The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-11-19
MISS HoBHoUsE TOLD TOO MUCH
Deported From South Africa Because
of Prison Camp Exposures.

London, Nov. S.-The Daily News
says. We learn that Miss HobhOuse
and lady companion have been ar
rested in South Africa and presumably
deported'
The reason for the deportation Of
Miss Emily Hobhouse from south At
RIGA viii not be at all a matter of
mystery TO those who have closely fol-
lowed the conduct of the Boer war.
Miss Hobhouse went to~s outh Africa
last January as the representative of a
charitable committee formed in Eng
land for the purpose of raising and ad-
ministering fund for the relief of dis
tress among the South African women
and children. She began her work at
the BloemfOntein camp on January 26.
and afterward visited the camps at
NorVaIs Point AliWal North. Spring
Iohteln, Kimberley, Mafeking. return
ing 70 BlOemtOntein on April p. Since
tnen she has spent much Of her time
distributing supplies to the reconcen-
trados and in some fashion ameliOrat-
ing their hard condition.
The reports she wrote after these
visits first brought home to the STAY
at-home Britons the horrors of these
/ so-c3iled refuge camps. Such was the
erect or these revelations that thou
sands Joined in petitions to the gov
eminent TO check the growth of the
conditions described.
Imagine the heat outside the tents
and the suffocation inside" wrote Miss
Hobhouse. We sat on khaki blankets
rolled up inside Mrs. b. tent, and the
sun blazed through the thin canvas:
no cnair, no table, no room for either.
On wet nights the water streams. down
through the canvas and comes flowing
in, as it knows how to do in this coun.
try, under the flap Of the tent. and
vets the blankets as they lie upon the
ground While we sat there a snake
came IN They said it was puff ad-
der. very poisonous.
call this camp system a whole
sale cruelty. 1t can never be wiped
out Of the memories of the people. It
presses hardest on the children. They
droop in the terrible heat, and with the
insufficient, unsuitable food. whatever
you do. whatever the authorities do
ana they are, I believe. doing their
pest with very limited means-it is all
only q miserable patch upon a great
Ill thousands. physically unfit. are
placed in conditions Of life which they
nave not strength to endure In front
OF them IS black ruin. There are cases.
too, in which whole families are sew
cred and scattered, they don't know
where.
viii you try to make the British
public understand the situation and
force 1t to ask itself what is going to
be done with these peOple2 There
must be fully $4,000 Of them: I should
not wonder if there are more. Some
Few have means, but more are ruined
and have not present penny. In one
OF two ways must the British public
support them. either by taxation
through the authorities or else BY vol
untary charity.
@ 8 q
TO keep these camps going is muir
der to the children.
Kimberley camp was perhaps the
worst Of all. 1t was enclosed in an
elght-foGt barbed wire fencing. There
were sentries at the gate and walking
inside. No nurse, an empty. unfur-
nlshed marquee which might be a hos
pital; OvercrOwded tents: measles and
Whcoping cough rife; camp dirty and
smelling; an army doctor. who natu-
rally knows little of childrens all
ments; fuel almost none.
AT this camp there We're several wo-
men in disgrace; mothers who had
been separated from their children and
mad tried to rejoin them. They were
treated with unusual harShneSs-
The deaths in these camps are out of
all proportion to the normal, fifteen
dying in one day while she was in
Kimberley.