THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 82, 8 April 1902, Page 5

THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS.

IMPERIAL COMMITTEE'S INVES-

TIGATION,

A* {INTERESTING REiPOBT.

(From Our Special Correspondent.?

LONDON, „ February 28

No sane Briton can read the report on the concentration camps by the Ladies' Committee, of which Mrs Fawcett was the president, without beino- convinced that had the 100,000 Boer1 women and children whom we maintain in South Africa 'been our own people, instead of our enemies,we could not have done more for them. The report is a sensible, straightforward One, and the ladies are to be congratulated .on proving themselves far more practical than the men who composed the Com- ! mission that inquired into the Bur-dett-Coutts charges. The Committee visited every camp save one at Port Elizabeth, made practical recommendations, and saw that they were carried out. The committee was not a white-washing one; where we made mistakes, it points those mistakes out, and where it fonnd an incompetent superintendent it said so, ancl insisted on his removal. No reasonable person expected that in the housing, feeding, and tending of 100.000 individuals, in a country ravaged -by war. errors of judgment would not be made, or that here and there incompetency would not be revealed, or that room would not be found for improvement, especially as at the outset so many of the arrangements had to be hurriedly improvised. The report, however, shows that in the main the goodwill of the officials towards those committed 'to their., care was accompanied by energy and efficiency, and a readiness °to .carry out any suggestion made by competent critics for the improvement of the casaps or the health of the inmates. | WELL-EQUIPPED CAMPS.

The committee report that, considering the ample provision of necessaries for the healthy and necessaries and luxuries for the sick which has been made, it is rather difficult to find a suitable channel into which to direct the flow of private charity. The indiscriminate distribution of clothing has done more harm than good, such articles as boots and dress materials given in charity having been sold by the Boers at the nearest town. The Committee therefore have recommended itihe main body of the Victoria League's Fund to bemused for the promotion of education. The Committee consider the organisation of the camp hospitals and the provision Of medical- ccxmfor-ts reflect the greatest credit on the authorities, and in regard to the general organisation of the camps the Committee desire to bear testimony to the devotion to dnty, practical ability, vigilance, firmness, and kindness of the camp' superintendents. The Committee felt it thei T duty on a few occasions to recommend the removal of a camp superintendent, ,not on the ground of harshness, but from such reasons as age, feeble

. ,-■ - 1 health, or natural lack of governing and. ■oTganising- capacity. THE QUESTIONS OF INTERCOURSE AND MORALS. The necessity of restriction of intercourse between the camps and the otitside world, the Committee exemplify by the case of a woman leaving a camp with her goods and chattels packed on a waggon. Challenged hy a sentry, the waggon was searched, and found to contain 240 lb. flour, 40 lb. salt, 28 lb. rice, 22 lb. coffee, tea, candles, soap and milk, intended for tihe Boers in the field. The Committee recommended a more thorough control of ingress and egress. As regards morals, the Committee heard no complaint against' the soldiers, and found that military camps were out of bounds for concentration camps and vice versa,. In several eases under the specious guise of philanthropy the local committees have aimed at the political control of the camps, and have endeavoured to overthrow the authority of the superintendents. The Committee recommend that no. locus standi should be allowed a local committee in any camp without the consent in writing of Ithe superintendent. The Committee found that ..the British sense of justice and fair play made the Englishman generally speaking more successful as a camp superintendent than the man of Dutch or Boer parentage; the bitterest complaints against superintendents were directed against men of Dutch origin. The people would say they preferred a "Verdomnde Rooinek" to a "Schelm" of a Boer. For positions; of authority in the camps, especially where the distribution of gifts or favours of any kind was concerned, the people deeideddy preferred an Englishman or Englishwoman to one of themselves. Constant charges of favouritism, in such positions, were preferred against their own people. THE HIGH DEATH-RATE. The committee found all medical authorities agreed that the normal death-rate in the Transvaal and Orange Free States had been very high, but no statistics hadsbeen kept under the Boer regime. The nigh rate in the camps the Commission attribute to three groups of causes: —

1. The insanitary condition of the country caused by the war. .2 Causes within the control of the inmates of the camps. 3. Causes within the control of the administrations.

1. The whole country has been poisoned by war. " The heavy part of the death-rate in the camps is that of children under five. It is not because they are in camps, but because the war has exposed them to poisonous conditions of water and atmosphere, and has deprived them of the food suitable to their tender age. More is being done for them in camp, ten times more in the way of skilful doctoring, feeding, and nursing-, than could have been done for them had they remained on their fathers' farms. But in one case every death is known and recorded', and in* the other no one except their own families would ever have heard of it."

