The War in South Africa

This, Arthur Conan Doyle's second book on the Anglo-Boer War, slimmer than The Great Boer War, was intended as a reasoned defence against the then common attacks in Britain on the government's conduct of the war. His thesis, stated in his preface is that no "unprejudiced man can read the facts without acknowledging that the British Government has done its best to avoid war, and the British Army to wage it with humanity".

Many on the Boer side of the conflict would think that he had set himself an uphill task, certainly with his phrase "with humanity".

Conan Doyle wishes that "someone more competent" had taken up the task of "presenting the facts before the world" in place of the "many Blue-books" and other voluminous official reports. "For some reason, which may be either arrogance of apathy, the British are very slow to state their case to the world." He, therefore, has collected the facts and presented them "from an independent standpoint" in one small volume.

Farm-burning and concentration camps are covered in two of the 11 chapters but "the other side of the question" is given more space. He is not an admirer of Kruger and wishes that the Transvaal had followed the American practice of limiting a presidency to a maximum of two terms.

The book was also published in New York and Leipzig (Hackett).

Green cloth-boards, with gilt titling to the spine, in soft plastic protection. Printed green rosette-patterned endpapers + 156 pp of text. There is an owner signature on the front free endpapers but no other markings. The contents are evenly age-toned.