iance of the Transvaal oligarchy on the Orange Free State, now
bound to them by a formal alliance, and on the party of the Bond now
in power at the Cape, might tempt them to resist even the most
moderate demands. But Milner no doubt hoped that, if the British
Government grasped the nettle firmly, and, while treating the
Transvaal with all possible diplomatic courtesy, yet left no doubt
whatever of its inflexible resolution, war might still be avoided. And
in any case he felt that there was no option for the British
Government but to take up the case of the Transvaal British, if a
shred of respect for the power and name of Britain was to be preserved
in South Africa. To embark on such a policy involved two dangers: the
danger of war, and what in Milner's eyes was perhaps even greater,
the danger that, by advancing just claims and then, letting ourselves
be "bluffed" out of them, we might yet further lessen, and indeed
totally destroy, what hold we still possessed upon the affection of
the South African British or on the respect either of British or
Dutch. In the light of past experience the second danger may well have
seemed to him the greater of the two. But, with perils on both hands,
he still felt that there was nothing for it but to go forward, to make
one supreme effort to save a situation which was rapidly becoming a
hopeless one. To have remained quiescent, with the forces which were
gradually edging us out of the Sub-Continent growing on every side,
could only have ended in the overthrow, or at best, the euthanasia of
British dominion in South Africa.

[Sidenote: His verdict.]

It was in the course of this visit that Lord Milner realised the
magnitude of the task that lay before him. To save England in spite of
herself; to keep South Africa a part of the Empire in spite of
ignorance at home, in the teeth of an armed Republic and an Afrikander
ministry, required not merely an iron will and mastership in
statecraft, but a reasoned and unfaltering belief in the justice of
the British cause. "Certainly I engaged in that struggle with all my
might," he said long afterwards in his farewell speech at
Johannesburg, "because I was, from head to foot, one mass of glowing
conviction of the rightness of our cause."

CHAPTER IV

UNDER WHICH FLAG?

Upon his return Lord Milner found that the storm clouds had gathered
in the Transvaal. In a despatch of January 13th, 1899, Mr. Chamberlain
had informed the Pretoria