During Black Week, the British War Office assumed the leading role while the Colonial Secretary stepped back in the cabinet and the Boer War raged on. The reverses and humiliations for the Army hit the London government hard. Chamberlains's record Chapter LXX, Black Week. pp.518-536. Chamberlain was eclipsed in Cabinet during December 1899. Ironically Chamberlain had initially been offered the War Office by Lord Salisbury when the government was formed in 1895; had he accepted he would have been at the War Office dealing with the difficulties in the Cape.
