On Wednesday a Blue-book was published containing the Report as
to the treatment of the British prisoners of war at Pretoria by the Boers. Lord Roberts in a covering despatch severely criticises the treatment of the non-commissioned officers and men—they were half-starved—and declares that " the inhuman treatment of the sick prisoners throws the greatest discredit on the authorities at Pretoria, who must have been aware that proper hospital accommodation and equipment had not been provided." In regard to our own hospitals, Thursday's Times contains a long telegram recount- ing Lord Roberts's evidence given on Tuesday before the Hospitals Commission. At the conclusion of his evidence Lord Roberts stated that the campaign had been an extra- ordinarily difficult one from the hospital point of view, and gave it as his opinion " that the Royal Army Medical Corps, assisted by the civilian surgeons, had met the difficulties magnificently." We must, of course, await the Report of the Commission before expressing a definite opinion, but as far as we can judge this is the conclusion to which the facts all point. There were, no doubt, occasional blunders of a serious kind, but there was no "hospital scandal" of the kind alleged by the assailants of the Army Medical Corps.
