ment with your Honour's
troops.

'Such breaches of the recognised usages of war and of the Geneva
Convention are a disgrace to any civilised power.'

But British officers were not unreasonable. They understood that they
were fighting against a force in which the individual was a law unto
himself. It was not fair to impute to deliberate treachery upon the part
of the leaders every slim trick of an unscrupulous burgher. Again, it
was understood that a coward may hoist an unauthorised white flag and
his braver companions may refuse to recognise it, as our own people
might on more than one occasion have done with advantage. For these
reasons there was very little bitterness against the enemy, and most
officers would, I believe, have subscribed the opinion which I have
expressed.

From the first the position of the Boers was entirely irregular as
regards the recognised rules of warfare. The first article of the
Conventions of The Hague insists that an army in order to claim
belligerent rights must first wear some emblem which is visible at a
distance. It is true that the second article is to the effect that a
population which has no time to organise themselves and who are
defending themselves may be excused from this rule; but the Boers were
the invaders at the outset of the war, and in view of their long and
elaborate preparations it is absurd to say that they could not have
furnished burghers on commando with some distinctive badge. When they
made a change it was for the worse, for they finally dressed themselves
in the khaki uniforms of our own soldiers, and by this means effected
several surprises. It is typical of the good humour of the British that
very many of these khaki-clad burghers have passed through our hands,
and that no penalty has ever been inflicted upon them for their
dangerous breach of the rules of war. In this, as in the case of the
train hostages, we have gone too far in the direction of clemency. Had
the first six khaki-clad burghers been shot, the lives of many of our
soldiers would have been saved.

The question of uniform was condoned, however, just as the white-flag
incidents were condoned. We made allowance for the peculiarities of the
warfare, and for the difficulties of our enemies. We tried to think that
they were playing the game as fairly as they could. Already their
methods were certainly rough. Here, for example, is a sworn narrative of
a soldier taken in the fighting before Ladysmith: