Arthur Conan Doyle wrote this vigorous defence of Britain’s conduct of the Second Boer War in direct response to international and domestic criticism of British military methods — particularly the use of concentration camps and farm-burning. Doyle, who had served as a volunteer doctor in South Africa, marshalled historical evidence to justify the war’s causes and refute allegations of systematic atrocity.
Whatever one concludes about the arguments, the pamphlet is a significant document of Edwardian public controversy and illustrates how the Boer War became a defining moment in debates about British imperial identity. Download the free EPUB to read Conan Doyle’s passionate and historically significant defence of the British Empire.