During the Second Anglo–Boer War (1899–1902), the British operated concentration camps in the South African Republic, Orange Free State, Colony of Natal, and Cape Colony. In February 1900, Lord Kitchener took command of the British forces and implemented controversial tactics that contributed to a British victory. The Boers lived off the land and used their farms as a source of food in their guerrilla warfare strategy, a key aspect of their many successes at the beginning of the war. When Kitchener realized that a conventional warfare style would not work against the Boers, he began initiating plans to destroy their farms and detain them, which later caused much controversy among the British public. More than 100,000 Black South Africans—many of whom opposed the Boers in their war—were held in camps in worse conditions, but their treatment elicited little outrage.
Scorched-earth policy In early March 1901, Lord Kitchener initiated a series of systematic drives aimed at killing, capturing or wounding Boers. These were organized similarly to a hunting expedition, with success measured by a weekly "bag" of casualties. Kitchener also sought to sweep the country bare of everything that could give sustenance to the guerrillas, such as livestock, women, and children. Historian Thomas Pakenham describes the last phases of the war as being dominated by "the clearance of civilians—uprooting a whole nation".
The British destroyed Boer farms under their scorched-earth policy, including the systematic destruction of crops, the slaughtering or removal of livestock, and the burning of homesteads and farms in order to prevent the Boers from resupplying themselves from a home base. As this happened, tens of thousands of men, women, and children were forcibly moved into camps. Eventually, authorities built a total of 45 tented camps for Boer internees and 64 additional camps for Black Africans. The vast majority of Boers who remained in the local camps were women and children. Between 18,000 and 26,000 Boers perished in these concentration camps due to diseases. The camps were very poorly administered from the outset, and they became increasingly overcrowded when Lord Kitchener's troops implemented the internment strategy on a vast scale. Conditions were terrible for the health of the internees, mainly due to neglect, poor hygiene, and bad sanitation. The supply of all items was unreliable, partly because of the constant disruption of communication lines by the Boers. The food rations were meager, and there was a two-tier allocation policy, whereby families of men still fighting were routinely given smaller rations than others. The inadequate shelter, poor diet, bad hygiene, and overcrowding led to malnutrition and endemic contagious diseases such as measles, typhoid, and dysentery, to which the children were particularly vulnerable. Many internees died due to a shortage of up-to-date medical facilities and medical mistreatment.
UK public opinion and political opposition Although the 1900 UK general election, also known as the "Khaki election", had resulted in a victory for the Conservative government on the back of recent British victories against the Boers, public support began to slowly wither due to the realization that the war was not won after the Battle of Belfast. Further unease developed following reports filtering back to Britain concerning British treatment of Boer civilians. Public and political opposition to government policies in South Africa regarding Boer civilians was first expressed in Parliament in February 1901 in the form of an attack on the government by Liberal Party MP David Lloyd George.
Emily Hobhouse, a delegate of the South African Women and Children's Distress Fund, visited some of the camps in the Orange Free State in January 1901. In May 1901, she returned to England on a ship known as the Saxon. Alfred Milner, High Commissioner in South Africa, also boarded the Saxon for holiday in England, but he dismissed Hobhouse, regarding her as a Boer sympathizer and "trouble maker". On her return, Hobhouse worked to publicize the distress of the camp inmates. She managed to speak to the Liberal opposition Party leader, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who professed to be outraged, but was disinclined to press the matter, as his party was split between the imperialists and the pro-Boer factions. St John Brodrick, the Conservative Secretary of State for War, first defended the government's policy by arguing that the camps were purely "voluntary" and that the interned Boers were "contented and comfortable". Lacking firm statistical evidence to support this assertion, he later argued that all measures being taken were "military necessities" and that everything possible was being done to ensure satisfactory conditions in the camps. Hobhouse published a report in June 1901 that contradicted Brodrick's claim, followed by Lloyd George openly accusing the government of "a policy of extermination" directed against the Boer population. The same month, Campbell-Bannerman gave a speech criticizing British war methods, including the policy of the camps, stating, "When is a war, not a war? When it is carried on by methods of barbarism in South Africa." The Hobhouse Report caused an uproar both domestically and internationally.
The Fawcett Commission Although the government had comfortably won the parliamentary debate by a margin of 252 to 149, it was concerned by the escalating public outcry, and called on Kitchener for a detailed report. Complete statistical returns from camps were sent out in July 1901. By August 1901, it was clear to government and opposition alike that Hobhouse's claims were being confirmed – 93,940 White Boers and 24,457 Black Africans were reported to be in "camps of refuge" and the crisis was becoming a catastrophe as the death rates appeared very high, especially among the children.
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