ll address you
immediately. I earnestly hope that there may be no delay in
acceding to this request. The work to be got through in the
immediate future is so enormous that, unless we can get the
fundamental questions of finance settled promptly, a breakdown
is inevitable. It would be a great relief to my mind to feel that
services already started and working well were provided for at
least for some months ahead, before I plunge into the new and
heavy job of restoring the Boer population, which will require
all my attention in the immediate future."[320]

[Footnote 320: Cd. 1,163.]

Mr. Chamberlain's reply comes on June 18th:

"You may incur expenditure up to L500,000 more for relief and
re-settlement, pending the issue of the loan."

On June 10th Lord Milner telegraphs an outline scheme for repatriating
the Boers. "As time presses," he concludes, "I am going ahead on these
lines; but I am anxious to know that they have your general approval."
The reply, dated June 18th, is: "The proposals are approved generally.
Send by post a report on the details of the arrangement and the
persons appointed." At the same time Lord Milner has been pressing for
a decision on the question of land settlement. He has sent a despatch
on May 9th containing full particulars of the terms upon which it is
proposed to offer and to suitable applicants; and he now telegraphs,
on June 20th:

[Sidenote: "It is vital to make a start".]

"If you could agree generally to the terms in my despatch, I
would immediately deal with some of the most pressing cases on
those lines. The terms may be improved upon later; meanwhile it
is vital to make a start."

There is land available, and there are men available--over-sea
colonists, and yeomen with a knowledge of agriculture, who have fought
in the war, and have, therefore, a first claim to be considered. But
these desirable settlers cannot afford to wait in a country like South
Africa, where the cost of living is abnormally high, without a
definite prospect of employment.

"Unless something is done at once," he says, "there will be
bitter complaint. [The Transvaal] Government is already being
severely, though unjustly, criticised for the delay."

This is answered by Mr. Chamberlain's telegram of July 7th, in which
he "concurs generally" in Lord Milner's proposals, and leaves him
"full discretion to dea