In introducing the English version of this book I venture to bespeak a
welcome for it, not only for the light which it throws on some
little-known incidents of the South African war, but also because of the
keen personal interest of the events recorded. It is more than a
history. It is a dramatic picture of the hopes and fears, the devotion
and bitterness with which some patriotic women in Pretoria watched and,
as far as they could, took part in the war which was slowly drawing to
its conclusion on the veld outside.
I do not associate myself with the opinions expressed by the writer as
to the causes of the war or the methods adopted to bring it to an end,
or as to the policy which led to the Concentration Camps, and the causes
of the terrible mortality which prevailed during the first months of
their existence. On these matters many readers will hold different
opinions from the writer, or will prefer to let judgment be in suspense
and to look to the historian of the future for a final verdict. We are
still too near the events to be impartial. But this book does not
challenge or invite controversy. Fortunately for South Africa, most of
us on both sides can now discuss the events of the war without
bitterness and understand and respect the feelings of those who were
most sharply divided by these events from ourselves.
The greater part of the narrative comes from a diary kept during the war
with unusual fullness and vividness. The difficulty experienced by the
writer of the diary in communicating to friends outside Pretoria
information about what was passing inside, and in unburdening herself of
the feelings roused in her by the events of the war, made the diary more
than usually intimate. To understand fully many of the narratives which
have been transferred from it to this book, it must be remembered that
one is reading, not something written from memory years after the event,
but rather the record of a conversation at the time, in which the
diarist is describing the events as if to a friend who shares to the
full all her own feelings and to whom she can speak without reserve.
Much has happened in the ten years which have passed since the end of
the war. The country which was distracted by the conflicting ideals and
interests of its different Governments and peoples has become the Union
of South Africa. It is now one State. It remains that it should call
forth a spirit of patriotism and nationality which will unite and not
divide its people.
PATRICK DUNCAN
JOHANNESBURG, 1912.
