| Description | Letter written from 40 Prince's Gardens [London] dated 13 January. Chamberlain thanks Fowler [1830-1911; created Viscount 1908; MP Wolverhampton, 1880-1908] for his kind note, commenting on his ability to 'distinguish between political differences and personal animosity'. He expresses his pleasure at receiving praise from 'unexpected quarters' seeing it as a good sign of the inherent patriotism amongst English politicians in times of crisis. [As Colonial Secretary, Chamberlain was involved in two major 'crises' in early 1896: the Venezuela-British Guiana border dispute and the Jameson Raid that had taken place just a few days earlier with Sir Leander Starr Jameson (1853-1917, Administrator of Southern Rhodesia, 1891-1895; Baronet 1911) leading the ill-fated raid into the Transvaal, 29 December 1895]. |