Under the heading of " British Loyalists in South Africa
" a very disquieting letter appeared in the Times of Friday week. The writer sends extracts from letters illustrative of the sufferings and privations of loyalists who were forced to leave their homes by military exigency, and hoped that peace would bring restitution and return. Here are some of the most notable passages :—" The Government are supplying almost all their waggons to the Boers Boers can have rations, free passes to their farms; those who have suffered for England's sake are refused everything. Even the Boers who surrendered some time back are put second. One of the best of them said the other day (in Taal, for he was angry) : 'Another war, and no British for me, I keep Boer to the bitter end.' " In another letter we read that the military have put Boer families into the emptied houses of the English. A third relates how when two destitute English ladies applied for oxen to put to their waggon in order to go back to their farm, the senior transport officer (Harrismith) replied: " Oh ! you are not Boer vrouws ; we can do nothing for you." Lastly, several English ladies hoping to return with their families write to say that they are "actually being passed as Dutch, because the military only assist Boers." In the absence of full corroborative evidence we cannot bring our- selves to believe that the military authorities could have been guilty of such criminal favouritism. The writer of the last letter says: "I wish in England people knew these things." That wish has now been realised, and it only remains that they should know whether they are true.
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