"Lord Milner - Boer War quote " Topic

Can anyone help confirm the following quote, attributed to Lord Milner, and apparently contained in a letter to Lord Roberts in June 1900:

'I precipitated the crisis, which was inevitable, before it was too late … It was not very agreeable, and in many eyes, not very creditable piece of business'

I have seen this in various books, but was surprised to not be able to find it in the Milner Papers… which has made me wonder if it is a genuine quote. It would seem a very strange thing to leave out.

Can anyone assist with an actual source for this, rather than just saying 'yes – it is in Pakenham's book etc'?

I am away from my books, so cannot check what source Pakenham quotes, for example. Maybe the answer is there.

Packingham's 'The Boer War' was bolstered by the opening up of files that were locked up for 100 yrs. That may be the source. (I hope I got the author's name right.)
In any case, one of the lynch-pins of the narrative was Milner's culpability in helping start the war. Since I haven't read the book in decades, I can stand corrected with a straight face. Hope this helps.

A friend sent me a scan of the page and the references, but they are somewhat vague and opaque. Pakenham uses snippets of phrases which he links together with his own words – the version which my friend sent me (at any rate) does not contain the full quote.

I am a little hesitant about it because Milner has previously been badly misquoted by Pakenham (and others) in order to support their cases.

The letters in the Milner Papers certainly leave one with a very different impression than that which Pakenham would have one believe.