OFFICIAL ENQUIRIES AT PRETORIA.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 65, 14 September 1900, Page 5

OFFICIAL ENQUIRIES AT PRETORIA.

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS BY THE BOERS. A SCATHING REPORT. LONDON, 13th September. Field-Marshal Lord Roberts has expressed his concurrence with the scathing verdict given by a Court of Enquiry at Pretoria regarding the treatment of British prisoners. , The treatment of the officers was fairly good, but the mea.t given to the soldiers was a mere starvation ration. The other food was short and inferior, despite the abundance and cheapness of excellent meat, bread, and vegetables. Some of the South African colonials were treated in a severe and unjustifiable manner. They were thrown into common gaols, and treated as criminals, contrary to the usages of civilised 1 warfare. The treatment of the sick, says Lord Roberts, was inhuman, and reflected the greatest discredit on the Boers, particularly when contrasted with the fact that the British invariably tended the Boers on an> equality with the British. Lord Roberts commends Drs. Hnzfett and Gernet for their efforts in tr} r ing to ameliorate the condition of the patients, but reprobates the conduct of Dr. Veale, of the Transvaal Red Cross Society. He accuses him of heartlessness and wilfully ignoring the disgraceful treatment of the sick. The evidence showed that Dr. Veale was unwilling to risk trouble with the Transvaal Government by demanding proper sanitation lest he might imperil his own position. HOSPITAL ARRANGEMENTS. (Received September 14, 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, 13th" September. Lord Roberts testified before the Hospital Commission at Pretoria that owing to transport requirements the campaign was extraordinarilyi difficult from the hospital standpoint. No complaints had been made by the men. The Army Medical Corps and the civilian surgeons had met the difficulties magnificently.