THE LIBERAL PARTY AND THE JAMESON RAID

xii + 336pp., ownership signature on f.f.e.p., personal inscription on title page, hardback, d.w. spine faded & stained, foxing on all edges, London, 1968 

"Sir William Harcourt described the Jameson Raid as a 'disaster' and a 'disgrace', and together with most of his Liberal colleagues he insisted on an inquiry into its origin. The South Africa Committee of 1897 caused something of a scandal, largely because it failed to investigate properly the part played by officials and by the responsible minister, Joseph Chamberlain. Why did the Liberals not rip the subject open, a line of action which now appears so clearly to have been in their interest? This work attempts to answer that question by using the private papers of front benchers, Liberal and Unionist; it defines the problems the Liberal leaders felt they had to solve; and it describes the conflict between personal and political motives that led to an inquiry which appears so bogus to contemporaries."  Taken from the book.