W.T. Stead to Madame Koopmans de Wet

(January 12, 1900)

Dear Madame de Wet

I am very glad to have your letter, but I am sorry that you have not yet had a copy of Hell Let Loose. I send you it in this envelope. I do not know whether you have received the pamphlet which is enclosed in another envelope. We are endeavouring to promote an international memorial on the lines of the enclosed. The only element of comfort we have is that apparently Chamberlain has taken alarm, and is pretending at least to adapt a more conciliatory [illegible]. Judging from a letter which I have received from a British officer at the front Kitchener has determined to devastate the country, and shoot all the prisoners. At present it would seem that there is much more prospect of Cape Town being captured, than there is of Kitchener having many prisoners to shoot. Everything is in a hideous welter, and from the British point of view I see nothing but absolute despair. Kitchener is said to have demanded 50,000 men, and he certainly cannot get them. The Daily News, as you will have heard, has passed into the hands of Liberals again, and will no longer be a jingo organ. This is the one gleam of light we have here.

With best wishes, I am,

Yours sincerely,

W.T. Stead