cal 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