MILNER, ALFRED

Alfred Milner [subsequently First Viscount] (March 23, 1854-May 13, 1925), was one of the leading British colonial statesmen and administrators and architect of a unified South Africa under the British flag.

PHOTO CAPTION: Alfred Milner. SOURCE: EA Library.

He was born in Giessen, Germany, the son of a British university lecturer, and was educated first in Germany, and then in England, at London University and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he enjoyed great success and was awarded a New College Fellowship in 1876. Here he formed a close friendship with Arnold Toynbee, and became associated with Toynbee’s social work among the poor. In 1881 Milner was called to the bar at the Inner Temple.

He subsequently joined the staff of the Liberal Pall Mall Gazette. Making his way among the Liberals, he was asked to serve as principal private secretary to Lord Goschen, a Liberal Unionist, and at the time, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Through Goschen’s influence, Milner was appointed the first director-general of accounts then undersecretary of finance in Egypt (1889), where he enacted major financial reforms. In 1892, he secured the chairmanship of the British Board of Inland Revenue.

In 1897, Milner stepped into the center of imperial politics upon his selection by Joseph Chamberlain, the British Colonial Secretary, as High Commissioner of South Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony. South Africa during this period, was torn by a bitter struggle between the British imperial authorities on the one hand and the Transvaal on the other.

The British demanded that the Transvaal should fully enfranchise the mainly British-descended uitlanders (foreign residents), who made up the bulk of Johannesburg’s white population and had created the Transvaal’s gold-mining industry. The Afrikaners, led by President Paul Kruger, resisted the British demands as an encroachment on their sovereignty, and as an attempt to increase the mining magnates’ power.

Milner, convinced that there was no way out except “reform in the Transvaal or war,” took a hard line, both against the Transvaalers and against those British soldiers and administrators who, like Sir William Butler, the British commander-in-chief in South Africa, advocated a policy of conciliation. Milner obtained Butler’s recall in August 1899. The Transvaal subsequently responded to British pressure with an ultimatum, and on October 11, 1899, war began.

After bitter fighting, British arms prevailed, and in February 1901, although hostilities were still in progress, Milner assumed the administration of the two occupied Afrikaner Republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Milner strove to combine imperial conquest with social reform and economic development that would speed the return of stability and promote “Anglicisation” of the country. For this purpose, he was able to gather around him a group of able young men (known as the “kindergarten”), largely drawn from Oxford, and also from employees of the mining companies.

On May 31, 1902, British and Afrikaners at last signed a peace treaty, and Milner undertook the huge task of reconstructing a war-torn land. Among Milner’s projects in the first post-war years, were the extension of the railways, the establishment of technical colleges in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, and the foundation of centralised water services on the Rand and a Forestry Department to promote agricultural development. Milner also established a South African Native Commission, envisioning the need for a generalised government race policy in the event of the unification of the colonies.

Facing what they regarded as a perennial shortage of African labour for the mines, the mine owners called for the importation of Chinese workers. Milner reluctantly agreed with their demand, one that aroused a public outery both in Great Britain and among white workers in South Africa. The resultant clamour contributed to the election in Great Britain of a Liberal Government (1905). In 1906, Milner returned to Great Britain, having played a major part in restoring South Africa’s economic and financial stability, yet having proved unable, he was certain, to save South Africa from the ultimate Afrikaner government, so losing it for the Empire.

Thereafter, Milner occupied himself with his business interests in the City of London, and with the cause of imperial reform and colonial preference. Milner hoped to unify the empire through preferential tariffs that would modify Britain’s existing free trade regime. He also took a hard line against Lloyd George’s policy of reforming the House of Lords and, in 1911, was among the leading “Diehards” who called for resistance to the end.

When Lloyd George formed his first war cabinet in 1915, he nevertheless turned to Milner, the only highly-placed British administrator with experience in civil administration at a time of war. From this time to the end of World War I, relations between Milner and Lloyd George remained close.

Milner served first as chairman of the committee on agriculture (1915), and subsequently, (1916-1918), as minister without portfolio in Lloyd George’s war cabinet. Between 1919 and 1921, Milner served as colonial secretary. In this capacity, he acted as a signatory to the Treaty of Versailles, dealt with a variety of questions arising from the disposal of Germany’s colonies, and played a major part in granting Egypt a modified form of independence (achieved in 1922). Milner resigned in February 1921. He died on May 13, 1925.

Milner was the quintessential imperialist, believing strongly that the fortune of the world was to be found in federations of states such as that he worked to mold for Britain. His was a highly distinguished career at the height of empire, and he is remembered as a brilliant administrator.

L.H. GANN