Madam, - Despite the best efforts of some of your correspondents to pin the blame for the creation of concentration camps on the British or the Americans, a mediocre level of historical understanding shows that these camps were not invented by either.
The French established tented, fortified camps in Algeria following their invasion of that country in 1830. Berber, Turk and Arab populations were forced from fertile lands into the camps, to be replaced by French Spanish and Maltese settlers. In the period 1830-1900, it is estimated that some 15 to 25 per cent of the population of Algeria died in those camps.
There is some evidence that forcing one's enemies into a limited area, the better to starve them off or to steal their lands, was practised by civilisations as ancient as the Assyrians, but of course there are few reliable records. What seems certain is that the phrase "concentration camp" was coined in respect of Kitchener's camps in South Africa. Those camps, incidentally, were first conceived as a form of humanitarian aid to Boer farmer families whose lands had been destroyed in the war. - Yours, etc,
DANIEL GOLDSMITH,
Midleton,
Co Cork.
Madam, - The ongoing debate on the origins of concentration camps seems to me to miss the point.
Surely the emphasis should be on ensuring that such places are never established again. - Yours, etc,
DONAL MOORE,
Ferrybank,
Waterford.