TOPIC:

For your information,,,,,,,

A change being made.......

www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/vancouver-...4aec9a498a409e80abeb

Thank you, Mike.

It follows a trend to re-assess historical decisions based on more contemporary perspectives and reframing.

There you are, I was under the impression that Kitchener was the architect of the concentration camps.
Was Robert’s doing as he was told?
This has the smell of cancelling for the sake of cancelling.
Jim

I think it is fair to say that neither Roberts nor Kitchener are remembered with fondness in South Africa. In my view, the best book on the subject is "Methods of Barbarism? Roberts and Kitchener and Civilians in the Boer Republics, January 1900-May 1902" by S. B. Spies
If you only want a short answer, Fransjohan Pretorius, who is eminent in these matters, writes:
"Roberts issued a proclamation on 16 June 1900, stating that, for every attack on a railway line the closest homestead would be burnt down. This was the start of the scorched earth policy. When this didn’t work, Roberts issued another proclamation in September stating that all homesteads would be burnt in a radius of 16 km of any attack, and that all livestock would be killed or taken away and all crops destroyed. This policy was intensified dramatically when Lord Kitchener took over from Roberts as commander in November 1900. Homesteads and whole towns were burnt down even if there was no attack on any railway. In this way almost all Boer homesteads – about 30 000 in all – were razed to the ground and thousands of livestock killed. The two republics were entirely devastated. Meanwhile the Boer leaders were reorganising their commandos after some major setbacks. One action was to remobilise the Boers who had laid down their arms. Roberts felt he should protect his oath takers and gather them in refugee camps. The first two were established in Bloemfontein and Pretoria in September 1900. But the scorched earth policy had led to more and more Boer women and children being left homeless. Roberts decided to bring them into the camps too. They were called the “undesirables” – families of Boers who were still on commando or already prisoners of war. They were given fewer rations than others in the camps. These families eventually outnumbered the protected burghers and their families by 7:3."
see: www.sahistory.org.za/archive/concentrati...etorius-conversation

Two texts that give in a reasonable manner, the story of the Camps :

MARTIN Lieutenant Colonel A.C., MC, VD, BA (Cape), Hon Ph.D (Natal), a very good researcher and historian. The Concentration Camps 1900-1902. Facts, Figures, and Fables. Howard Timmins, Cape Town, 1957. Hard cover, dustjacket, 109 pp., photographs. A factual account of the controversial camps issue, written as a repudiation of J.C.Otto's `Die Konsentrasiekampe' in a sane manner. Needless to say, it was greeted with derision in Nationalist circles. One very relevant point it brings out, is the very large number of deaths of children in the camps from measles, as having been no higher than the deaths of European children in the Southern African milieu, there being a world wide measles epidemic at the time.

In a similar vein, using different resources, this very hard to find due to its paper covers and deliberate removal by Afrikaan authorities; DEVITT Napier. The concentration camps in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. Shuter & Shooter, Pietermaritzburg, 1941. Print wrappers, 60p. Puts a good case to contradict some of the "wild statements and wrong conclusions" about the camps.

The Apartheid regime did their level best to remove both books from the public domain.

Major General Sir H.H.Settle took military command of Cape Colony 1902, and appointed to deal with concentration camps, and martial law within the two colonies and two occupied States, which he did with equal effectiveness. They had not been under consolidated control, so the whole then came under his command, with military officers in complete command rather than politically appointed civilians.

There is no evidence of deliberate shortage of rations in the camps, what there was though, was the mass misappropriation of the necessities of life for the inmates. Bedding, clothes, food etc., many reported to policing authorities by the Camp Commandants, who were responsible for the camp security and the internal discipline of the inmates, all administrative and logistic matters were handled by the civilian administration. A lot of camps were very well run, some by incompetents, and some very bad! Quite a few of the civilians so employed were imprisoned for their thieving activities, none for their incompetence or sheer lack of ability. Many were Boers.

As for changing the name, it's just further acts of the nothing people to change everything in the rewriting of history. The one that amuses me the most is the push for the disbandment of The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , one of the most competent policing bodies in the world.