TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7366, 18 January 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

(Frorr> Our London Correspondent. >

LONDON, November 23. THE REFUGEE CAMPS

THE GOVERNMENT REPORT.

For most of our experiences in South Africa it is possible to find a parallel in past history. I d'Mbt. however, whether a parallel could be discovered for the burden that we have taken upon our shoulders in the matter of Th« refugee or. as the ProP.oers prefer to call them, the concentration camps. We are housing, flotl'injr. and feeding at our expense some 100,000 of the enemy's people at a cost of between £60.000 and £7o.ooo a month, while active operations are still in progress, while ore" 200,000 soldiers and nearly 300.00.' cavalry horses and transport animals have to be supplied with food by means of a single line railway system, subject to hostile attack. Meanwhile the enemy, by attempts to cv' the line, do their best to prevent supplies of food from reaching those the burden of supporting whom we have transferred from Boer to British shoulders. One conmiantlant, Fouche, even %cent so far as to raia the Aliwal North refugee camp last July and to carry oft" the clothing of the inhabitants. And complaints as to these camps come not from our enemies, who — like the Afridis — know that they can trust their women and children to us, but from our own fellow - citizens who are ready to credit Englishmen with any atrocity, and who rave of "the unutterable criminality of the policy of concentration." If England has erred at all in' the matter of these camps it has been — as ever — on the side of mistaken leniency. Had we left the Boer women and children on the veldt to subsist on what the harried Boer commandos could give them, the ir- • reconcilables would probably ere this have thrown up the sponge, and j many valuable lives on both, siaes ibeen spaced. That there have been hardships, in the camps, hasty improvisation of shelters, hurried layings out of sites, here and there perhaps even incompetence, and muddling, and heavy mortality, cannot be I denied, but no unbiassed person can read the series, of reports that the Government has just published in .• Blue Book of 400 pages without being convinced that all concerned have striven strenuously uo save suffering and that if England has anything to reproach herself with it is the neglect of her own loyal refugees while feeding, clothing and even educating her enemies. The reports give a complete history of the camps from last March, and show that at first the rapid influx of the refugees led to a hurried improvisation .of camps and a somewhat chaotic state of affairs, but that the organisation gradually improved until the camps reached so satisfactory a condition that many of the self-supporting refugees who had the option of living in town preferred to continue to reside in camp. Major Goodwin, the general superintendent of the camps, reports from Pretoria that the greatest care has been exercised in finding persons to serve on the staffs of the camps who have a special knowledge of the language and of the character and habits of the persons who are entrusted to their care. The inmates of the camps are of three classes:— 1. Those who have come into the camps for protection of them^eland their herds, and ,are self-sup-porting. 2. Those who have surrendered and come into camp for protection, but are unable to support themselves. 3. Those whose husbands are on commando, and have been brougKt into camp for their own protection against natives, etc., or for military reasons. The great majority of the men who have taken the oath of allegiance and are now living, in these camps are "well-behaved and helpful." But it is "disquieting that in most camps the wives and families of burghers still fighting think of and treat contemptuously those whose immediate male relatives (having surrendered) have taken the oath of neutrality." Classes 2 and 3 are rationed on the same basis, and no distinction whatsoever is either made or is, in m\ opinion desirable , in other respects than issue of rations in the treatment of these three classes now living in these camps. Free intercourse amongst themselves is allowed to all refugees. No camp is enclosed by a fence. All are allowed to visit the town adjacent to the camps they reside in without a pass, except when military reasons require that they should have one. Visitors have been freely admitted to the camps, and permits secured for them, if necessary, to travel by rail. Members of charitable committees, irrespective of nationality, have always been welcomed, and every facility has been given them to visit the camps. To any self-sup- | porting refugee, or to those who

