Schreiner, William Philip (1857–1918)

South African politician and barrister. In 1893 he joined Cecil Rhodes's ministry as attorney-general, and in 1898 he was nominal head of a ministry which was under the virtual control of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr. Immediately preceding the outbreak of the South African War his ambiguous utterances on the appropriate attitude that should be adopted by the Cape government necessarily led Paul Kruger to believe that the Cape government would remain neutral in the event of hostilities with Great Britain. He fought hard for the nonracial franchise and, prior to the passing of the South Africa Act in 1909, led a multiracial delegation to London, England, to plead this cause. He dropped out of politics for some years, but in 1914 was high commissioner for the Union in London. Schreiner was born in Herschel district, Cape Province, South Africa.