TOPICS OF THE DAY
CHINESE LABOUR AND THE EMPIRE.
THOUGH we may be certain that we have not heard the last of Chinese labour, the support accorded to the Government by a majority of the present House of Commons will produce a temporary lull in this ill-omened controversy. Before, however, this temporary lull occurs we should like to put on record with as little heat as possible the considerations which make us believe that a profound mistake has been made by the Imperial Govern- ment in sanctioning the Transvaal Ordinance, and that a dangerous and most retrograde step has been taken in the evolution of the Empire,—an Empire which, if it is to remain great and strong, must rest upon the maintenance of liberal principles, and cannot but fall like the great Empires of the past if those principles are ignored or rejected. Let us see by what means the present situation has been reached,—a situation which is almost without parallel in our history. The Government have contrived to outrage the public opinion of the self-governing nations of the Empire, and in the case of two of them—Australia and New Zealand—to call forth protests from their Governments. They have stirred at the same time the opinion of the working classes here as it has hardly been stirred on an external question during the present genera- tion. Lastly, they have reversed the fundamental principle of the Empire that progress within it shall always be in the direction of emancipation. And this they have done on the ground that the more rapid development of the gold industry must be regarded as a political consideration which overrides all others,—for, remember, the Govern- ment have admitted that though they view the intro- duction of Chinese indentured labour as a necessity, it is a necessity which they profoundly regret. '
The Transvaal Government found themselves this autumn—as all Governments are liable to do after a great war, or indeed any other great upheaval—in a position of considerable difficulty. In their very natural eagerness to press on the work of reconstruction, they had introduced not merely a very elaborate and expensive administration, but had entered upon large plans for internal development in the matter of public works. At the same time, the chief industry of the Colony, the gold industry, had not shown the same power of recuperation and of rapid new develop- ment which was expected of it. Partly because the mine- owners, with that curious inability to realise that cheap labour is by no means always the best manure for industry which is so often shown by the capitalist, insisted after the war on reducing the remuneration given to the Kaffir ; partly because, owing to the construction of new public works, the demand for labour temporarily outran the supply ; and partly also because, owing to the general un- settlement due to the war, there was a dislocation of the labour market, the capitalists of Johannesburg began to clamour for an increased supply of cheap labour, They declared that they could not get on without more 'cheap labour ; that if it were not found for them the gold industry could not be developed ; and finally, that without its de- velopment the Transvaal Colony could not be made into the rich and flourishing. State which most naturally and properly our local administrators desire to see the Colonies they serve become. The mine-owners next insisted that the supply of ,native African labour was exhausted, and that therefore they must be allowed to import Asiatic labour. When the mine-owners were advised 'to try, as a solution of their difficulties, the expedient of employing a much larger amount of white labour in the mines, and also of improving the pay and conditions of black labour till those conditions became attractive to the natives, they declared that the thing was impossible. Though Mr. Creswell had shown (1) that white men bad no objection to doing work in the mines previously done by Kaffirs, provided they had not to work in mixed gangs with Kaffirs ; (2) that white men were as capable of doing this particular kind of work in the Transvaal as they are in Queensland or California; and (3) that it was practi- cally certain that here, as elsewhere, well-paid, efficient white labour would not turn out to be dearer than, if indeed so dear as, cheap and inefficient black labour, the mine-owners would listen to no alternative, and even to no pleas that involved delay. Cheap Asiatic labour was their panacea, and they' would hear of nothing else. They were dazzled by the notion of employing a very cheap, very strong, obedient Asiatic strictly bound by contract, who would give no trouble, and who could, as it were, be bought wholesale in any quantities from an importer. They were obsessed, in fact, by the vision which the philosopher Mr. Dooley once so eloquently expounded to his friend Mr. Hennessy. According to Mr. Dooley, the servant problem was going to be solved by the discovery in Central America of a race that could work all day and most of the night, that needed only two hours' sleep, that never wanted a holiday, and that was quite content with little or no wages and very little food. These obliging people were to be introduced by the thousand into Chicago, and there would henceforth be no more domestic problems. Inflamed by the prospect of labour partaking of these qualities, the mine-owners demanded from the Transvaal Government the right to import Chinese labour. In an evil hour the Government yielded, intimidated by the notion that if they did not, and at once, supply the cheap labour demanded by the mines, the future of the Colony would be jeopardised. But the moment the Government yielded they found themselves slipping down an inclined plane which ended, as we have seen, in outraging the public opinion not only of the Mother-country but of the Empire as a whole, and in introducing a system of indentured labour of a kind which, in spirit if not in words, was totally different from any which had ever obtained before in the Empire. How this came about it is not difficult to see. Had the Transvaal Government said to the mine-owners : " If you are dis- contented with the existing supply of native labour, and want to get Asiatic labour on terms of free private con- tract, we shall not prevent you," there could have been no objection on the ground of serfage—though we admit, of course, that there are plenty of other objections to the use of Chinese labour—and no principle would have been violated. But the public opinion of the Colony would.not have endured for a moment such unguarded introduction of Chinese, even if the mine-owners °had been willing to do without special legislation to enforce labour agreements and had relied upon the general law of the Colony. Hence the Transvaal Government found that, in order to satisfy the Colonists in general on the one hand, and the mine- owners on the other, they had to devise a system of lease- hold serfage under conditions which even those who approve of ordinary indentured labour regard as most objectionable. Surely if the Government of the Transvaal had been wise, they would, when they ascertained what were the conditions upon which Asiatic labour could alone be tolerated in the Colony, at once have withdrawn from the dangerous position in which they found them- selves, and have told the mine-owners that they were asking for the impossible. Unfortunately, they felt obliged to go on, and so landed themselves in the predicament with which they are faced to-day.
