Letters from South Africa. By E. D. Scott. (Sherratt and
Hughes. 28. 6d. net.)—Mr. Scott, after a variety of travel ex- periences, went on an ivory-trading expedition to King Lewanika. The letters during this time (1894-95) occupy the first eighty pages of the book. On the outbreak of the Boer War he went out as correspondent for the Manchester Courier, reaching Cap. Town in December, 1899. He saw as much fighting as he could contrive to bring into his day's work; Enslin, Paardeberg, Drie- fontein, Lydenberg, and Rietfontein are among the names of the places' at which he was under fire. He saw the war at an end, was present at the Proclamation of Peace, a scene which he described in a letter to England, and was on the point of re- turning home when he met with one of those accidents in which we seem to see the irony of fate. He dropped a cigarette- case on the line while his train was in a siding, descended to pick it up, and was killed by its suddenly moving on. E. D. Scott was not a professional journalist, and had no literary training; but he described what he saw, and he saw many things. It is interesting to be told that he was a warm defender of the concentration camps.
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