Note 4 — INTRODUCTION

An authentic picture of the misery in one of the South African concentration camps is shown on the inside of the cover. It is a great consolation to the English press that, according to the latest Blue Book, the causes of the appalling mortality in the South African concentration camps are fully established. They are the dirty habits and ignorance of the Boers, and their distrust of the British surgeons. The only thing unexplained in this splendid exposition is: why did not their dirty habits and ignorance kill all the Boers before they came under the benevolent guidance of the British authorities? Why, on the contrary, were they able to raise families, which in number and vigor excel those of any Christian nation? Least of all, the Boers may be blamed for their distrust of the British army surgeons. One of these amiable brutes suggested to the reporter of an Austrian paper that the best treatment for the occupants of the camps would be to inoculate them with the plague bacillus. He undoubtedly deserves to be kept in alcohol as a curiosity. But if we are merely guided by the authority of an out-and-out Englishman, Mr. Mortimer Menpes, in his “War Impressions,” a man who pretends to have nothing but the highest praise for the surgeons, the medical men were principally occupied with photographing and looting. This interesting activity, no doubt, left them little time for their proper duties, and may explain the low esteem in which they are held by the Boers, as well as by the medical profession outside of England.