We shall be told, of course, that all this is very fine in theory," but what would you have done in faceof the existing situation ? " In the first place, we would have determined not to move at all when we found that the movement desired would produce results so dangerous as those involved in the Ordinance, would violate the public opinion of the Empire and of the Mother-country, and would break away from the principles on which the Empire has been reared,—principles which have brought emancipation to the subject races, and have prevented the grave demoralisation of the white race that comes through the holding of men in any form of servitude. There was no need for hurry. The essential object of the Imperial Government in the Transvaal is not rapid material and administrative pro- gress accomplished by a feverishly quick exploitation of the gold mines. Possibly if the gold mines go slow rather than fast the Transvaal Government will have to be carried on on narrow lines for the next five or six years, but that is not a calamity so desperate that it must be met by desperate expedients. The true duty of the Imperial Government is to build up a sound and healthy English- speaking community in the highlands of South Africa, not to develop low-grade mines in haste. Hurry is the ruin of Governments in difficulties. Where should we be at this moment if Lord Cromer, when the financial and political difficulties of his early days in Egypt reached a crisis, had insisted on finding a quick way out, and rather than " wait a little," had plunged into desperate ventures? Fortunately his eminently sane and vigorous mind refused to do rash things because hewould have liked things to improve quicker. He held on doggedly to an apparently impossible situation, and as a result, when things mended—as they always will if patience, not hurry, is the guide—he was in possession of a field uncompromised by adhesion to the desperate expedients of a bureaucracy in a hurrry.
But the Government of the Transvaal need. not merely have insisted on not hurrying. Besides insistence on the necessary but depressing doctrine of " wait a little," they could have urged on the gold industry the duty of trying one or two ways of getting over the labour difficulty by employing more white labour and by making the conditions under which the natives work more attractive. It was, we hold, an essential duty on the part of the Government to do all they could to induce the mine-owners to increase the use of white labour. We are well aware that the mine-owners were determined if possible not to introduce what has been termed a " white proletariat," and to avoid the inconveniences which spring from Miners' Unions. We contend, however, that it was not the business of the Transvaal Executive to consider these objections, but rather to strive in every way in their power to increase the number of white men employed in the country, and to build up a white community in which the Boers, still hostile and anxious to regain their ascendency, should become but a small percentage. We hold that white men can do the work of mining in the Transvaal, as they do it in Australia and Canada, without economic loss, well-paid white labour always proving cheapest in the end ; but even if it were a little dearer, we should face with equanimity this small extra burden placed on an industry so immensely profitable. Our object is not quick exploitation, but the building up of a white community,—a community which in the future may save the mines from the native revolt which is certain in any community where the number of blacks to whites is too disproportionate. Again, there is no reason to doubt that, given improved conditions, the natives would be attracted to the Rand. There, as elsewhere, you can only get a satisfactory supply of labour by making the condi- tions of labour as to pay and other things attractive. Remember, this is no fad of a London newspaper, but is endorsed by the evidence of Mr. Grant, Native Labour Commissioner to the Johannesburg Chamber of Mines, given before the Labour Commission. Here are his words, quoted by Mr. Asquith on Monday : " ' The action and blunders of the past year '—that is, the year after the close of the war= distinctly alienated the natives, and no proof whatever has been afforded that the number of men required cannot be made available providing that the con- ditions of service are satisfactory, not only to the employers, but to the employed.' " We hold, then, that not only was it imperative on the Transvaal Government to refuse to be hurried into a wrong course, but that there were plenty of alternatives to Chinese labour even if the shortage of labour was creating the desperate situation alleged by the mine-owners,—a proposition open to the gravest doubts.
We must say one word more to meet the question, " Why do you condemn the system under which the Chinese are to be brought to the Transvaal, while you make no objection to the use of indentured Indian labour in other parts of the Empire ? " We reply that the fact that the Indian Govern- ment superintend the Indian coolie traffic makes the whole difference. In the Indian Government the coolie has a vigilant protector, inspired by the best Imperial traditions as to the just and humane handling of the subject races. Had the proposal been to import coolies, the case would have been very different. There would have been strong guarantees against the system partaking of the nature of serfage. But why were not Indian coolies asked for ? Not, as Mr. Asquith pointed out, because they could not do the work, for there are plenty of native miners in Mysore. They were not asked for because the Indian Government would not have agreed to the Ordinance, which was the price of acquiescence in importing Asiatic labour demanded by the people of the Colony. Surely the Ordinance stands condemned. We have had to go to China for coolies because the Indian system of indentured labour could not be reconciled with the demands of the Transvaal.
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