Diyatalawa Camp

The thrift of the average Boer captive was reflected by the fact that while he wore his old clothes in camp, and masqueraded as a scarecrow in patches, most of them had good clothes packed away in boxes waiting for the day when they were to have their liberty again. It followed therefore that these thick-built men looked solid and loutish in their rough slipshod attire. But when they were seen, thirty at a time, in the swimming bath they had built for themselves, fed with cold water from the hills, one noticed their fine physique, and realized that clothes do not make the man in war. It was only under these circumstances that their activity and endurance, which was apt to be hidden by the occasional round shoulder and careless gait, were revealed.

Some hysterical people sought to raise an outcry against the presence of children in the camp of the captive Boers. There were two hundred and fifty children in the camp at Diyatalawa, who were represented in some versions as victims of British oppression, in others, as heroes who outshone David in prowess.

The fact, however, discloses that these children had been captured with their fathers and their brothers and uncles, and were allowed to accompany them to Ceylon, as they had no other relative to look after them. A strong arm indeed would have been needed to tear them away from their relatives. Captivity must indeed have sat lightly on these youngsters. “We are afforded a glimpse of them” said one visitor, “trooping to school, looking as happy as children can.” Dutch teachers had been provided at the expense of the Dutch South Africa Fund to educate these children. Comparing conditions, it was doubtless only too truly said that “they were better fed, better clothed, better taught and better housed than the majority of the children in the Transvaal at that moment.”

Source: Boere Krygsgevangenes in Ceylon