BOER WOMEN AS SPIES AND DECOYS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 5 December 1901, Page 4

BOER WOMEN AS SPIES AND DECOYS.

A lady in the Orange iliver Colony, writing to her parents in Scotland, says:— 1 myself saw a lot of women digging up a floor in an old outhouse and planting something, I know not what When the Brit : sh come I shall soon know, for it is the boast of these women that they had 36,000 rounds of ammunition stowed away all the time of the la.it British occupation of this toTvn. A lot of these same women, on the rumoured appearance of the British troops, started baking so that they would have bread to sell them when they came—they made a lot of money when the soldiers were here last. The Boer feeds free, but the British soldier mtist pay or starve. . . . There never shall be peace here till tho Boer women ai'e removed. They are most effective spies and know everything—nearly 1 God help the man or woman of British blood who offends any of them. The British are far too lenient with them, and believe them too readily. We are so glad to hear they are sending some of them away. All ihe Boers and Hollanders here have taken up arms again, and are in the field. That is the direct result of British leniency! The Hollander gang especially want shifting ; they raise ths most objectionable stories, and spread them with both hand-! One of them here has made himself especially annoying to us. Ho used to send up and demand the "Cape Times," often before we could get it opened. However, this brings its own revenge, for the last one contained the news of Kruger's progress on the Continent, and the snubbiug he got generally from all tho Powers! The German Emperor declining to see him was honey to us, but wormwood to the Hollander. There was a capital article in it on the absence of all official recognition, which more than hinted that all the demonstrations in Franco and Holland bad been arranged and paid for by Dr Leyds. Was it not very naughty of tho "Cape Times ?" Well, you may be sure that we did not wait for the paper to bo commandeered that night, but sent it to the Hollander with all due speed 1 These Hollanders are, if possible, more intolerant and oppressive than the Transvaal Boers. They are generally men of no substanca mere adventures apparently offscourings of Holland, and though many of them are but recently come over, they all claim to be burghers. There are great stories circulated hero of late about the treatment of the Boer women that were sent to Port Elizabeth and other places. Of course, though we don't credit them, we dare not contradict them; but in the last "Cape Times" one woman amongst the prisoners dared. She told these scandalmongers some hometruths—good reading for our Hollander friends who spread these stories right and left. One pretty scory says theso women are sent into the sea every day naked, while the soldiers stand on the beach and jeer at them. It was this story that a Boer woman contradicted, and those here say that tho woman was forced to write the lotter, or else a British spy! They have a way of "getting out every time. The truth is undeniable that theso Boer women are simply jackals, or Boer marouder providers, and have deservedly brought upon themselves tho punishment of having their houses burned down. They would for instance, invite soldiers into the'.r housas for a cup of coffee, and when they left Boers in hiding would rush to the windows and shoot them down, That has happened often. Only lately a case in point happened in this neighbourhood, and if these women are not removed it won't be the last by uny means. They have been doing their best to get us i into trouble, but fortunately we have so i far baen able to keep clear of them.