their guns, and, being either unaware of this unauthorised surrender or
completely ignoring it, continued their flight.

I have already spoken of the risks incurred by stretcher-bearers and
ambulance waggons which approach close to the firing line. Wounded men
have told me again and again that the Boers at Magersfontein did not
fire wilfully on our ambulance waggons, except when our troops got
behind them in their retreat. Moreover, excitable people in England, who
greedily swallow any story about such alleged occurrences, have probably
the vaguest idea of what a modern battle-field looks like, and of the
enormous area now covered by military operations. It may be extremely
difficult to see a small white or Red Cross flag a long way off. At
Ladysmith, _e.g._, one of our guns put a shell clean through a Boer
ambulance, and Sir George White, of course, at once sent an apology for
the mistake. If mistakes occur on one side they may occur on the other.
Reuter's agent at Frere Camp reports on 4th December:--

"After the evacuation of Dundee the Boers shelled the hospital and the
ambulance until the white flag was hoisted, when their firing ceased.
Captain Milner rode with one orderly into the Boer camp with a flag of
truce, and was told that the Boers could not see the Red Cross flag.
This statement he verified by personal observation."

As to the use of "explosive" bullets, which makes the "man in the
street" so indignant, it is worth mentioning that, as far as I am aware,
not a single instance of the employment of such a missile came under the
notice of our medical staff with Lord Methuen's column. I do not for one
instant deny that occasionally such bullets may have been fired at our
troops, but it is clear that the utmost confusion prevails about the
nature of these projectiles. The Geneva Convention prohibits the use of