August 4th),
possesses an independent interest, as revealing the degree in which
the friends of the Boers in England had identified themselves with the
policy of the Afrikander party in the Cape Colony.

[Footnote 120: C. 9,518.]

[Footnote 121: See p. 218 for this letter.]

[Footnote 122: Cd. 547.]

[Footnote 123: _Ibid._]

"The essence of friendly advice," said Mr. White,[124] "is:
Accept the proposal in principle, point out how difficult it will
be to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion as to statistics, etc.,
and how undesirable it would be to have a miscarriage of the
Commission. In other words: Gain as much time as you can, and
give the public time here to get out of the dangerous frame of
mind which Chamberlain's speeches have created.... Labouchere
said to me this morning: 'Don't, for goodness' sake, let Mr.
Krueger make his first mistake by refusing this; a little skilful
management, and he will give Master Joe another fall.' He further
said: 'You are such past-masters of the art of gaining time; here
is an opportunity; you surely haven't let your right hands lose
their cunning, and you ought to spin out the negotiations for
quite two or three months.'"

[Footnote 124: Cd. 369.]

A week later (August 11th), President Krueger received a telegram[125]
in which fifty Afrikander members of the Cape Parliament advanced the
same argument. The acceptance of the Joint Commission, they pointed
out, would provide a way out of a crisis "which might prove fatal to
the best interests, not only of our Transvaal and Free State brethren,
but also of the Afrikander party." They, therefore, begged his Honour
to "lay their words privately" before the Executive and the Volksraad.

[Footnote 125: Secured by the Intelligence Department.]

[Sidenote: Krueger resolved on war.]

But President Krueger, like Lord Milner, had his eyes fixed upon the
object. He looked beyond the Afrikander leaders to the rank and file
of the Dutch population in the British colonies, with whom he had been
in direct communication through his agents for many months past.[126]
He knew that any such inquiry as Mr. Chamberlain proposed would
expose the flagrant insincerity of the Franchise Bill. On August 2nd
he had telegraphed to President Steyn that compliance with the Joint
Commission was "tantamount to the destruction of the