The recent alteration of the attitude of Het Volk in
regard to the repatriation of the Chinese coolies on the Rand having excited a good deal of comment, it is as well to note the reasons given by two members of that party, recorded in the Times and Daily Mail of Friday. Mr. van Blommenstein, Het Volk candidate for Krugersdorp, is reported by a Reuter telegram to have stated that he does not favour immediate repatriation, because, as native control is retained by the Imperial Government, there could be no legislation to obtain labour from native sources. Mr. Smuts has stated that he is in favour of re-enacting the Chinese Labour Ordinance until natives can be got to replace the coolies, who, however, must go. These statements are undoubtedly significant, but we are inclined to attach equal importance to 'the statement made by the Road Mail to the effect that the Eckstein group, which is experimenting with two hundred new labour-saving drills of the Gordon pattern, has promised to order a thousand more if they prove a success. It is estimated that fourteen thousand boys with these drills can do the work of fifty thousand hammer-boys.
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