o meet the High Commissioner at
Bloemfontein.

[Sidenote: Hofmeyr's _tour de force_.]

The incidents which led to the accomplishment of Hofmeyr's _tour de
force_ are singularly instructive. Lord Milner's despatch was
telegraphed from Capetown about midday on May 4th. It was soon
apparent that there was a leakage, legitimate or illegitimate, from
the Colonial Office. On Saturday, the 6th, Mr. Schreiner received
warning telegrams from trusted sources in London, including "Hofmeyr's
best friends"; and on this day he wrote a letter to President Steyn
containing a "proposition" of so confidential a character that it
could not be telegraphed in spite of the urgent need of haste.[62] On
Monday, the 8th, Mr. Schreiner received more warning telegrams, and
Dr. Te Water, in writing to President Steyn, expressed his hope that
the proposition, made by Schreiner in his letter of Saturday, might by
this time "have been accepted, or that something had been done which
would achieve the same purpose."[63] On the same day the Cape papers
published an alarming telegram reproducing from _The Daily
Chronicle_[64] a statement that the South African situation was very
serious, and that the British Government was prepared to "take some
risk of war." On Tuesday, the 9th, Lord Milner was present at a dinner
given by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly; and Mr. Hofmeyr, who
was among the guests, in the course of a long conversation with him
after dinner, broached the idea of his meeting President Krueger at
Bloemfontein. On Wednesday, the 10th, Lord Milner sent for Mr. Hofmeyr
and discussed the subject more at length; and, a little later, when he
had gone to the Governor's Office, Mr. Schreiner came in with a
telegram from President Steyn, in which the Cape Prime Minister was
requested to ascertain formally whether the High Commissioner would be
willing to accept an invitation to meet President Krueger. This
telegram Lord Milner forwarded to Mr. Chamberlain, adding that the
Cape Cabinet was "strongly" in favour of acceptance, and that
Schreiner himself had declared that the invitation was the result of
the "influence which he (Schreiner) had been using with the Transvaal
Government ever since I had warned him of the gravity of the
situation."[65] Mr. Chamberlain's reply (May 12th), authorised Lord
Milner to accept President Steyn's invitation, and in doing so, to
state that a despatch was already on its way which contained a similar
proposa