ithin a few days.

Under injunctions to observe the strictest secrecy, nine prominent
Boer women signed the document, and it was once more laid before the
senior member of the Diplomatic Corps, who immediately called a
meeting of the Consuls, the result of which was that a copy of the
petition, translated into French, was sent by the first mail to each
of the ten different Powers they represented and also to Lord
Kitchener.

General Maxwell, soon after these were dispatched, asked Mr. Cinatti
to see him at once in his office at Government Buildings, where, in a
long interview with him, he demanded from Mr. Cinatti the names of the
nine signatories.

Mr. Cinatti said he was not at liberty to disclose them--that, in
fact, they were not known (with the exception of the writer of the
petition) to the other Consuls. General Maxwell then pressed him to
give him that name only, as he particularly wished to know who had
drawn up the petition.

This was refused, fortunately for Mrs. van Warmelo, for the penalty
would have been great.

The military authorities left no stone unturned afterwards to find out
who the women petitioners were, but without success, thanks to the
great precautions taken by the Portuguese Consul.

A full month passed and no reply came from Lord Kitchener.

A second petition, more strongly worded than the first, was then drawn
up, imploring the Consuls to intercede on behalf of the victims of the
Concentration Camps and to inform the Powers represented by them, of
the death-rate which threatened the Boer nation with extinction.

Again a meeting of the Consuls was called, at which three of them were
appointed to form a committee of investigation:

Consul Cinatti, Consul-General for Portugal.
Baron Pitner, Consul-General for Austria.
Baron Ostmann, Consul-General for Germany.

Some of the other members at the meeting were:

M. Domela Nieuwenhuis, Consul-General for the Netherlands.
M. Aubert, Consul-General for France.
Mr. Gordon, Consul-General for United States.

The latter lived in Johannesburg, but attended all the meetings held
in Pretoria in connection with the Concentration Camps.

From General Maxwell the committee of investigation got permission to
inspect the Camp at Irene, called the "Model Camp," and with the
statistics obtained there, as well as the official statistics of all
the camps in the Transvaal, the Diplomatic Corps drew up a report,
which went to prove that