T HE series of articles which has been appearing in the
Daily Chronicle during the past week entitled "The Truth about Chinese Labour" deserves the most careful attention of all who desire the welfare of the Empire. As our readers will remember, though we saw many and grave objections to the form of Ordinance adopted, we opposed the introduction of Chinese labour, not so much on the ground that a system of semi-serfage was being estab- lished in South Africa, as that a great opportunity was being missed for making the Transvaal a white man's country, and for peopling it with men of British race, who would settle for all time the question of the preponderance of the Dutch or British. We wanted to see the country filled with a white population who, till the Boers had forgotten their antagonism with the British, should be a guarantee that our efforts and sacrifices in the war were not thrown away. Until we have in South Africa a prepon- derating white population which is not of Boer origin we cannot feel absolutely safe. But the only practical way to secure such a preponderance is to fill the Transvaal with white miners. The Transvaal is the only part of South Africa into which a rapid influx of white immigrants can be expected.
The conditions at the close of the war afforded the opportunity that was needed for employing an increased amount of white labour in the mines. There was a shortage of Kaffir labour, and this shortage had to be made good. We believe—and our belief is supported by the opinion of so competent an authority as Mr. Creswell —that if the mine-owners had taken up in earnest the problem of utilising white unskilled labour, combined with the newest and most scientific labour-saving machinery, they would have found that the rule which holds good elsewhere in the world holds good also in the Transvaal. A higher wages-bill does not necessarily mean dearer production. They would, that is, have discovered that white labour, though it costs more than coloured labour, is not in the end dearer labour.' Supposing, however, that this rule does not hold good in the Transvaal, that it can be proved that Chinese labour is really as well as apparently cheaper, and that higher dividends can be paid in consequence of its eMployment, we still contend that the introduction of Chinese labour, and therefore the abandonment of the ideal of the Transvaal as a white man's country, involved a serious disservice to the Empire. We make bold to assert—though we are aware that in many quarters we shall be regarded as mad, if not worse, for making such an assertion—that it would be better that the gold mines should pay less dividends, or even that less gold should be won, than that the plan of using unskilled white labour in the mines should ,be 'abandoned. There is, in our opinion, no desperate hurry to get the last ounce of gold out of the reef. Even if the pace of development should be slowed down, no great harm will be done provided that an in- creased English-speaking non-Boer population is growing up in the Transvaal. As we have suggested above, many persons in their hearts regard this view as wholly absurd and unbusinesslike, and would, if they could speak quite frankly, declare that the essential thing was not to trouble about the nature of the Transvaal population, but to get the gold, the whole gold, and the gold at the least possible price out of the rock. This opinion, however, for obvious reasons, is not generally expressed in public. There our view is met with the assertion that it is im- possible to use unskilled white labour in the mines. As Mr. Balfour put it, "it will also be remembered that Chinese labourers will only be engaged on work which a British workman cannot and will not do in South Africa." In other words, we are told that the desire to fill the Transvaal with white miners is a desire for what is impossible. The only white population that can be expected to increase in the Transvaal is the population composed of the various mine employes of a higher grade who will be employed in mines set going by Chinese labour.
