THE CLOSE OF THE TRANS VAAL LABOUR COMMISSION.
LTO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR:1
SIE,—Your article under the above heading in the Spectator of October 24th reminds me of a conversation I lately had on the subject of white labour in the Transvaal mines with an Englishman who had worked in them himself. My friend assured me that there was no physical reason against the work being done by white men. The question of pay he regarded as the main obstacle, but he considered that the far greater skill of the white man was worth his extra cost. My friend denounced vehemently the introduction of Asiatic labour, and went so far as to declare that if this came about numbers of English- men like himself would join the Boer interest in order to try to preserve South Africa as a white mans country. I may here remark that my friend was among the English working men armed by the Reform Committee at Johannesburg at the time of the Raid, and that he fought as a Volunteer through the relief of Ladysmith to the end of the war, and therefore cannot be called a Pro-Boer. I was also told that the offer of reduced wages to the natives, when the mines began again after the war, was bad policy, as it discouraged the supply of labour. Could not the Government produce some plan for getting the poorly employed in England to go and work in South Africa ? What a benefit to our overcrowded land it
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