2. In estimating the causes of bad health in tbe camps it is necessary to put-on record that every superintendent has to wage war against the insanitary habits of the people. However numerous, suitable, and well kept may be the latrines provided, the fouling of the ground, including river banks and slopes and trenches leading to the water supply, goes On to an extent which would probably not be credited except by those who have seen it. So had was this fouling, that one clergyman devoted a sermon to it. The Boers concealed illness, and objected to hospital treatment. They had such an abhorrence for fresh air that "stinking" was the only word to describe the atmosphere of the tents. The Boer women would not lift up their tent flaps- Boer cures of the most horrible nature have caused a large number of deaths. Reckitt's blue was used as a cooling drink. The chest and stomach of a child suffering from pneumonia were varnished by its mother. Another pneumonia patient, on whom a nurse put a linseed poultice, ate it. That deaths were largely due to the noxious compounds given by Boer women to their children is substantiated by the fact that the children of English parents caught measles, but were nursed successfully through them by intelligent and careful parents, who kept the children clean.

AUTHORITIES IN A MEASURE CULPABLE. 3. Causes within the control of the administrations. At first the military did not realise sufficiently the difference between the treatment of women and children and that of soldiers. Hence, there was at the outset overcrowding, aud sufficient care was not always exercised to select good sites for permanent camps. In some eases water supply and sanitation were bad, and better provision should have been made for apparatus for boiling drinking water and filters to filter it. Morebank the committee considered had the worst, chosen site, but on this point a subsequent medical board differed from the committee, and retained the camp, abandoning part of it, and breaking it up into thiree sections. In some cases there was a tendency on the part of the officials to sink to a low standard of order, decency or cleanliness in sanitary matters rather than face the constant wear and tear involved in insisting on a high standard. All camps ought to be raised to the level of the best camps.

A more determined effort should have been made to; secure fresh meat, however thin, and limejuice, jam and vegetables of some kind added to the dietary would have been a reasonable precaution to have taken in view of the danger of scurvy. "' W Then the formidable character of the measles epidemic made itself evident, more strenuous , and earlier exertions should have been made to secure the services of an adequate supply of efficient" doctors and nurses to cope with the outbreak- A reserve of doctors and nurses should have been formed ready to be thrown, qulckly into any camp requiring extra help. While offering these criticisms, the Committee recognise that it is "easy for those who come In as w« do, in the attitude of critics, after others have borne the heat and burden of the day, to say that in this or that the Work would have been better done otherwise." The Committee

found, however, all the authorities ready to carry out their suggestions, and grudging neither labour nor money to improve the health of the camps. Lord " ilner they found "not a partisan anxious only to hear what told in favour of a particular view, but a statement desirous of hearing the. truth, whether pleasant or unpleasant, in order that he might the more effectually grapple with the difficulties of the situation, with all its vastly important bearings on the future." RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESULTS. After recommending the removal Of certain camps and the reduction of all camps to not more than 3000 inmates, the Committee observe that no one who knew the conditions of South Africa could make suggestions for the disbanding of the ' camps, and for the boarding out of the women and children.now in the camps with loyalist families in Natal or Cape Colony. <:Even in the camps it is frequently necessary to placephysical obstacles in the way of personal conflict between the families of those Boers Avho have surrendered and those still in the fields. To board the womenfolk of one of the combatants with the womenfolk of the other would be to re-enact, in thousands of families, the fights which have been already fought, aud would surely intensify race hatred, which all well-wishers of South Africa should desire to allay."

The report concludes with the following summary of the definite results achieved b}' the Commission up to the present:

1. The appointment of travelling inspectors of camps in the Orange River Colony and Transvaal.

2. The revision of the ration scale, including fuel.

3. The provision of boilers for drinking water, and other sanitary precautions against the spread of enteric.

4. An increase in the supply of qualified doctors and nurses.

5. The more general appointment of suitable women as camp matrons.

6. The appointment of water engineers to visit camp and advise about water supply.

7. The.larger provis.on of kartels, or bedsteads, so as to reduce to a minimum the number of people sleeping on the ground.

S. The more general provision of soup kitchens.

9. The reorganisation of four camps, and the dismissal of incompetent officials. 10. The increase of hospital accommodation and staff tn a large number of camps-

In history the concentration camps will figure as one of, England's greatest achievements in the cause of humanity and chivalry.