have friends or relatives able to support them, permission to live in +own is freely accorded. The original weekly ration scale issued on Ist December, 1900, was: — FOR BONA FIDE REFUGEES WHO HAVE COME IN FOR PROTECTION FROM BOERS:— Meat or Flour — Men, 71b; Women, 71b; Children under 12 years of age, 3ilb. Salt— Men, 4oz; Women, 4oz; Children, under 12 years of age, 2oz. Coffee— Men, 6oz; Women, 6oz; Children under 12 years of age, 3oz. Svgar — Men, 12oz; Women, 12oz; Children under 12 years of age, 12oz. Meat— Men and Women, lib twice each week; Children under 12 years of age, jib of meat twice each week. ALL OTHER CLASSES OF REFUGEES; Meat or Flour— Men, 71b; Women 71b; Children under 12 years of age, 3Jlb. Stilt— Men 4oz; Women 4oz; Children under 12 years of age 2oz. Coffee— Men 4oz; Women, 4oz; Children under 12 years of age, 2oz. Sugar— Men 8oz; Women 8oz; Children under 12 years of age, Boz. No meat. On February 27, 1901, all camp superintendents were instructed to put -«tll refugees on the same scale of rations as those given to Class I. On March 13, 1901, an amended scale of daily rations for all white refugees was issued: — -4i *lb fresh meat (or tinned, when fresh unobtainable). 21b either meal, or rice, samp, or potatoes, upon due notice being given. loz coffee. l'oz salt. 2oz sugar. l-12th part of tin of condensed milk. A large proportion of the reports deals with the sickness and mortality in the camps, which is attributed • partly to the weak condition of the Boers brought in, and their inability to combat disease when attacked. Th<?3' had suffered privations while living on the farms, were ill-clad, and short, of food. Some families had only one blanket between them, and some of the girls only one garment apiece. But the main cause of the heavj' mortality was the ignorance, superstition, carelessness, filth, and horrible remedies of the Boers themselves. They objected strongly to making use of the hospital, first, because they believed they would have to *pay; and, secondly, because they believed they would be starved. They heard of enteric cases in hospital being starved, and concluded that starvation was the rule for all cases. The epidemic of measles proved fatal to many . infants 'chiefly because of the carelessness of their mothers, who would keep them covered with rags and mats in an overheated stage, and then expose them to Hie cold, bronchitis and pneumonia ensuing; who would dose them with vile concoctions of boiled goat's dung and horse dung, lay rags soaked in human urine on open wounds, and cive convalescent children meat to "keep up their strength," gastric acid bowel troubles (especially diarrhoea) carrying off a great number of children convalescent from measles. Here are some illustrative cases culled by Dr. Franks, honorary consulting surgeon to me forces in South Africa, during his visits to some of the camps: — 1. A remedy among vie Boers, no matter what the ailment, is to paint the part afflicted with green paint. Three children were suffering from some complaint, which. 1 was unable to ascertain. They were painted all over with green paint, with the exception of tue face. They all died of acute arsenical poisoning. 2. Dr. Aymard, sent for to see a child, aged two, who was unconscious, found that all the following Dutch remedies were being administered at the same time without, any doctor's orders: — (1) Hoffman's drops (containing ether) . (2) Essehz dulcis _ (containing opium) . (3) Red powder (containing tartar emetic). (4) Jamaica ginger. (5) Dutch drops (composition unknown) . The child continues unconscious. 3. A baby of four months was sufJ fering from bronchitis; txie doctor ori dered the child to get nothing but milk; the mother refused to give the child milk, but gave it sardines instead; the infant died in two days. In one tent there were two children very ill wtih the sequel of measles; one had lung complication, the other peritonitis, x stooped down to examine the latter; the children ") were in their ordinary clothes, lying on mats. In order to see the abdomen I had to undo some of the clothing; the skin beneath was as black as a Kaffir's, covereu with accumulations of dirt. To see the skin it would have been necessary to scrape the dirt off. Under such conditions the wonder is not that so many die, but that any recover. Dr. Franks noticed a certain fatalism common among the Boer women. "It is God's will" is the excuse, or reason, they give for sitting by a sick child and never moving as much as a finger to give it the food or the medicine oruered by the doctor. "Amisdirected energy often enables . them to make shrouds for their children, while they still live, and while there is still every hope for them." . Dealing with the mortality among children from measles, Dr. Franks

says: "I doubt whether it is at all greater in the camp than it would have been in their own homes under a similar epidemic. The mortality amongst the children under ordinary circumstances is very nigh. Of 20 consecutive tents taken at random. Dr. Xeethling ascertained for me the number of children living and the number which had died before coming into camp; this investigation shows that in the 20 families there were 97 childen surviving and 71 dead. That is, before coming into camp these 20 families had lost 42 per cent, of their children. The matron told me that she xiad made inquiries among the women whom she had met in the hospical. and she found there was scarcely a moti. »r who had not lost more children than she had alive. She mentioned four by name: one, out of 12 children, had lost 9; another, out of 11 children, had lost 10; a third, out of 7, had lost 4.

Dr. Franks had not many complaints made to him by the Boers. This was a sample of some of them: "We were met by a voluble.loud-voiced Dutch woman, carrying a small shoulder of "mutton," and complaining that this had been issued to her, and was unfit for human food. It was clear that the animal was a goat and had died of some disease. A crowd soon •collected, while one or two complained that this was the sort of food issued to them, the majority told her to be quiet, as their meat was very good. The head butcher denied that he had ever issued such a piece of meat. Further investigation elicited that some Boers in camp have goats of their own, one of these had died, and this woman had cut off a shoulder and brought it up as if it had been issued. She expected that a good shoulder of mutton wpiild have been substituted for it. When taxed with this, and asked to produce her ration meat ticket, she retired, and did not reappear, though sent for. Such occurrences may have been f he origin of the complaints I have heard, and it was satisfactory to be able to trace this one home."

The following pronouncement of Dr. Franks on the Irene camp applies to most of the other camps: "On the whole the camp is well-managed, and all that is practical and possible under the circumstances is -. being done for" the comfort and well-being of the inmates of the burgher camps. The high death-rate among the children, I would like* to emphasise again, is in no way due to want of care or dereliction, on the part of those responsible for this camp. It is, in my opinion, due to the people themselves." That this is no whitewashing report is seen by his outspoken condemnation in the fewcases in which it is called for. In the Middleburg camp, for instance, he condemns the irregular crowding together of the tents and the lax administration.

The bulk of the people seem happy, and we read in the report of sports keenly contested, of "healthy. chubby, happy children " playing "at games of various kinds in all directions, accompanied by peals of laughter" and of the growing Boer appreciation — in spite of obstinate prejudice — of the schools in which some 1700 children, are receiving- instruction. Many of the burghers in the camps are better off than ever they were in their lives.

From a military point of view the formation of the camps may have been an error on the side of leniency, but T believe that in the future settlement of the country these camps and the recollection of those who sojourned in them will be a powerful -factor in the creation of harmony between Briton and Boer. Suspicions will have been dispelled, prejudices weakened and thousands of Boers will return to their homes with a Icindlv remembrance of the fair and kindly treatment they received at the hands of those Britons of whom the"ir leaders told them. such terrible tales.