After the Boers switched to guerrilla warfare in 1900 and British forces adopted scorched earth policies, the intensity of rhetoric opposing the war escalated.
A common theme among these groups was the argument that it was a capitalistic desire to gain access to the gold and diamond deposits in the Boer republics that motivated the Unionist government to declare war.
The British press was overwhelmingly in support of the Unionist government's decision to go to war, with only the Manchester Guardian and the Westminster Gazette outspoken in their opposition.
However, public waned as it became apparent that the war would not be easy and moral unease developed following reports about scorched earth policies adopted by British forces, which included the internment of Boer non-combatants in concentration camps.
Public and political opposition was expressed by repeated attacks on the British government's policies in South Africa by Liberal MP David Lloyd George.
[4] Lloyd George made his name in opposition, as he alleged that Joseph Chamberlain, his brother, and his son had large personal financial investments in a number of munitions firms that were making heavy profits in the war.
The allegations of corruption and greed did not carry public opinion, so the anti-war elements switched to an emphasis on humanitarianism, with heart-rending depictions of the suffering of Boer civilians interned in the camps.
[5] Emily Hobhouse in June 1901 published a fifteen-page pamphlet reporting on the horrific state of the camps, and Lloyd George openly accused the government of "a policy of extermination" directed against the Boer population.
[11] Donal Lowry points out that support for the Boers during the war was strongest among anti-imperialists, including French-Canadian separatists in Quebec and Marxist intellectuals such as György Lukács and Karl Kautsky.
Many French-Canadians were hostile to the British Empire, and by 1915, were largely refusing to volunteer for military service in the Canadian Armed Forces during First World War.
In the following trial the Belgian jury found Sipido not guilty, despite the facts of the case being clear,[17] which the Leader of the British House of Commons called "a grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice".
There was much public outrage in the UK and official Australian government opposition against the use of cheap Chinese labour, known as coolies, after the war by the governor of the new crown colonies, Lord Milner.