An interesting piece of news is reported from Ceylon. According
to a Central News telegram from Colombo, one hundred and eighty of the Boer prisoners have volunteered in "some quasi-military capacity" in India. The telegram proceeds to state that the men who have made the offer have been removed from the Boer camp, as their comrades are in- dignant at their action, and that they are now witnessing the annual Ceylonese camp training. We shall await with interest official confirmation of this report, and sincerely trust that if it be correct the authorities will see their way to accept it. It has been urged in these columns that the problem of how best to deal with the deported Boers disinclined to return to their homes after the war might best be solved on the lines of Pitt's enrolment of the Highlanders after the '45. The action of these hundred and eighty Boers in Ceylon shows that they are ready themselves to take the initiative. That the better-class Boer not only has no ill-feeling against the "Tommy," but is rather inclined to fraternise with him, is shown by the interesting letter from the Transvaal burgher of Rustenburg in Thursday's Times. But in the case of Boers entering the Imperial Army, it would probably be found better to enrol them in irregular corps of their own, where their dislike of strict discipline would be less likely to bring them into collision with their officers.
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