A brave documentary by Kenneth Griffith on the Boer War showing the horrendous concentration camps for Boer women and children set up by the British (Saturday, 25th September, BBC 2 TV)! Twenty six thousand women and children died in these camps - and these were only the whites!
Surely Emily Hobhouse deserves recognition in Cornwall where she was born and where she chose to die?? Her ashes were taken to South Africa, however, to be interred in the great South African National Monument near Bloemfontein, which commemorates the 26,000 prisoners who died at our hands.
In a deeply moving speech in honour of Emily Hobhouse, General Jan Christian Smuts, Prime Minister of the then Union of South Africa said "....We are here to pay homage to one who came to our shores many years ago in a gesture of love and kindness. Her name is great and reverenced, not only in South Africa, but also in thousands of homes on the Continent of Europe, We stood alone in the world, friendless among the peoples, the smallest nation ranged against the mightiest Empire on earth. And then one small hand, the hand of a woman, was stretched out to us.
At that darkest hour, when our race almost appeared doomed to extinction, she appeared as an angel, as a heavensent messenger. Strangest of all, she was an Englishwoman." She was a Cornishwoman - come on, wake up, Cornwall, and honour this Angel!
Emily Hobhouse was no traitor to this country but was "devoted entirely to help non-combatants who suffer in consequence of war, and in supporting every movement making for Peace."
Much more can be seen of this brave and dynamic lady in an excellent film by Roy L. Allen "That Englishwoman" if anyone is interested. She also happened to be the Founder of the Save the Children Fund.
MARILYN PRESTON EVANS (Mrs)
Saltash