Boer Women’s Sympathy.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 237, 15 October 1901, Page 3

Boer Women’s Sympathy.

Vf.uy few people know (says Mr Edgar Wallace, one of the Daily Mail's South African correspondents) that He Wet has not once but- often owed his wonderful escapes to the aid of women sympathisers. When he was last in the Cape Colony, and we had driven him off northward to | the Orange Hiver. the women on some of the farms in the llopetown district had arranged a signal whereby He W ct's hidden scouts should be made aware of the proximity of our scouts. A patrol of Victorians who rode up to a farmhouse was somewhat astonished to see the good lady who had been taking a siesta on the stoop, suddenly rise from her chair and, making for the door, for apparently no other reason than to make a noise, violently slam it twice. As she did so a horseman broke from the bushes a few yards away, and galloped for all he was worth. He Wet, who was in the angle formed by the Brak and Orange rivers, waiting for one of the two streams, moved that night eastward, ami Flumer, who was marching to intercept him. only managed to get on to the trail of the enemy's column. The arrival of a woman at a refugee camp (he continues! does not mean that her opportuni- ! ties for evil-doing are ended. In the Orange Hiver Colony recently a plot was ’discovered in which the prime-movers were women, for tire rushing of the camp at night, and instances are innumerable of Boer women of refugee camps having systematically transmitted important intelligence to the commandoes outside. It is unfortunately true. too. that the Boer women, and. for the matter of that, j gentler sympathisers with the Boer ! cause, have not confined their efforts to aiding the enemy practically. The foulest of all slanders which have been utilised to inflame the passions of the Cape Dutch, and to incite the horror and pity of the civilised world, have emanated from feminine sources. Stories of mur- | dor. outrage and suffering have originated | iti the minds of women enjoying British ! protection, and have been glibly repeated i by others who have received at our hands all kindness and chivalrous attention. Iu Capetown the hub on which the whole organism of sedition turns is a woman. In her saloon are to be found England's bitterest enemies, and here it is that propagandas are born, new embarrassments for England are planned, and subscription lists for sedition mongers caught tripping J initiated. Here gather the men who pull I the strings, the Ixrugerian agents, subsii disers of the pro-Boer press. Here are the semi-millionaires who inspire articles i against capitalism : the ministers of reliI gion who weave devilish mendacities i about our soldiers : the hybrid crowd of j journalists who, in varying degrees of i vituperative violence, shriek periodically j for moderation. And the women gives J theta tea and inspiration.