eplorable amount of sickness which has all along existed among
them, create a demand for a great deal more than mere primary
necessities, such as food and shelter, if the condition of the
camps is to be anything like what we should wish to see it. The
amount of mortality in these camps, especially amongst very young
children, as you are well aware, has been deplorable. I do not,
indeed, agree with those who think--or assert--that the mortality
among the Boers would have been less, if thousands of women and
children had been allowed to live on isolated farms in a
devastated country, or to roam about on the trail of the
commandos. Indeed, I feel confident that it would have been far
greater. The best proof of this is the deplorable state of
starvation and sickness in which great numbers of people arrived
at the camps, and which rendered them easy victims to the attack
of epidemic diseases. At the same time it is evident that the
ravages of disease would have been less if our means of transport
had allowed us to provide them on their first arrival, not only
with tents, rations, and necessary medicines (all of which were,
as a matter of fact, supplied with great promptitude), but with
the hundred and one appliances and comforts which are so
essential for the recovery of the weakly and the sick, and the
prevention of the spread of disease. I do not mean to say that it
was only want of material, due to the insuperable difficulties of
transport (especially at the time when the camps were first
started, and when railways were subject to continual
interruptions) from which the camps suffered. Equally serious was
the want of personnel; of the necessary number of doctors,
nurses, matrons, superintendents, etc., who were simply not to be
found in South Africa, severely taxed as it had already been to
find men and women of sufficient training and experience to look
after the other victims of the war. Still, the want of material
has been a serious item; and it is evidently a want which, as the
carrying capacity of the railways increases, we must do our best
to supply. The Ladies' Commission, of whose devoted labours in
visiting and inspecting the camps it is impossible to speak too
highly (they have been of inestimable service to the Government),
have handed