decline of British power and the global significance of the Transvaal gold-
mining industry. From his perspective, it was his duty to check the cen-
trifugal forces in South Africa, "the weakest link in the imperial chain."42
Milner made little attempt to comprehend the interests and motivations
either of the members of the governments of the Cape Colony and the
Orange Free State or of the Afrikaner reformers in the Transvaal, who were
fundamentally
well disposed toward Britain and extremely eager to pre-
serve the peace.t-' Instead, he encouraged the jingoistic elements on the
Witwatersrand to agitate for radical reform. They responded by producing
a petition with over 21,000
signatures, calling for British intervention, and
when the Transvaal government tried to settle the Uitlander problem by
direct negotiations with leaders of the mining industry, they were sabo-
taged by Milner's confidant, Percy Fitzpatrick, the head of intelligence for
Wernher, Beit, the largest gold-mining company. In May 1899, Milner sent
Chamberlain a telegram declaring that "the case for intervention is over-
whelming," since "thousands of British subjects [were being] kept perrna-
nently in the position of helots."44
The Cape colonial government tried desperately to ward off a conflict.