our contemplation that Mr. Krueger would declare war?"
he replied:

[Sidenote: General Butler's view.]

"My view was this, that as long as I held the neck of the bottle,
so to speak, there would be no war ... but to my mind the minute
there was the least indication of the Imperial Government coming
in, in front of, or behind, that party [_i.e._ "the party of the
Raid, the South African League"], there would be a serious state
of things. Until then there was, to my mind, no probability--no
possibility--of an invasion. That was the state of my mind at the
time ... [and] I wished to point it out before final decisions
were arrived at."

And in a note which he desired to be appended to his evidence before
the War Commission, General Butler wrote with reference to his failure
to endorse Lord Milner's request for immediate reinforcements, that in
his opinion "such a demand at such a time would be to force the hands
of the Government, play into the hands of the 'Third Party,' and
render [himself] liable to the accusation in the future that [he] had
by this premature action produced or hastened hostilities."[81]

[Footnote 81: All of these extracts will be found in Cd.
1,791.]

Here was an impasse from which obviously there was but one method of
extrication. Either the High Commissioner or his military adviser must
be recalled. That the Imperial Government did not recall General
Butler then and there cannot be attributed to any ignorance on their
part of Lord Milner's extreme anxiety for adequate military
preparations. It arose, no doubt, from the circumstance that General
Butler was known to be favourably inclined to the Boer cause, and
that, therefore, his removal at this juncture would have been
represented by the friends of the Boers in England, and by the
official leader of the Opposition, as evidence of Mr. Chamberlain's
alleged determination to force a war upon the Transvaal. General
Butler was allowed, in these circumstances, to remain at the Cape
until the latter part of August, when fresh employment was found for
him, and Lieutenant-General Forestier-Walker was appointed to the Cape
command. How General Butler was able to reconcile the opinions which
he had expressed to the War Office with the discharge of his duties as
military adviser to Lord Milner during these two critical months is a
matter which need not be discussed. The decision to retain him