Boer Relief Fund.
NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED March 17, 1902
Several members of the University having expressed a desire to assist in relieving the distress of the Boer women and children confined in British concentration camps in South Africa, it has been decided to open a general subscription in their behalf. The money so collected will be forwarded according to the advice of the Rev. Herman van Broekhuizen, former pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Pretoria, who spoke at the Union last Wednesday evening. A letter from him has been promised stating the methods of distributing such relief funds, and it will be made public when received.
Contributions are requested not only from students, but from graduates, professors and others who are interested in the cause. From time to time statements as to the progress of the fund will be reported in the CRIMSON. Contributions may be sent to any of the following men: Roger Ernst, 16 Russell Hall, *Franklin D. Roosevelt,* [my emphasis--DT] 27 Westmorly Court, William P. Wharton, 12 Randolph Hall.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1902/3/17/boer-relief-fund-pseveral-members-of/
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This was not the first example of young Franklin D. Roosevelt's strong feelings for the Boers:
"FDR, of Dutch heritage, did not consider himself an Anglo-Saxon...[he] consciously avoided the Anglophile Pilgrim Society, preferring instead lifelong membership of the Holland Society...
"[FDR] followed, in the case of the Anglo-Boer war, the majority of Americans rather than the minority pro-British stance of the Vice President TR, Secretary of State John Hay, and even Mahan. On the outbreak of war in October 1899, most of the American public and Congress instinctively sympathized with the underdog Boers and cheered their initial successes. As the Boers besieged Ladysmith, FDR wrote to his parents, "Hurrah for the Boers! I entirely sympathise with them... He followed the war avidly and when challenged by his mother that the Boers "were not a race to do good in the world" he felt strongly enough to disagree with her more Anglophile sentiments arguing, "I cannot help feeling convinced that the Boers have the side of right and that for the past ten years they have been forced into this war. I am sure you will feel this if you only read up the Boer case." At Harvard, he continued his support of the Boers by organizing a postwar relief fund that raised $336 from his classmates. He sent the money to TR who was able to forward support from sympathetic bodies in the United States via the State Department. It seems that once the war was over and civilized British rule assured the president [TR] was more willing to acknowledge his own Dutch heritage..."
https://books.google.com/books?id=6RxeAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT35
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AHC: To his family's horror, young FDR actually feels so strongly about the Boer cause he goes to South Africa to fight (and maybe even die?) for it. There
were American volunteers who fought for the Boers. Most of them already lived in South Africa but not all:
John Hassell and the American Scouts
"Among the Americans who not only took sides but also took up arms, one of the first was John A Hassell, a descendant of Dutch Huguenots who was living in Vryheid when hostilities began. He was a mining engineer by profession, and he had already won favourable attention from the Boers when he joined a group of Transvaal burghers to oppose the armed rebellion of the
Uitlanders in 1896 (Farwell, 1976, p92). For this, he was made an honorary burgher. When war broke out in October 1899, Hassell was working in Zulu land; he immediately joined the Vryheid Commando in Natal, fought at the battles of Dundee and Talana Hill, took part in the Siege of Ladysmith where he was wounded at Caesar's Hill, and then was wounded again at Estcourt during the fighting along the Tugela (Thukela) River. He was present at Colenso when Winston Churchill was captured. His offer to form a new unit of
Uitlanders was accepted and in Johannesburg he recruited some sixty volunteers for his American Scouts - a
verkenningskorps.
"John Shea, a grizzled veteran of the Spanish-American War, joined the Scouts as a lieutenant (Hillegas, 1900, p266). Others made up a total of about 86. Among them was the colourful 'Arizona Kid,' actually James Foster, whom Hassell described as 'a typical American cowboy ... frolicsome, lithe and reckless, always ready for any excitement, to take part in any sort of enterprise no matter what desperate chances were involved.' He had come to South Africa on a ship carrying mules, joined the British tranport to get to the front, and then deserted to the Boers (Farwell, 1976, p92). This was a route of entry for many Americans who ended up on one side or the other. A Texan called Alan Hiley, who, together with Hassell, wrote a history of the Scouts, claimed to have killed a fellow Texan, a Lieutenant Hollis (whom Howard Hillegas of the
New York World refers to as Carron) of Lord Loch's Horse, in a skirmish along the Modder River, perhaps having singled out his target deliberately. This officer reportedly survived, although neither name appears in the War Office roster of Loch's Horse.
"Hassell and his Scouts soon went south to fight Lord Roberts. The volunteers fought in numerous skirmishes and several battles through the Free State and north again to Pretoria, where Hassell sought the protection of the American Consul, anticipating that the war was coming to an end, rather than withdrawing with many others of his unit to Mozambique.
"A rather sarcastic letter from Hassell, describing himself as 'Captain Boer Army', was published in the
New York Times on 26 August 1901, in which he excoriated Arthur Lee, British Military Attache in Washington, for pronouncing the war over and the Boers defeated. In fact, the war was not over until the terms of surrender were signed in the Treaty of Vereeniging at Pretoria on 31 May 1902..."
http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol156bb.html