The Extreme Measure Of Burning Them
Down Was Only Carried Out After A Definite Offence, Such As
Affording Cover For
Snipers, or as a deterrent to railway wreckers,
but in either case it is evident that the women or children
Who
were usually the sole occupants of the farm could not by their own
unaided exertions prevent the line from being cut or the riflemen
from firing. It is even probable that the Boers may have committed
these deeds in the vicinity of houses the destruction of which they
would least regret. Thus, on humanitarian grounds there were strong
arguments against this policy of destruction being pushed too far,
and the political reasons were even stronger, since a homeless man
is necessarily the last man to settle down, and a burned-out family
the last to become contented British citizens. On the other hand,
the impatience of the army towards what they regarded as the abuses
of lenity was very great, and they argued that the war would be
endless if the women in the farm were allowed always to supply the
sniper on the kopje. The irregular and brigand-like fashion in
which the struggle was carried out had exasperated the soldiers,
and though there were few cases of individual outrage or
unauthorised destruction, the general orders were applied with some
harshness, and repressive measures were taken which warfare may
justify but which civilisation must deplore.
After the dispersal of the main army at Komatipoort there remained
a considerable number of men in arms, some of them irreconcilable
burghers, some of them foreign adventurers, and some of them Cape
rebels, to whom British arms were less terrible than British law.
These men, who were still well armed and well mounted, spread
themselves over the country, and acted with such energy that they
gave the impression of a large force. They made their way into the
settled districts, and brought fresh hope and fresh disaster to
many who had imagined that the war had passed for ever away from
them. Under compulsion from their irreconcilable countrymen, a
large number of the farmers broke their parole, mounted the horses
which British leniency had left with them, and threw themselves
once more into the struggle, adding their honour to the other
sacrifices which they had made for their country. In any account of
the continual brushes between these scattered bands and the British
forces, there must be such a similarity in procedure and result,
that it would be hard for the writer and intolerable for the reader
if they were set forth in detail. As a general statement it may be
said that during the months to come there was no British garrison
in any one of the numerous posts in the Transvaal, and in that
portion of the Orange River Colony which lies east of the railway,
which was not surrounded by prowling riflemen, there was no convoy
sent to supply those garrisons which was not liable to be attacked
upon the road, and there was no train upon any one of the three
lines which might not find a rail up and a hundred raiders covering
it with their Mausers.
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