The Report of the Ladies' Committee on the Concentration Camps
was published on Friday week, and affords welcome evidence of the intelligence, the humanity, and the practical common-sense shown by those who served on it. The Com- mittee attribute the high death-rate in the camps to three causes,—(1) the insanitary condition of the country caused by the war—i.e., the poisoning of the soil and water, and the lack of fresh and suitable food; (2) causes withinthe control of the inmates of the camps; (3) causes within the control of the administra. tion. Under (2) the Report specially notes the insanitary habits of the Boer women, their objection to hospital treat- ment, and their resort to strange and dangerous remedies,— laudanum, green paint, dog's blood, .te. Under (3) the Cora- mittee point to overcrowding, want of foresight in providing suitable diet and an adequate supply of doctors and nurses, and the fact that in the first instance the military did not take sufficiently into account the difference between the treatment of women and children and soldiers.
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