REPORT OF A VISIT TO THE CAMPS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THE CAPE AND ORANGE RIVER COLONIES

The very scarce first edition of this 39pp. pamphlet, Hobhouse's first writings on the Boer War. SABIB 2, 567. Illustrated in Hackett, pp. 71. In the original beige printed wrappers with some creasing and age toning and a small chip at the top fore corner of the rear wrapper, but still a very good copy of this fragile item.

Emily Hobhouse founded the Distress Fund for South African Women and Children, and sailed for the Cape Colony on 7 December 1900 to supervise its distribution, and arrived on 27 December. She had persuaded the authorities to let her visit several camps and to deliver aid—her report on conditions at the camps, set out in a report entitled “Report of a Visit to the Camps of Women and Children in the Cape and Orange River Colonies”, was delivered to the British government in June 1901. As a result, a formal commission was set up and a team of official investigators headed by Millicent Fawcett was sent to inspect the camps. Overcrowding in bad unhygienic conditions due to neglect and lack of resources were the causes of a mortality rate that in the eighteen months during which the camps were in operation reached a total of 26,370, of which 24,000 were children under sixteen and infants, i.e. the rate at which the children died was some 50 a day.