The "hysterical" Emily Hobhouse and Boer war concentration camp controversy

TODAY THERE ARE few citizens outside of South Africa or Britain who probably remember the name of Emily Hobhouse, but during the first decade of the twentieth century she was considered to be one of the most visible humanitarian critics of Britain's imperial policies (Nash, 1999). Before the outbreak of the Boer War in October of 1899, she had been working for the Women's Industrial Council, but after the conflict began she joined the newly minted South African Conciliation Committee (SACC). She also helped found the South African Women and Children Distress Fund, and when she learned about Britain's treatment of Afrikaner families during the Boer War, she set sail for the African continent so that she could supervise the delivery of funds and goods to needy victims of the war (Liddington, 1991, p. 48).