27 APRIL 1901, Page 12

[TO THE'EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, —M18. Heckford's interesting letter in

the Spectator of April 20th on "How to Conquer South Africa in its Schools" reminds me of the following circumstance which occurred some time ago. A young officer took up a copy-book in a South African school, which had for its copy the following words : "The British are a degraded race, sunk in the grossest ignorance," which teaching has evidently been carefully learnt, for a lady who had been with her husband in Pretoria for four months, where he had work before the war broke out, told me that the young Boers in the streets jeered at her, and said : "Yon English, you cowards; you can't fight." These facts prove that Mrs. Heckford's suggestions are needed.—I am,