Nov 2011 Boer War
Contemporary Sources: the Second Boer War
SOURCE 1: Telegram from Alfred Milner to Joseph Chamberlain, 4th May 1899
The spectacle of thousands of British subjects kept permanently in the position of helots, constantly changing under undoubted grievances, and calling vainly for her Majesty’s Government for redress, does steadily undermine the influence and reputation of Great Britain and the respect for the British Government within its dominions.
SOURCE 2: Letter from Chamberlain to Milner, 2nd September 1899
It is a great thing to say that the majority of the people have, as I believe, recognised that there is a greater issue than the franchise or the grievances of the Uitlanders at stake, and that our supremacy in South Africa and our existence as a great power in the world are involved in the result of our present controversy.
SOURCE 3: The Sligo Champion, 18th October 1899 (The Sligo Champion was one of the many nationalist newspapers in Ireland which supported the Boers)
History does not record a more diabolical or more audacious scheme of plunder than in which England is now engaged in South Africa…the sympathy for every just and upright man in the world will go forth to the brave Boers in their manly struggle for the preservation for their independence as a nation…May God strengthen their arms and send them a speedy recovery from all reverses
SOURCE 4: ‘What Miss Hobhouse saw,’ The Manchester Guardian, 19th June 1901 (the report was printed in the form of a diary account) January 31: Some people in town still assert that the camp is a haven of bliss. Well there are eyes and no eyes. I was at the camp today, and just in one little corner this is the sort of thing I found. A girl of 21 lay dying on a stretcher-the father, a big gentle Boer, keeling beside her; while, next tent, his wife was watching a child of six, also dying, and one of about five drooping. Already this couple had lost three children in the hospital, and so would not let
SOURCE 1: Telegram from Alfred Milner to Joseph Chamberlain, 4th May 1899
The spectacle of thousands of British subjects kept permanently in the position of helots, constantly changing under undoubted grievances, and calling vainly for her Majesty’s Government for redress, does steadily undermine the influence and reputation of Great Britain and the respect for the British Government within its dominions.
SOURCE 2: Letter from Chamberlain to Milner, 2nd September 1899
It is a great thing to say that the majority of the people have, as I believe, recognised that there is a greater issue than the franchise or the grievances of the Uitlanders at stake, and that our supremacy in South Africa and our existence as a great power in the world are involved in the result of our present controversy.
SOURCE 3: The Sligo Champion, 18th October 1899 (The Sligo Champion was one of the many nationalist newspapers in Ireland which supported the Boers)
History does not record a more diabolical or more audacious scheme of plunder than in which England is now engaged in South Africa…the sympathy for every just and upright man in the world will go forth to the brave Boers in their manly struggle for the preservation for their independence as a nation…May God strengthen their arms and send them a speedy recovery from all reverses
SOURCE 4: ‘What Miss Hobhouse saw,’ The Manchester Guardian, 19th June 1901 (the report was printed in the form of a diary account) January 31: Some people in town still assert that the camp is a haven of bliss. Well there are eyes and no eyes. I was at the camp today, and just in one little corner this is the sort of thing I found. A girl of 21 lay dying on a stretcher-the father, a big gentle Boer, keeling beside her; while, next tent, his wife was watching a child of six, also dying, and one of about five drooping. Already this couple had lost three children in the hospital, and so would not let