Bloemfontein Conference
The main issue dealt with the status of British migrant workers called "Uitlanders", who mined the gold fields in Transvaal.
[1] At this time, Milner composed a diatribe called the "Helot's Dispatch", which lambasted the Transvaal as a force that "menaces the peace and prosperity of the world".
[3] After the Conference broke up, Milner received a telegram from Chamberlain counseling patience and compromise with the Boers, who were used to "a good deal of haggling".
With help from this work, the timeline below addresses Milner's other actions for the year prior to the outbreak of hostilities in the Second Boer War.
This timeline is in bold, dates prefaced with a star are difficult to verify, or not present, and where a cited source cannot be found, it is shown for future verification.
30-31) Alfred contemplated making the trip at the beginning of August, but political events in SA delayed him.
31) Alfred puts the case for "working up to a crisis" to his boss, given Kruger's overwhelming election victory, his autocratic and reactionary style, his continuing to arm, and his race-oligarchy government.
96, 97) Milner to Chamberlain: Uitlander workers were ordered to appear at a stadium and were attacked by Transvaal public works employees, in an orchestrated riot.
6 June 99: From Chamberlain: "The new situation which the failure of the Conference has created will be carefully considered by HMG, as soon as they receive your full despatches.
[43] * 24 June: LM rebukes Butler (WTS, pg 52) On the 24th, Lord Milner gives a speech in Cape Town.
This franchise law is passed in the Transvaal on 20 July, but doesn't take effect until five years time, in 1904.
91) * 24/25 Aug: Chamberlain decides war is inevitable and begins to take the lead in bringing it in.. On 24 August, Smuts's proposals were flatly refused by President Kruger.
[53] 28 Aug: Chamberlain asks for a new peace conference in Cape Town based on Smut's proposals, to avoid the suzerainty matter, and arbitration that excludes foreigners.
* 8 Sep: Chamberlain informs Boers that Britain cannot now go back to his own proposals which 19 Aug 'were a substitute' WTS p78 Demands withdrawal of conditions.
On 8 Sep, Chamberlain makes a final appeal to the Boers, asking for a deal based on Smuts's terms.
[56] * 16 Sep: Generals White and Cols Hamilton and Rawlinson sail for Durban via CT to take command of the larger force in Natal.
Their breakdown caused General Kitchener to turn to draconian methods to fight the Boer guerrilla war.
This was a surprise to General Herbert Kitchener, who resorted to depriving the enemy of sustenance by arresting farmers and civilians in the countryside and placing them in Concentration Camps.
