30th Tune.
As we have been accused of opposing the recruiting in China of labourers for the Rand, though our only objection has been the express sion of a doubt whether the recruits really understood the conditions that awaited them when they reached the mines, we are glad to be able to make a summary of an able argument in favour of the introduction of Chinese labour, which takes the form of a pamphlet of 39 pages with the above title by Mr. g Kinloch Cooke, reproduced with amendments and addition from the "Empire Review." Its circulation had reached, when it was sent us, a total of 10,000 copies.
Mr. Cooke is for Chinese labour with restrictions, and he is strongly against exclusion, a policy from which Australia is now suffering. Australia, however, is a white man's country, and with only three million whites in Australia, and a population next door of four hundred million Chinese, the open door to the latter would soon have meant the replacement of the white by the yellow man. South Africa on the other hand is a black man's country, containing, as it does, south of the Zambesi, about six million blacks to a million whites, It is obvious, then, that the white man must be the skilled, and the black man the unskilled labourer in South Africa; but if the Chinese were allowed in without restrictions, they would compete both with the skilled white and the unskilled black labour. Hence the necessity for restrictions.
Mr. Cooke combats at some length the charge that the Chinese are so peculiarly immoral a race, that their introduction into South Africa is a serious danger. To our readers who know that the Chinese are not monsters, but just ordinary human beings, it is quite unnecessary to labour this point. He goes on to show that it is absurd to describe the condition that the Transvaal Labour Importation Ordinance is intended to produce as a form of slavery. This Ordinance has already been discussed in our columns, and we may agree with Mr, Cooke that there can be but one answer to the question, "if there is the slightest comparison between the position of the Chinese labourers indentured under the Transvaal Ordinance and that of the slaves who were carried off against their will to work in the plantations." It is pointed out also that the British Guiana Ordinance, which was passed when the present, Opposition were in power in England, contains almost exxetly the same restrictions. The introduction of Chinese under these restrictions should be welcomed by Mr. Burns and Mr, Seddon and other labour leaders, instead of being condemned, says Mr. Cooke, because their fixed intention is to prevent the Chinese competing with skilled white labour in South Africa, The " Economic Side " of the question is then treated. It is unjust to say that the mine-owners have always wanted to introduce Chinese; they are doing it as a last resource. Everything has been done to get black labour; "in the opinion of all experts, native labour is the best labour; it is the cheapest, it is the labour of the country, and it needs no new regulations, nor raises any economic difficulties." But the population from which native workers may be drawa is only 4,672,230, of whom only ten per cent, or 467,223 are willing to undertake outside employment. But they will only work six months in the year, so that the total available supply is only 235,611, which includes a special contingent of 2,000 from districts where recruiting is otherwise prohibited. The present shortage in the Transvaal is 221,399, and 182,000 are at present at work. This leaves only 53,611 to supply the shortage; from which it is evident that labour is much wanted. The trouble is that the South African native is poor, but he's proud and he's particular; he doesn't like work of any kind, and he objects especially to mining. It is absolutely untrue to say that the natives are badly treated and badly paid. They are much better off than the agricultural labourers and the dock labourers in England. Their average pay is 54s. a month, and they are kept, housed, doctored, and insured against accidil ents at the cost of their employers, and at the end of his contract each native is given £8 and a new suit of clothes, if he will re-engage for a farther term.
An objection made to work at the mines is the high death rate, and there is a great deal of pneumonia in the winter months. But it is the new arrivals who cause the high death rate. "The native often waits till he is starving before he accepts an engagement. Asa natural result he is not physically fit to work on arrival, and soon succumbs if he catches cold." Homes of Rest have now been established, where the recruits are fed up until they are fit to work.
To get unskilled labour dons by white men is impossible. The lowest wage at which they can be asked to work is 12s, a day, and even then white men will not do what they call Kaffir's work." Mr. Cooke says that it has been stated at home that the mine-owners are anxious to introduce Chinese in order to be able to dismiss their white men; but the fact is that for every eight unskilled coloured labourers introduced, one skilled white man is employed at a satisfactory rate of wages. Mr. Cooke does not seem to meet the assertion that the mine-owners are afraid to employ more white labour lest their trade unions should become too strong.
The refusal to allow Chinese labour to be introduced would mean, we are assured, the bankruptcy of the new colonies, and the transfer of their liabilities to the taxpayer at, home, which is evidently an exaggeration, The men, we are told, "who have made great financial sacrifices to pay for the war, and are still suffering from that sacrifice, have a right to demand a hearing, and to refuse their sanction to the abandonment of the only policy that can avoid rain to the Transvaal, and the absolute waste ofall the blood and treasure expended to obtain the supremacy of the British flag south of the Zambesi." Such an ill-judged sentence as this does a great deal to spoil Mr. Cooke's argument. Tt strengthens the hands of our enemies who say that the Boer war was really undertaken for the sake of the Rand'mines. Mr. Cooke then shows that public opinion in the Transvaal is really in favour of the introduction of Chinese and makes the rather bold statement that every signature to the celebrated petition was genuine, though he does not deny that in many cases the same person signed several times. The objection that if the Australian mines can be worked with white labour, the Transvaal mines can also be so worked, is met by the statement that the Australian ore is valued roughly at £4 per ton, while the value of the ore in a very large number of Rand mines is only 25s, in a certain number 35s,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.