colonels cum MPs, Herbert was dismissed in 1894. In 1896, the new Liberal Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier appointed Sir Frederick Borden as Defence minister, who stayed on until the Liberals lost the 1911 election. Borden was a reformer, who appointed Colonel Edward Hutton of the British Army as the militia commander. During this period, the Permanent Force acquired an engineer corps, medical corps, transport corps, signalling corps, intelligence corps and an ordnance corps. In 1899, when war threatened between the Transvaal and Britain, many in English-Canada expected Canada to fight alongside the "mother country" while in French-Canada were equally opposed. Colonel Sam Hughes, a millionaire Conservative MP and militia officer offered at his own expense to raise a regiment to fight in South Africa, an offer that appalled Hutton, who realized Hughes's proposal offered Laurier an excuse not to send a Canadian force to South Africa and attempted to silence Hughes, who would not be silenced. Within the cabinet Richard Scott and Israel Tarte were opposed to Canada fighting in South Africa while Henri Bourassa, a Liberal back-bencher had emerged as the leading voice in the House of Commons opposed to an expedition to South Africa. On 3 October, Laurier received a Colonial Office circular thanking his government for its "offer" of 250 men to South Africa, an offer that he not made while at the same time the October 1899 edition of Canadian Military Gazette published the details of a plan to mobilize 1,200 men for South Africa. Caught on the spot, Laurier received a note on 9 October from the editor of the Liberal Toronto Globe saying he "must either send troops or get out of office" as the majority of voters in Ontario wanted Canada to fight in South Africa. Caught between the conflicting pressures in English-Canada and French-Canada, Laurier announced on 14 October that Canada would raise and equip an all-volunteer force to South Africa that once it arrived would operate under British command and be paid for by Britain. Laurier did not summon Parliament for a vote as he knew that the Liberal caucus would split between the English-Canadian MPs and French-Canadian MPs, and instead his decision was announced as an order-in-council. On 30 October, a hastily raised force of 1, 061 volunteers left Quebec City abroad the SS Sardinian (called "the Sardine" by its passengers for cramped conditions) for Cape Town under the