l with the details of the scheme, which it is
not possible to criticise effectively" in London.

In a telegram of June 21st we get the announcement of the formal
initiation of Crown Colony government:

"I have this day read and published the Letters Patent," Lord
Milner says, "constituting the Government of the Transvaal, and
my Commission; and I have taken the prescribed oath."

And on July 3rd he suggests that an announcement should be made at
once of the intention of the Home Government to enlarge the
Legislative Councils of both colonies by the admission of a
non-official element:

[Sidenote: Colonists and the settlement.]

"I felt at one time that in the case of the Transvaal this would
be unworkable," he adds, "but my present opinion is strongly to
the effect that we should seize the opportunity of the present
improved feeling between the Dutch and British in the new
colonies to commence co-operation between them in the conduct of
public business."

To this proposal Mr. Chamberlain gives his approval in a brief
telegram of July 7th.[321]

[Footnote 321: Cd. 1,163.]

Bare and jejune as are these telegrams, they tell us something of the
spirit of relentless vigour by which Lord Milner drove the cumbrous
wheels of Downing Street into quicker revolutions at the shifting of
the scenes from war to peace. Within six weeks of the surrender of
Vereeniging he was fully engaged in what he afterwards called "the
tremendous effort, wise or unwise in various particulars, made after
the war, not only to repair its ravages, but also to re-start the new
colonies on a far higher plane of civilisation than they had ever
previously attained."[322] The story of this "tremendous effort," with
its economic problems and its political agitations, must be reserved
for a separate volume. It only remains, therefore, to relate the part
which Lord Milner played in determining the conditions under which the
republican Dutch were incorporated into the system of British South
Africa.

[Footnote 322: At Johannesburg, March 31st, 1905. From _The
Star_ report.]

Before we approach the actual circumstances which accompanied the
surrender of the Boer forces in the field, it is necessary to recall
the exchange of views on the subject of the settlement of the new
colonies which took place between the Imperial authorities and the
Governments of the Cape and Natal in the