, Lord Milner should be appointed as their Governor,
with a Lieutenant-Governor for the Orange River Colony, and should
cease to be the Governor of the Cape Colony. This new arrangement,
which, as Mr. Chamberlain pointed out, involved the severance of the
High Commissionership from the Governorship of the Cape Colony to
which it had been attached for so long a period,[236] did not take
effect, however, until the end of February, 1901, when Lord Milner
finally left the Cape Colony for the Transvaal.

[Footnote 236: Cd. 547.]

Lord Roberts relinquished the command of the British forces in South
Africa on November 29th, 1900. The Home Government at this time
attached great importance to the issue of a proclamation setting out
clearly the generous terms upon which the Boers would be received into
the empire; and, in connection with this question, Lord Milner, during
his recent visit to Pretoria, had discussed with Lord Kitchener the
methods by which the influence of the surrendered Boers and the more
moderate Afrikanders, who were in favour of submission, could be
brought to bear upon the general mass of the fighting burghers. Lord
Milner, however, upon his return to the Cape Colony, expressed the
opinion that the issue of a proclamation in the then existing
circumstances would be a mistake, since it would only be regarded as a
sign of weakness. And in support of this opinion he states, in a
telegram of December 11th, that the cabled summary of Mr.
Chamberlain's

"recent speech in the House of Commons, containing virtually the
principal points in the proposed proclamation, has been instantly
seized upon by the Bond leaders [in the Cape Colony] and is
represented by them as a sign that Her Majesty's Government is
wavering in its policy, and that the reaction in British public
opinion, which they have always relied on, is setting in."[237]

[Footnote 237: Cd. 547.]

Both Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener confirmed this judgment at the
time; and on January 28th, 1901--when de Wet was on the point of
breaking through the British troops into the Cape Colony--the latter
telegraphed to Lord Milner:

"When the Boers are inclined to peace, they will want, I think,
to discuss various questions, and when that time comes a
proclamation which would meet as far as possible the points
raised would, no doubt, be very valuable.... But just now I do
not think they