light which it throws on some
little-known incidents of the South African war, but also because of
the keen personal interest of the events recorded. It is more than a
history. It is a dramatic picture of the hopes and fears, the devotion
and bitterness with which some patriotic women in Pretoria watched
and, as far as they could, took part in the war which was slowly
drawing to its conclusion on the veld outside.

I do not associate myself with the opinions expressed by the writer as
to the causes of the war or the methods adopted to bring it to an end,
or as to the policy which led to the Concentration Camps, and the
causes of the terrible mortality which prevailed during the first
months of their existence. On these matters many readers will hold
different opinions from the writer, or will prefer to let judgment be
in suspense and to look to the historian of the future for a final
verdict. We are still too near the events to be impartial. But this
book does not challenge or invite controversy. Fortunately for South
Africa, most of us on both sides can now discuss the events of the war
without bitterness and understand and respect the feelings of those
who were most sharply divided by these events from ourselves.

The greater part of the narrative comes from a diary kept during the
war with unusual fullness and vividness. The difficulty experienced by
the writer of the diary in communicating to friends outside Pretoria
information about what was passing inside, and in unburdening herself
of the feelings roused in her by the events of the war, made the diary
more than usually intimate. To understand fully many of the narratives
which have been transferred from it to this book, it must be
remembered that one is reading, not something written from memory
years after the event, but rather the record of a conversation at the
time, in which the diarist is describing the events as if to a friend
who shares to the full all her own feelings and to whom she can speak
without reserve.

Much has happened in the ten years which have passed since the end of
the war. The country which was distracted by the conflicting ideals
and interests of its different Governments and peoples has become the
Union of South Africa. It is now one State. It remains that it should
call forth a spirit of patriotism and nationality which will unite and
not divide its people.

PATRICK DUNCAN.

JOHANNESBURG,