The War in South Africa, Its Cause and ConductDoyle, Arthur Conan
History
The War in South Africa, Its Cause and Conduct
Doyle, Arthur Conan
South African War, 1899-1902; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Causes
This scandal of the murder of the Kaffirs, a scandal against which no
protest seems to have been raised by the pro-Boer press in England or
the Continent, has reached terrible proportions. I append some of the
evidence from recent official reports from the front:
Case at Magaliesberg.--About October or November 1900, the bodies of
nine natives were found lying together on the top of the Magaliesberg.
Of these five were intelligence natives, the remainder being boys
employed by the Boers, but suspected of giving information. The
witnesses in this case are now difficult to find, as they are all
natives; but it appears that the natives were tried by an informal
court, of which B. A. Klopper, ex-President of the Volksraad, was
president, and condemned to death. Hendrik Schoeman, son of the late
general, and Piet Joubert are reported to have acted as escort.
Case of five natives murdered near Wilge River.--On capturing a train
near Wilge River, Transvaal, on March 11, 1901, the Boers took five
unarmed natives on one side and shot them, throwing their bodies into a
ditch. Corporal Sutton, of the Hampshire Regiment, saw, after the
surrender, a Boer put five shots into a native who was lying down. Other
soldiers on the train vouch to seeing one man deliberately shoot five
boys in cold blood.
Case of eight Kaffir boys.--On or about July 17, 1901, eight Kaffir
boys, between the ages of twelve and fourteen, went out from Uitkijk,
near Edenburg, to get oranges. None were armed. Boers opened fire, shot
one, captured six; one escaped, and is now with Major Damant. Corporal
Willett, Damant's Horse, afterwards saw boys' bodies near farm, but so
disfigured that they could not be recognised. Some Kaffirs were then
sent out from Edenburg and recognised them. One boy is supposed to have
been spared by Boers, body not found. Lieutenant Kentish, Royal Irish
Fusiliers, saw bodies, and substantially confirms murder, and states
Boers were under Field-Cornet Dutoit.
Case of Klass, Langspruit, Standerton.--Klass's wife states that on
August 3, 1901, Cornelius Laas, of Langspruit, and another Boer came to
the kraal and told Klass to go with them. On his demurring they accused
him of giving information to the British, and C. Laas shot him through
the back of the head as he ran away. Another native, the wife of a
native clergyman at Standerton, saw the dead body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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