Wednesday, May 15, 2013

In December 1900 Lord Roberts, in Durban and on his way back to England, told a gathering that the war was practically over. President Kruger, after living some weeks as a fugitive in a railway carriage, had left for Europe aboard a Dutch warship. However, Louis Botha, Koos de la Rey and Christiaan de Wet were still at large with bands of guerilla fighters. Roberts had given orders that Boer farms were to be burnt as a way of denying them food. The war was practically over – the war of set-piece battles. But a new war, just as costly in time and human lives, and far more bitter, had only just begun.

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