DIAMONDS,GOLD.AND BRITISHIMPERIALISM
of latitude. Chamberlain was a new phenomenon in British politics-self-
confident, aggressive, and an avowed imperialist.t?
Chamberlain proceeded to facilitate a plot that Rhodes was hatching to
force the Transvaal into the British Empire. In Johannesburg,
a reform
committee was to mobilize the Uitlanders, capture Johannesburg,
and
proclaim a provisional government. Leander Starr Jameson, a Scottish
medical doctor who had been a close associate of Rhodes since he had
migrated
to Southern
Africa in 1878,
would
assist them from Be-
chuanaland with British South Africa Company police. The high commis-
sioner would then go to Pretoria to arbitrate, and the Transvaal would
become a British colony. The reality was far different. The Johannesburg
conspirators
bickered among themselves and did not command a mass
following. Learning of this, Rhodes tried to stop Jameson, but Jameson
ignored his order and invaded the republic with a motley force of five
hundred company police. The reform committee then belatedly tried to
assume control of Johannesburg
but also entered into negotiations with
Kruger. On January
2, 1896, Jameson surrendered to Transvaal comman-
dos twenty-five miles short of Johannesburg
and the reform committee
capitulated.