Letter from Joseph Chamberlain [Secretary of State for the Colonies], (Highbury, Moor Green, Birmingham), to WSC, urging him not to publicly criticise the Government and military authorities over the management of the war in South Africa. Chamberlain states that there should be a practical division of authority between civilians, soldiers and heads of individual departments, but adds that he agreed with much of what WSC said, and was working in the same direction. He comments that even if Britain had generals like Marlborough and Wellington, he did not think that they could do much better than the present leadership in such a war, remarking on attempts to counter small detachments of Boer troops, and a larger force led by Louis Botha. Chamberlain speculates on reverting to a Roman-style dictatorship, warning Churchill that if the Government made such changes as he was suggesting without proper consultation, it would "bring about wholesale resignations and a state of anarchy", and adds that over-hurry was as bad as over-caution. Finally he comments on the discontent of South African loyalists, saying that they were never satisfied and should be willing to make the same sacrifices as the mother-country, "in purse as well as in person".