The establishment of the protectorate (Part 12) � �The lion and the crocodile�

In each case calmer heads both on the ground and in London had thwarted his efforts to create a conflict in Bechuanaland similar to what his Rhodes-ian colleagues achieved against the Amandebele in Zimbabwe.

If with historical hindsight Shippard’s actions and the motives behind them seem clear enough, the at times vacillating role of his immediate superior, Her Majesty’s High Commissioner for South Africa Sir Henry Loch, is a bit more ambiguous.