Emily Hobhouse and the Reports on the Concentration Camps during the Boer War 1899-1902: Two Different Perspectives - Tapa blanda

Yet the life and career of the woman, who did more than anyone else to bring this tragedy to public attention round the world is little known today. It is very much to the credit of Dr Seibold, that she has done research that has cast new light on this terrible yet, in a way, restorative story. Dr Seibold draws together original sources, letters, more recent books and papers about Emily Hobhouse, in particular her great-niece Jennifer Hobhouse Balme's biography To Love One's Enemies. -- John Doble, former British High Commissioner to the Kingdom of Swazil

The British scorched earth policy during the last phase of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 led to the burning of farms, the destruction of homesteads, harvests and livestock and to the internment of the civil population in the so-called concentration camps. There, people - mainly women and children - died of malnutrition and diseases such as measles, pneumonia and typhoid. The death rate in the camps was so high - nearly 28,000 white Boers succumbed - that the English population, renowned for its gallantry and chivalry, was consternated. Lloyd George blamed his government for its policy of extermination, Campbell-Bannerman spoke of methods of barbarism, and philanthropic institutions protested, led by Emily Hobhouse, who was the first civilian to investigate the conditions of the camps. The government reacted and sent a ladies' commission under the leadership of Millicent Garrett Fawcett to South Africa. Birgit Seibold's study is the first to compare the 'inofficial' and the official report on the camps and to give an insight into conditions in each of the thirty-three white concentration camps. Based on first-hand research among the Hobhouse manuscripts, this book is both scholarly and compulsively readable.