The Transvaal labour question threatens to become acutely political. Last
week we noted the movement in favour of a Referendum. Now the Labour Importation Association, the rival of the African Labour League, has waited on Sir Arthur Lawley to protest against the adoption of such a course as involving unnecessary delay and amounting to an impeach- ment of the Legislative Council. The deputation pointed out that of thirty-one public meetings held in the Transvaal since July 1st, twenty-three had declared in favour of the importa- tion of labour. In reply, Sir Arthur Lawley dwelt chiefly On the practical difficulties in the way of applying the principle of the Referendum. The Government, he assured the deputa- tion, was fully alive to the importance of settling the question as soon as possible; but as Sir George Farrar's Motion was down for Thursday, no time was being lost. The Times correspondent in Johannesburg, commenting on the situation in Monday's issue, argues strongly against the Referendum proposal on the ground that the Boers would hold the balance, and that their casting vote would go to the highest bidder. He adds that "some of our politicians [in the Transvaal] in their anxiety to procure Chinese labour would think nothing of bartering away essentials in order to conciliate the Boer element The importation of Chinese labour must be carried through on its own merits." It is, he concludes, not a political but an economic question. But what is to be said when those who are in the greatest hurry to settle it aro the readiest to use political leverage?
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