5 May 1897
The British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, appointed Sir Alfred Milner as Governor of the Cape Colony in 1897. Milner arrived in Cape Town on 5 May 1897 to assume his new position. Soon after taking up the position, he advocated a sterner policy with regard to the Transvaal Republic than that suggested by Chamberlain and Salisbury. He continued to emphasise the grievances of the Uitlanders with the intention to 'work up a crisis'. This hard-line attitude earned him the reputation of being a convinced imperialist.
References
Potgieter, D.J. et al. (eds)(1970). Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Cape Town: NASOU, v. 7, p. 418.