19 DECEMBER 1903, Page 2

We wish Mr. Creswell, therefore, all success in his courageous

effort to open the mines to white labour. Our most reluctant and limited acquiescence in the resort to Chinese labour, even as a temporary experiment, was given under a misappre- hension of the situation. In his demand that nothing shall be done without a Referendum on the question we entirely concur. We dislike, as a rule, the invoking of Parliamentary interference in Colonial affairs ; but Parlia- ment should, we think, insist that, in view of public opinion in the Transvaal, so momentous a step as the intro- duction of Chinese indentured labour should not be taken without a poll of the people. The Imperial Parliament-is a trustee for popular rights throughout the Empire, and this is eminently a case in which the trustee should see that the people as a whole are consulted, and not merely the capitalist

classes.