Johannesburg, Krugersdorp, Middelburg,
Potchefstroom, Rustenburg, Heidelburg, Standerton, Pietersburg,
Klerksdorp, and Volksrust in the Transvaal; Bloemfontein, Kroonstad,
Bethulie, and Edenburg in the Orange Free State.

Such camps as refuges were no new things, for the British refugees from
Johannesburg have been living for over a year in precisely such places.
As no political capital and no international sentiment could be
extracted from their sufferings, and as they have borne their troubles
with dignity and restraint, we have heard little of the condition of
their lives, which is in many ways more deplorable than that of the
Boers.

Having determined to form the camps, the authorities carried out the
plan with great thoroughness. The sites seem to have been well chosen,
and the arrangements in most cases all that could be wished. They were
formed, however, at an unfortunate moment. Great strain had been placed
upon our Commissariat by the large army, over 200,000 men, who had to be
supplied by three tiny railways, which were continually cut. In January
1901 De Wet made his invasion of Cape Colony, and the demand upon the
lines was excessive. The extraordinary spectacle was presented at that
time of the British straining every nerve to feed the women and children
of the enemy, while that enemy was sniping the engineers and derailing
the trains which were bringing up the food.

The numbers of the inmates of the refugee camps increased rapidly from
20,000 at the end of the year 1900, up to more than 100,000 at the end
of 1901. Great efforts were made by the military authorities to
accommodate the swelling tide of refugees, and no money was spared for
that purpose. Early in the year 1901 a painful impression was created in
England by the report of Miss Hobhouse, an English lady, who had
visited the camps and criticised them unfavourably. The value of her
report was discounted, however, by the fact that her political
prejudices were known to be against the Government. Mr. Charles
Hobhouse, a relation of hers, and a Radical member of Parliament, has
since then admitted that some of her statements will not bear
examination. With the best will in the world her conclusions would have
been untrustworthy, since she could speak no Dutch, had no experience of
the Boer character, and knew nothing of the normal conditions of South
African life.

Her main contentions were that the diet was not sufficient, that there
was litt