mands of some of the Boers who
had but little English.

To put an end to this process of exchanging outfits, Lord Kitchener
issued a proclamation which forbade, under penalty of death, any
fighting Boer to dress in khaki. This proclamation was not heeded, for
the simple reason that men who had the interests of their country at
heart were not likely to surrender because their clothes were wearing
out. This threat but added one more to the many risks of death they ran.
And so a few of these unfortunate burghers, captured in khaki dress
because they had no other, were shot in accordance with the
proclamation. This did not, however, intimidate the rest, for at the
close of the war several hundreds were dressed in the dirty khaki hue.

In conclusion we note one point more, which counted seriously against
the late Republics. It was this: the field of operations became more and
more circumscribed and narrowed down by the extension of the
blockhouses. The two Republics were divided, so to speak, into a great
many little states by the blockhouse lines. The Free State alone was
divided into at least eight or nine sections. Now these divisions,
fenced round on every side, were cleared, one after the other, of all
cattle, sheep, and other foodstuff. The British concentrated their
forces in each section and operated there until it resembled a
wilderness. And so they went from one division to another, until finally
almost the whole country--both Transvaal and Free State--was denuded and
in a semi-famine state. Owing to this confined and limited area in which
we had to move, it was absolutely impossible for us to safeguard our war
supplies.

Another result of this restricted area was the release of all
prisoners-of-war taken by us. Thousands were captured, disarmed, and
released to take up arms the next day. The same soldier has been
captured two, three, and four times over. In this way it was impossible
to reduce the forces of the enemy to any appreciable extent. The Boers
certainly would have taken greater pains and dared more to capture the
enemy's forces if they too had had a place of confinement; but no Ceylon
or Bermudas were at their disposal. If they had had any such place, the
Imperial Yeomanry and others would not have surrendered perhaps quite so
readily. It certainly was a great misfortune to the late Republics that
they could not retain their prisoners-of-war, while every Boer prisoner
was either deported or guarded so