MISSING FAMILY BIBLES IN SOUTH AFRICA: AN APPEAL.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:3 SIR,--May I bring before your readers a matter which appears to be not without importance in helping to promote that goodwill between Briton and Boer on which the future prosperity of South Africa must so much depend ? There is reason to believe that not a few family Bibles and other books taken from South African homes during the late war have found their way to this country, and the following extract from a letter from a lady living near Ladybrand, in the Orange River Colony, illustrates the feeling in regard to these Bibles:__." My house was unfortunately looted when the mili- tary commanded all families living in the district to go to Protected towns. I should feel extremely grateful if you could trace my and my father's family Bibles, which were
taken from my father's house some time in 1901. My father's in particular is very dear to us, and his widow, my mother, being alive yet, feels the loss of his personal chronicle of the births and deaths of their children." Descriptions of the Bibles are given, the names being Fichardt, Gunn, and Radloff ; in her own Bible is a certificate of her marriage. The regiments near at the time are believed to have been the 76th Yeomanly and 2nd Black Watch. The family records in such family Bibles are the more important now, since in many cases the church registers of births, marriages, and deaths have been destroyed in the war. Probably few things would be more effective as a token of British goodwill to those who are now our fellow-subjects in the Empire than the free return of these Bibles. The Friends' South African Relief Committee (care of W. H. F. Alexander, 17 Grace. church Street, London, E.C.) will be glad to find the original owners, and will bear all expense in the return of any such Bibles which may be entrusted to them.—I am, Sir, Itc., LAWRENCE RICHARDSON. The Gables, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
[We feel sure that the present possessors, if there are any, of any such family Bibles, will be only too glad to restore them; but we fear that most of them were lost or accidentally destroyed rather than carried away by British soldiers.— ED. Spectator.]
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