ASIATIC LABOUR IN THE TRANSVAAL.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIE,—From the cabled reports it appears that a public meeting, called at Johannesburg on Monday to protest against the rushing through of Chinese legislation, was broken up by an organised opposition brought in by special
trains from the East and West Rand.
Mr. Quinn and the organisers of the meeting, who could not obtain a hearing, are,to be heartily congratulated on the excellent omen attending the opening of their campaign. Every one who has followed South African affairs will remember how the successful agitation against the Kriiger regime was begun in January of 1899 by a similarly abortive meeting, when the speakers were denied a hearing, and the meeting was broken up by an organised opposition acting for the Boer officials.
Then, as now, all who attended the meeting to break it up knew they had solid and powerful backers, while those in sympathy with the objects of the meeting knew that by showing that sympathy they were placing themselves in antagonism to people who could make it very unpleasant to them in the place. Let us hope that as then the result was to open the eyes of people here to the tremendous odds against those who disliked Kriigerism getting a hearing, so now this meeting will kls the public here to inquire very closely why those who differ from what may be called the big houses and Stock Exchange policy should not be allowed to give utterance in public meetings to their reasons for the faith that is in them.
It is a very well known fact that, even in the unlikely event of the introduction of Chinese being sanctioned, it is not going to be a question of sending a cable and having fifty thousand Chinamen sent at once by parcel post. A steady progression is taking place without Chinese labour in the number of stamps dropping. Surely it is ridiculous to say that the delay of a month or three months in rushing through this Chinese legis- lation would spell disaster.—nearly as ridiculous as for the Stock Exchange to cite Monday's meeting at Johannesburg as the opinion of the whole Colony.
May I, Sir, offer a few more remarks on this matter ? No one has less sympathy than myself with the anti-capitalist rant which depicts the Rand mine-owners as ghouls, assembling in secret conclave and plotting schemes of horrid greed against the working and other population of the country. Many of them one knows to be as patriotic men as are to be found in the Empire,— as witness Sir G. Farrar's war services, and the case of Sir P. FitzPatrick and others. This does not make it any the less necessary to recognise facts, and some very important facts are, in my poor judgment, these.
The heads of the financial houses in Johannesburg are in . a fiduciary capacity to principals and stockholders residing in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany ; and the more con- scientious they are in that capacity the less can they let any other consideration than that of the immediate pecuniary interests of those they represent affect them. The wishes and policy of these financial houses are bound to have their natural weight with those in executive command of the mines,—it would be ridiculous to contend the contrary. More particularly free from any considerations concerned with the future welfare of the country is the -policy of the financial houses likely to be when it is reflected that many of the leading houses and most of the men holding the highest engineering positions are not even English.
The result is that Englishmen and Colonists in leading positions in the mines, and holding views contrary to those of the financial houses, can only take part in public discussion at peril of their position and livelihood (a heavy handicap, as en- cumbrances such as wives and families are not unknown), and the majority of the working men have in consequence only one side put before them. This is a regrettable, but in a community such as Johannesburg an almost inevitable, state of things, and while it is so the mining magnates must not be surprised if in such a controversy as the present the effect of their always giving the benefit of the doubt to the interpretation of facts which suits their policy is to make people say things which in their turn are interpreted as imputations of male fides. What would be said of Mr. Chamberlain and his supporters in this country to-day if the whole of his pecuniary interests were bound up with the wheat-growing area of Canada; or of the leaders of the Opposition if theirs lay in the prosperity of German manu- facturing firms ?
It is most important that this preponderating influence of out- side financiers should be borne in mind in this labour controversy, because it makes it the more imperative that this country should be most careful in exercising its function as trustee both for those who look on the Transvaal as their home and of the tens of thousands of working men who will in the future in the ordinary course of events maim their livelihoods and homes there ; and the Imperial Government must see to it that no financial pressure of the moment shall be made the pretext for legislation which will have the effect of largely barring out such working men. It is also supremely important that (if Chinese should be allowed) when i,he agitation for the expulsion of the Chinamen comes no party disloyal to Great Britain shall be able to say that the Chinese were forced on the country by the Imperial Government. The only way to guard against this is by a well-secured ballot of the whole country.
May I take this opportunity (to descend to details) of denying the accuracy of a report which I see was cabled home, that on the Village Main Reef Mine, with which I was recently connected, the result of an extended use of white labour had been to show that the adoption of such a system meant raising the cost 5s. 8d. per ton? So long as two and two make four I defy any one to prove any such thing and I absolutely adhere to the figures and opinions I gave on this subject before the Labour Commission.
Junior Athenwum Club, 116 Piccadilly, W.
[We are delighted to print Mr. Creswell's letter. We have dealt with it in our notes, but must say here that we are specially pleased to see that he handles the matter from the Imperial point of view. As to whether the meeting was or was not packed by the advocates of Chinese in- dentured labour we have no knowledge, and must not, therefore, be held to endorse Mr. Creswell's suggestion. We are glad to note his repudiation of the " anti-capitalist rant," with which repudiation we sympathise. Men like Sir George- Farrar and Sir P. FitzPatrick are entitled to our fullest respect, even though we do not agree with them. —ED. Spectator.]
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