correspondent and a non-combatant, and
dispatched most pitiful telegrams to Presidents Kruger and Steyn, State
Secretary Reitz and a host of other officials, demanding an instant
release from custody. In the telegrams he stated that he was a peer of the
realm; that all doubts on that point could be dispelled by a reference to
Burke's Peerage; that he was not a fighting-man; that it would be
disastrous to his reputation as a correspondent if he were not released in
order that he might cable an exclusive account of the Moester's Hoek
battle to his newspaper, and finally ended by demanding his instant
release and safe conduct to the British lines. The Boers installed the
Earl in the officers' prison, and printed his telegrams in the newspapers,
with the result that the Briton was the most laughed-at man that appeared
in the Boer countries during the whole course of the war.

Several days before Commandant-General Joubert died he related an amusing
story of an Irishman who was taken prisoner in one of the Natal battles.
The Irishman was slightly wounded in one of his hands and it was decided
to send him to the British lines together with all the other wounded
prisoners, but he refused to be sent back. After he had protested
strenuously to several other Boer officers, the soldier was taken before
General Joubert, who pointed out to him the advantages of being with his
own people and the discomforts of a military prison. The Irishman would
not waver in his determination and finally exclaimed: "I claim my rights
as a prisoner of war and refuse to allow myself to be sent back. I have a
wife and two children in Ireland, and I know what is good for my health."
The man was so obdurate, General Joubert said, that he could do nothing
but send him to the Pretoria military prison. An incident of an almost
similar nature occurred at the battle of Sannaspost, where the Boers
captured almost two hundred waggons.

Among the convoy was a Red Cross ambulance waggon filled with rifles and a
small quantity of ammunition. The Boers unloaded the waggon and then
informed the physician in charge of it that he might proceed and rejoin
the column to which he had been attached. The physician declined to move
and explained his action by saying that he had violated the rules of the
International Red Cross and would therefore consider himself and his
assistants prisoners of war. General Christian De Wet would not accept
them as prisoners and trekked so