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have told me how the Dutch women would stop them in the streets to tell them that the gutters would soon be running red with British blood, and how they clapped their hands and laughed with joy when the wounded and dying soldiers were being carried in by the Boers.

Bitter bread had the British to eat then, and lo! it is not much better now, The rebels swagger about as if they were the conquerors! Those who were on commando are the petted heroes of the town. Some of these rebels, instead of having suffered punishment, have, under the new Gilbertian topsy-turvy way of treating treason, apparently come out of it rather better off than they were before the war. The ignorant Dutch farmers seriously believe that we were beaten by the Boers, and that the repatriation and compensation funds represent the indemnity that we are paying to the victors. The illiterate farmer in the colony, it must be remembered, knows nothing of what has transpired in the Transvaal, and all his opinions are made for him by those whose object it is to deceive him and poison his mind against us.

'Let bygones be bygones, let us all be friends,' chirp the Bond newspapers, by which they mean let the British blindly trust the Dutch and make further generous concessions, while the Dutch take all they can get and nurse their hatred. For what signs are there of any conciliatory disposition on the part of the Cape Dutch? Does it not rather appear that their leaders and the Dutch Reformed Church are deliberately bent on keeping alive the bitter race feeling? A short time since a bazaar for the benefit of the widows and children of Dutchmen killed in the war was held in a township in this part of the colony under the auspices of the Dutch Reformed Church. I am informed on excellent authority that one of the chief attractions was a sort of peepshow.

You paid your money, and looking through the contrivance you beheld an instructive tableau. A Dutch lad, the son of one of the leading men, lay on the ground dressed in British officer's uniform, dishevelled, his attire disordered, the boy simulating a hoggish condition of intoxication. Such was the object-lesson provided by the Dutch Reformed Church for the growing generation, lest it should forget its contempt and its deep hate.

At the present moment in Colesberg, if a Dutch lady were seen speaking to any of her former British acquaintances, she would probably be 'cut' by all her Dutch friends. The conciliatory measures that are being adopted make the disloyal hate us none the less and despise us the more, while they are forfeiting for us the loyalty of numbers of the British and Dutch who fought on our side. Here, as elsewhere in the colony, one hears of the constantly growing boycotting. The Dutch in Colesberg itself will not buy at the British stores what they can get elsewhere. In places where there are no Dutch stores these are being established. I know one condemned rebel who had no means of his own, but who yet, as soon as he was released from gaol, set up a store that must have needed considerable capital, and drew all the Dutch trade from the oldestablished British house. It is curious that many of the rebels who were once poor appear now to be well provided with funds. It looks much as if there is some organisation which supplies the necessary capital to found Dutch stores throughout the country, and so enable the exclusive trading' programme to be successfully carried out.

At Graaff-Reinet, I understand, there are now not only Bond stores, but Bond lawyers, doctors, auctioneers,

ORGANISATION OF THE BOYCOTT

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and so forth. The Dutch loyalist farmers, of whom there are few indeed in this part of the country, are, of course, being pitilessly boycotted. One who holds but a small farm used to earn his living chiefly by repairing the fences of his neighbours, shepherding their stock, and doing other work. He acted as guide to General French, and now the Dutch farmers, acting in combination, give him no work, refuse to let him have any of their veldt for grazing purposes, and he will have to abandon his farm or starve. There is no compensation allowed, of course, for this sort of thing, and the Dutchmen who assisted us in the war are having it carefully rubbed into them that loyalty spells ruin. We owe it to those who helped us to victory that we should not allow them now to be destroyed by the rebels.

The British here are bearing their losses like men, and are not seeking to obtain more than the altogether inadequate compensation that is being doled out to them. Happily, the British farmers who are ranching on a large scale and produce all their own forage and other necessaries can afford to disregard the boycotting, as they are quite independent of their Dutch neighbours. A good many young Englishmen are successfully ranching in this part of the country, and it looks much as if the Bond, jealous of the increase of the British element on the soil, has given out the word to the Dutch not to sell their farms to Englishmen, for of late the price of land has enormously risen to the Englishman intending to purchase.

But it is pretty certain that a good deal of land will soon fall into the hands of the British; for many of the Dutch farmers suffered such severe losses in the war that they will be compelled to sell at least portions of their extensive farms. The consequences of the Boer

invasion which they themselves invited are being brought home to the disloyal farmers. They had been led to understand that their own property would be respected by their friends the invaders. The Boer generals undoubtedly did their utmost to prevent all looting of farms, whether Dutch or British. Little, if any, wanton damage was done by the Boers themselves; but the German contingent and the Irish Brigade,' who formed part of the invading force, when not under the eyes of the generals, conducted themselves like destructive Hooligans. It was the intention of the Boer leaders to pay for everything that was commandeered in the colony, and many chests full of sovereigns were sent down here for that purpose. But though the townspeople succeeded in getting payment it was otherwise with the farmers. The commandants and commandeering officers appointed by the Boers were for the most part rascals who, instead of paying for what they commandeered, put the money into their own pockets. Many of these men have enriched themselves out of the war. Here is an example of the attitude taken by such men as Generals Delarey and De Wet, who, throughout the invasion, behaved as soldiers and gentlemen. A rich British farmer was placed under arrest in his house at Colesberg during the Boer occupation, in consequence, as was proved by papers found in Pretoria, of malicious affidavits sworn by his own people, his disloyal neighbours. In his absence a Boer commandeering officer visited his farm, insulted his wife, nailed up the doors and windows, telling her that the farm was confiscated, and carried off the British farmer's horses and several very valuable thoroughbred mares. Delarey, on hearing of this, visited the farmer, apologised to him, advised him to bring his wife into town as

GOOD BEHAVIOUR OF FREE STATE INVADERS 25

she would be safer there, and at once restored all the looted animals. The commandeering officer he at once degraded and sent back to Pretoria. British farmers in this district experienced nothing but consideration and courtesy from the Boer leaders, and the better class Boers generally who took part in the invasion, which is a pleasant thing to record.

But to return to Colesberg and the ways of its Dutch Bond-trained population. The slightest manifestation of sympathy with the British on the part of a Dutchman is likely to lead to his persecution. Here is a curious instance of this. A prominent Dutchman with whom I am acquainted favoured the Boer cause at the beginning of the war, and was implicated in an attempt to raise a rebel commando. The military authorities reported the case to the Cape Government with a view to his being tried for high treason, but with no result at the time. Later on the man changed his views, realising the futility of further bloodshed, and he wrote a pamphlet in which he appealed to his brother Afrikanders to come to terms with the British. This has aroused the ire of the Dutch. His Colesberg friends will not speak to him; and now, though his original offence has long since been condoned by the military authorities, the case against him has been revived at the instigation of his enemies, and he is to stand his trial before the Treason Court. At the present time he is receiving numbers of threatening letters, in some of which the angry writers speak of shooting him; while, in others, the outbreak of another war, in which the Boers, having learnt their lesson, will be victorious, is predicted, when traitors' like himself will be trampled under heel and meet with their just punishment.

The Dutch are bent on ousting all loyal people in