in a considerable list of requirements, which have
been, and are being, supplied as fast as possible. But evidently
these requirements enter into competition, and most serious
competition, with the supply of food and materials necessary for
the revival even of our central industry, not to say of
industrial and agricultural activity elsewhere in the new
colonies, of which, under the circumstances, it is, for the
moment, unfortunately impossible to think.

"To decide between the competing demands upon the still very
limited amount of truckage available for civil purposes, after
the paramount requirements of the army have been satisfied, is
indeed a most difficult and delicate task. Whether we have done
all for the best, it is not for me to say. That any amount of
conscientious thought and labour has been devoted, on all hands,
to grappling with the problem, I can confidently assert. And I am
equally confident that whatever has been done, and whatever may
yet be done, the amount of hardship must have been and must still
be very great. It would be amusing, if amusement were possible in
the presence of so much sadness and suffering, to put side by
side the absolutely contradictory criticisms, all equally
vehement, to which our action is subjected. On the one hand is
the outcry against the cruelty and heartlessness manifested in
not making better provision for the people in the concentration
camps: on the other, the equally loud outcry against our
injustice in leaving the British refugees in idleness and poverty
at the coast, in order to keep the people in the concentration
camps supplied with every luxury and comfort. I have even
frequently heard the expression that we are 'spoiling' the people
in the Boer camps. We are, alas, not in a position to spoil
anybody, however much we might desire to do so....

"The pressing questions connected with the return of the refugees
and the maintenance of the Boers at present in the concentration
camps are, it is evident, only the first of a series of problems
of the most complicated character, which have to be solved before
the country can resume its normal life....

[Sidenote: Re-settlement problems.]

"Even if the war were to come to an end to-morrow, it would not
be possible to let the people in the con