The Swiss and the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 - Linder

2012 paperback brand new with 207 pages.R27 postage in SA.                                                                                                                                                In the final years of the nineteenth century Great Britain forced two small independent freedom loving Boer republics, Transvaal and Orange Free State, into a bitterly fought war. Britain was determined to gain control over the fabulous diamond fields in the Free State and the gold deposits in the Transvaal. The confrontation lasted three years and is remembered as the Anglo-Boer War. Britain inflicted enormous damage on the republics. They devastated the countryside, destroyed all livestock, and interned 200 000 women, children and old men in concentration camps where many died due to initially poor sanitary arrangements and malnutrition. Many thousand freedom fighters lost their lives, and 25 000 were deported as prisoners of war to far distant camps in Asia and Bermuda.

A wave of sympathy for the Boers swept through the world. Everywhere money, medical supplies, clothing and provisions were collected, field ambulances and complete hospitals equipped and sent to the republics. More than 3 000 volunteers from overseas joined the Boer forces to fight without pay, receiving only food, clothing and weapons. This book tells how one small country, Switzerland, reacted to the war, how the Swiss living in the two republics participated in their defence and how they were influenced by the war. It also includes a description of Swiss emigration to the two republics and a detailed register of the Swiss known to be resident in the two republics in 1899.