lk, meat extracts, and
brandy. A suggestive fact in that respect was that though the medical
officers in charge of the Camps often appealed to Boer sympathisers to
send them eggs, milk and other comforts for the sick prisoners, they
hardly ever met with response; and in the rare cases when it happened, it
was mostly British officials or officers' wives who provided these
luxuries.

The spiritual needs of the prisoners of war were looked after with
consideration; there was a recreation room, and, during the time that a
large number of very young Boers were in Camps, an excellent school, in
which the headmaster and assistant teachers held teachers' certificates.
Under the Orange River Colony this school was later transferred to the
Prisoners of War Camp at Simonstown, and in both places it did a
considerable amount of good. The younger Boers took very kindly and almost
immediately to English games such as football, cricket, tennis and quoits,
for which there was plenty of room, and the British authorities provided
recreation huts, and goal posts and other implements. The Boers also
amused themselves with amateur theatricals, club-swinging, and even formed
a minstrel troup called the "Green Point Spreemos."

In the Camps there was a shop where the Boers could buy anything that they
required in reason at prices regulated by the Military Commandant. Beyond
this, relatives and friends were allowed to send them fruit or anything
else, with the exception of firearms. In the Boer laagers were coffee
shops run by speculative young Boers. The prisoners used to meet there in
order to drink coffee, eat pancakes and talk to heart's content. This
particular spot was generally called Pan Koek Straat, and the wildest
rumours concerning the war seemed to originate in it.

Now as to the inner organisation of the Camps. The prisoners were allowed
to choose a corporal from their midst and also to select a captain for
each house. Over the whole Camp there reigned a Boer Commandant, assisted
by a Court of "Heemraden" consisting of exlandrosts and lawyers appointed
by the prisoners of war themselves. Any act of insubordination or
inattention to the regulations, sanitary or otherwise, was brought before
this court and the guilty party tried and sentenced. When the latter
refused to abide by the judgment of the Boer court he was brought before
the Military Commandant, but for this there was very seldom need.

The prisoners of war had permissi