borders and pushed ahead into British territory, they found the
districts and most of the villages in an entirely defenceless condition.
The garrison of Aliwal North consisted of three Cape policemen.
Colesberg, Venterstad, Burghersdorp, Lady Grey, James Town, Dordrecht,
Rhodes, and many other places were occupied one after the other, without
being in the least protected. In Natal, Griqualand West, and British
Bechuanaland it was not any better.

The Colonists thought that they were subjects of a vast and mighty
empire, to which they could confidently look for protection against
invaders. If they had any fears, these were hushed, for surely the
mother-country was powerful enough to shelter them from the withering
blasts of war. To their astonishment the mother-country could protect
neither their persons nor their property, but entrusted all to the care
of the Boer commandoes. Had the Colonists no claim to protection? Was it
their fault that the British Government had accepted an ultimatum before
they were prepared to extend to their colonial subjects that protection
to which they certainly had a lawful claim? Such questions the Colonists
asked themselves and the Home Government.

Left unprotected, and literally forsaken for months by their own
Government, they yielded to the temptation to make common cause with the
Boers, whom they met and saw daily. They enlisted in considerable
numbers, and so cast in their lot for better or for worse with the
Boers. Still the majority of the colonial farmers remained at home, and
those who joined the Boer ranks at the commencement of the war were, as
a rule, commandeered or called up. By proclamation all Colonists who
resided within the occupied territory received the option either of
leaving it within a certain time, or of staying, on condition of
submitting to the Martial Law regulations of the new Government.

Under this strange thing, called Martial Law, these Colonists were
summoned to join the ranks of the Boers. In how far this action of
commandeering Colonists was commendable on the part of the Republics is
difficult to say for one not versed in all the technicalities of
Internati