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THE BEGINNING OF THE END:
A
Boer Emissary
is
Sent
Through the British Lines
From
tJu~. autumn
of19OO to
spring oji902,
guerilla war/are raged.
The
Boers attacked B.ritish lines ofcommunication and outposts.
In
T'eprisal, the British
burned
jaflTlS, devastated large aT'eas,
put
Boer non-combatants into concentration camps and exiled captuT'ed Boers. EaT'ly
in
1902,
peace negotiations began.
paroles .w.ere burned
to
the
ground.
eaptured,
large
numbers of Boer com- tandy decided
that
peace must
be
made.
rule, proceeding by easy stages to
Kitcliener, who '
bad
become com- baJlUlts were shipped
to
St.
Helena,
And
on May 19,
Botha,
de
la ·
Rey, responsible self-government. Natives
.
mander~in-cbief,
laid waste the area of Ceylon or the Bermudas.
Smuts, de Wet
and
Hertzog went
to
were given greater legal rights, but the
.Qperations.
The
Boer"women, children
Steadily the
fighting greW
more bitter. Pretoria
to
meet Kitchener.
question of a vote for them was
and non-combatants were brought into Steadily the
devastated
:y:eas
grew in
The peace
terms
were not harsh. The postponed.
concentration camps, where thousands
size.
Hoping
against
hope for Con-
Boers
lost their independence,
and
Britain lost 5,774 killed and
22,829
died before conditions
were
improved. tinental intervention or
that
the
Eng1j"b
surrendered
all
their commandos and wounded, the
Boers
about
4,000
killed. .
Blockhouses were built and garrisoned Liberals would put: an end to the
war,
arms; 6ut a grant of
£3,000,000
was When the
war
ended, there
were
40,000
to
secureBritishcommuniCations.
Lafge .
the
Boers
fought themselves
to
a given for the reconstruction of burned Boer prisoners in the hands of the
reinforcements, especially of mounted standstill. At last, in March,
1902,
farms,
and
there
were no punitive British. More
than
£220,000,000
had
infantry,
were sent out, many from the negotiations
between
Kitchener and the measures against any but irreconcilables.
been
spent. The independence of the
Colonies and Dominions.
240,000
men Boer leaders opened. On May
15,
at All others
were
~owed
to
return:
to
their two Republics was extinguished, and
to
"fight
50,000
Doers.
Ai.
they were Vereeniging, the Boer delegates ·reluc- homes. There was to
be
Crown Colony the Rand industrialists won the politicaI
~
~
Captured Boers
in
a British Prison Camp
To deal with the guerilla commandos, Kitchener built blockhouses along lines ofcommunication, and called
for heavy reinfor.cements of mounted infantry. Slowly, they succeeded
in
rQunding
up
the Boors. When
the war ended, there were
40,000
Boers
in
British prison camps or
in
exile.
in the
guerilla campaign.
Repeatedly
attacked British outposts arui lines
of communication...
41