Much as we deprecate the attempt to censure Lord Milner
for a fault which he has so honourably acknowledged and regretted, it is impossible in reading such debates as that of Thursday not to be struck by the grave responsibility incurred by those who threw the apple of discord into the Councils of the Empire in the shape of Chinese labour. If the Imperial Government had refused to sanction Chinese labour under the only conditions on which South African opinion would allow it—that is, conditions of a servile nature—the Empire would have been free from the serious difficulties which now menace it. In our opinion, the whole evil may be traced to the ill-starred and retrograde proposal of Mr. Chamberlain to saddle the Transvaal with a debt of thirty millions to the Imperial Government. The assent of the mineowners to that tributary contribution on behalf of the Colony—an assent which they had no right to give—was, no doubt, a prime factor in inducing the Government to yield to the mineowners' demand for Chinese labour under conditions contrary to the public opinion, not only of the Mother-country, but of the Empire as a whole. This false step in regard to the tributary contribution has led to nothing but animosity and confusion. In our opinion, the present Government should, at any rate, do what they can to retrieve the false step by linking their action as regards Chinese labour with the frank abandonment of any claim on the Colony for the thirty millions.
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