Item #130005 Extracts from Orders and Memoranda published for the Guidance of Officers, Commanding Columns and Posts in the Orange River Colony [cover title]. Boer War.
Extracts from Orders and Memoranda published for the Guidance of Officers, Commanding Columns and Posts in the Orange River Colony [cover title]

Extracts from Orders and Memoranda published for the Guidance of Officers, Commanding Columns and Posts in the Orange River Colony [cover title]

Bloemfontein, O.R.C., The Argus Printing and Publishing Co., Ltd., 1901.

Duodecimo, unpaginated, but [41] pages of text interleaved with as many (or more) blank pages.

Flush-cut limp cloth stapled though the inner margins; large paper title-label on the front cover; cloth a little stained, staples rusty; internally in excellent condition.

These extracts from 17 'Confidential Memos, etc.' left little to the imagination. Number $ simply states that 'All prisoners of war dressed in British uniforms, or when disguised in the distinctive dress worn by our troops, are to be shot at once. Report to me the number of cases dealt with under this order'. Number 6 includes the following: 'The farms in the neighbourhood of Holfontein and Ventersburg should be destroyed and the grain and stores should be removed from all farms within 10 miles of those places'. Not identified as such, but we know this item comes from the dispersed collection of Samuel Albert White (1870-1954), well-known as an ornithologist and conservationist, but 'During the South African War he had two tours of duty and was temporarily promoted captain, a title he used thereafter' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography').

Item #130005

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