rge of inhumanity was brought against Great Britain by the friends
of the Boers in England and on the continent of Europe. No one will
maintain that it is a part of the duty of a belligerent to support the
non-combatant population of the enemy. Yet this duty was voluntarily
assumed throughout the war by the British military authorities, who,
from the occupation of Bloemfontein onwards, fed the non-combatant
Boer population as well as they fed their own troops.

[Footnote 255: _E.g._ those employed by General Sherman in
his march to the Sea, through Georgia, in the latter part of
1864.]

[Sidenote: Lord Kitchener's task.]

An incident that happened after the occupation of Pretoria exhibits
the remarkable generosity of the British attitude. At a time when,
owing to the Boer attacks upon the railway, the utmost difficulty was
experienced in getting supplies from the thousand-miles'-distant base
at the coast, Lord Roberts was compelled to send away a part of the
civilian population to General Botha, and they were removed by the
Boer Commandant-General to Barberton. That is to say, while the
British, on the one hand, were giving part of the supplies on which
the existence of their troops depended, to the non-combatant
population of the enemy, the enemy, on the other hand, was doing his
utmost to destroy the single line of railway which alone stood between
the British Army and starvation. When, therefore, Lord Kitchener
succeeded to the command of the British forces in South Africa
(November 29th, 1900), he found the task of disarmament complicated by
two factors. There was the desire of the Home Government that the war
should be conducted upon the humane lines hitherto adopted, and there
was also the fact that the Imperial troops were not numerous enough to
occupy effectively the whole territory of the Republics, or, in other
words, to do the one thing of all others necessary to make this humane
conduct of the war consistent with military success. It was
impossible, with the troops at his disposal, for Lord Kitchener to
hold the enormous territory of the conquered Republics. It was
impossible, perhaps, to support a larger force in a country so poorly
provided with food supplies and means of communication. An
alternative plan had to be found. This plan was to remove the horses,
cattle, and food supplies from the areas which he was unable to
occupy, and to transport the non-combatant inhabitants t