Chapter 30 - Page 2

as the months went on
and the struggle still continued, the war assumed a harsher aspect.
Every farmhouse represented a possible fort, and a probable depôt for
the enemy. The extreme measure of burning them down was only carried
out after a definite offence, such as affording cover for snipers, or
as a deterrent to railway wreckers, but in either case it is evident
tbat the women or children who were usually the sole occupants of the
farm could not by their own unaided exertions prevent the line from
being cut or the riflemen from firing. It is even probable that the
Boers may have committed these deeds in the vicinity of houses the
destruction of which they would least regret. Thus, on humanitarian
grounds there were strong arguments against this policy of destruction
being pushed too far, and the political reasons were even stronger,
since a homeless man is necessarily the last man to settle down, and a
burned-out family the last to become contented British citizens. On
the other hand, the impatience of the army towards what they regarded
as the abuses of lenity was very great, and they argued that the war
would be endless if the women in the farm were allowed always to
supply the sniper on the kopje. The irregular and brigand-like
fashion in which the struggle was carried out had exasperated the
soldiers, and though there were few cases of individual outrage or
unauthorised destruction, the general orders were applied with some
harshness, and repressive measures were taken which warfare may justify
but which civilisation must deplore.

After the dispersal of the main army at Komatipoort there remained a
considerable number of men in arms, some of them irreconcilable
burghers, some of them foreign adventurers, and some of them Cape
rebels, to whom British arms were less terrible than British law.
These men, who were still well armed and well mounted, spread
themselves over the country, and acted with such energy that they gave
the impression of a large force. They made their way into the settled
districts, and brought fresh hope and fresh disaster to many who had
imagined that the war had passed for ever away from them. Under
compulsion from their irreconcilable countrymen, a large number of the
farmers broke their parole, mounted the horses which British leniency
had left with them, and threw themselves once more into the struggle,
adding their honour to the other sacrifices which they had made for
their country. In any account of the continual brushes between these
scattered bands and the British forces, there must be such a
similarity in procedure and result, that it would be hard for the
writer and intolerable for the reader if they were set forth in
detail. As a general statement it may