In evidence of the improved position in South Africa, Mr.
Brodrick stated that Lord Kitchener was now able to authorise the return of four hundred refugees per week to the Rand, instead of two hundred in a fortnight. The block- house system had proved effective, the outlook in Cape Colony was better, and reinforcements were being sent almost daily. Finally, as regarded the concentration camps, it was proposed to break up the west camps, to reduce the numbers in all, to send the overflow from the Orange River Colony into Cape Colony, and those in the Transvaal into Natal. "No unprejudiced person," added Mr. Brodrick, "could deny that the concentration camps formed the most difficult problem ever undertaken by a belligerent in the annals of war; but they had in every way been carried through with credit to the humanity of the British people." Speaking earlier in the day at a distribution of war medale, Mr. Brodrick threw out a suggestion that if they raised a Volunteer battalion in Glasgow for the front, a battalion of Scottish Regulars might be sent home for a rest. He made this suggestion, however, not because he had any claim on them for further efforts, but because he believed there was no effort of patriotism for which Scotsmen were not ready in this wax.
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