So runs the argument of the friends of Chinese labour. Let us see what truth there is in this contention. In order to test it, the Special Commissioner of the Daily Chronicle sent to South Africa to study the question quotes in Thursday's paper some- very significant facts and figures. He tells us that on May 9th of this year there were 1,003 white men doing the work of unskilled labourers in the mines, work which before the war was done by Kaffirs. On December 31st, 1902, there were 2,150, and on Decem- ber 31st, 1903, there were 2,472, doing the work which Mr. Balfour says white men cannot and will not do in South Africa. Mr. Cresswell's experiment in the use of white labour in the mines—a very interesting account of which is to be found in Friday's Daily Chronicle—which he has always contended bade fair to prove not merely a physical but an economic success, can be cited as conclusive proof of the untrustworthy nature of Mr. Balfour's dictum. The Daily Chronicle Commissioner also brings proof of yet another kind. He tells us that Mr. Schumacher, a director of Messrs. Eckstein and Co., stated at the monthly meeting of the Chamber of Mines on August 19th last that on the Glen Deep, the Rose Deep, Geldenhuis Deep, Jumpers Deep, Nourse Deep, South Nourse, Crown Deep, and Langlaagte Deep there were 517 unskilled whites employed on August 1st of this year. On the same day there were on the Robinson, Robinson Central Deep, Bonanza, Crown Reef, Village Main Reef, Village Deep, New Modderfontein, French Rand, and Ferreira 426 unskilled whites employed,—making altogether a total of 943 whits men doing work which, we repeat, Mr. Balfour., says British workmen cannot and will not do. The average wage earned by these men was 9s. 7d. a day. "Naturally," said Mr. Schumacher, "as the mines em- ployed more Chinese, there would be less opening for un- skilled white labourers on these mines. In fact, on these mines the openings would gradually close." Now, we would ask any impartial person who examines this state- ment whether it does not show that the difficulty is not in the objection of the white man to work in the mines, but in the objection of the employers to employ them when they can get Chinese labour cheaper. If there was any truth in Mr. Balfour's allegation, we should surely have found Mr. Schumacher, not stating that as the mines employed more Chinese labour there would be less openings for unskilled white labourers, but merely chronicling the fact that new mines or workings were being opened because of the influx of Chinamen ready to do work which nobody before could be found to do. You cannot close an opening to a white man by introducing a Chinaman if such opening has never existed.
In truth, the plea that you cannot ask British work- men to do unskilled labour in the mines is the merest piece of clap-trap invented to cover the determina- tion of the capitalists to use Chinese labour. What they meant was not that British workmen would not do the work, but that they believed they could get Chinamen to do it cheaper, and that they meant to have the cheapest labour procurable. We do not, however, blame the capitalists and mine managers for this determination. Not unnaturally, they desire to make the biggest profits and to earn the biggest dividends possible. That is not wrong, but inevitable, and indeed reasonable, in business men. The people we blame are those who allowed the vievii of the capitalists to prevail against the welfare of the Empire: What those responsible for the government of the Trans- vaal both in South Africa and at home should have said to the request of the capitalists ought to have been something of this kind :—" We are sorry to be unable to give you the special facilities which you tell us will enable you to obtain the very cheapest form of labour in your industry. We have to take account of other, and even more important, considerations, and these require that the Transvaal shall become, not less, but more a white man's country than before. Therefore we will not alter for you by law the conditions now existing. If we do nothing you will be obliged to employ a gradually increasing proportion of white labour in the mines. If you could make use of Asiatic labour without special legislation, we do not say that we should frame new laws to prohibit such employment. Since, however, the universal public opinion of South Africa will not allow you to use Asiatic labour except under conditions which partake of the nature of serfage, and have to be imposed by special legislation, we are not willing to grant you such legislation. It is better that the output of the mines should rise less rapidly, while the employment of white men in them increases, rather than that the product should rise greatly while the openings for white miners gradually diminish." Unfortunately, the Cabinet and the Government of the Transvaal, instead of adopting such an attitude, were overawed by the demand for cheap labour, no matter what its introduction might involve, and forgetting their higher duty to the Empire, they yielded to the demand of the moment.
What is to be done ? How are we to get back to conditions which will encourage the use of white laboua in the mines ? We confess that the difficulties which surround the problem since the actual introduction of Chinese labour are many and great. The Chinamen are installed and at work, and, to use Mr. Schumacher's phrase, as the mines employ more Chinamen there are naturally "less openings" for unskilled white labourers. In other words, a great blunder has been made, and it will be by no means easy to retrace our steps. Again, when responsible government is given to the Transvaal, as we hope it soon will be, if that Government determines to continue the use of Chinese labour, we shall be obliged to follow our invariable rule in the case of self-governing Colonies, and allow them to continue the use of such labour,—provided, of course, that they do not establish any actual system of slavery. Our belief is, however, that if real self-government is given to the Transvaal the Ordinance will be rescinded. But it will be necessary to see that the self-government established is real, and that the capitalists are not given a preponderating authority in the Legislature. When we give self-govern- ment we must establish a true democracy, and not a cosmopolitan capitalist oligarchy under democratic forms.
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