7 APRIL 1906, Page 14

BRITISH SETTLERS fN THE TRANSVAAL.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—As a regular reader of your valuable paper, I forward you this letter explaining to some extent the reason why a certain class of Britisher will not settle in this country. I have lived in the Transvaal for nearly eleven years, and need hardly tell you that I know something about English and Boers. Now, as regards Chinese labour, can any one doubt that all but two per cent. of the white men of this country are more or less interested in the share market, so of course their votes will always be given in favour of the policy which runs up the market? Of course, this remark applies only to town people, and r wonder how many of the votaries of imported labour have suffered the experience of being, say, at least five miles from any neighbour, on a dark, windy night, in a ramshackle house, without any kind of protection beyond their fists from marauding and carelessly inspected Chinamen. This is not a pleasant experience for Englishmen who have English wives and children, and it is little wonder that a good many of us are doing our very best to leave the country. ,I venture to suggest to you and to your readers that at present the Transvaal is not a Colony that offers any opening for straightforward Britishers, especially if

they have families.—I am, Sir, &c., SALOP. Transvaal.

[We publish this letter as a proof of how absurd is the supposition that the whole British population is burning with anxiety to maintain the importation of Chinese coolies into the Transvaal.—ED. Spectator.] •