Sir H, Campbell-Bannerman was loudly cheered by his supporters on rising to move his resolution censuring the Government for having advised the Crown not to disallow the Ordinance for the introduction of Chinese labour into the Transvaal. He said that to import aliens into the Trunsvaal, to make them bondsman under degrading conditions for the mere purpose of benefiting speculators in a wealthy industry, would be to violate the principles of freedom and equity. He therefore called upon the Government to oeeed no further with the policy which they ad inaugurated. This exploitation of alien Labour was a conscienceless and nauseous proceeding. What sort of patriotism was it, what sort of Imperialism that effaced itself aba signal from Johannesburg? The essence of the Ordinance was that the Chinaman wae to bea chattel. When. once a Chinese coolie recruit, from the interior found himself at Hongkong, the port of embarkation, it would be next to impossible for him to refuse to sign the contract of service. He recalled the opposition which the British Govern: ment offered to the Portuguese when they were enlisting coolie labour at Macao, and said that what we objected to then was just what. the Gorernment, proposed. to sanction now.
Mr. Lyttelton reminded the House that Mr. Chamberlain in his speeches on this question ad always stated that, if there should be a. change of view in the Transvaal to the necessity of importing Chinese about, he should not oppose that policy. He then declared that this change of view had token place, and said that Lo had quite recently received a telegram from lord Milner, which he read, confirming this fact ery strongly. The Government had realised from the first that this policy would be open misconception and gross misrepresentation, but he believed that retribution awaited those iticians who had dealt with this. matter unfairly. He invited attention to the large eld for skilled and white Jabour that would to work the 3,000 stamps which were now idle. He repudiated indignantly the change that the system which was to be introduced could be distinguished with difficulty, if at all, from slavery, and he announced that the contract into which the Chinese coolies would be asked to enter would be advertised in all the villages where recruits would be sought. At the port of embarkation, having bad his contract explained to him by an official of the British Government and an official of the Chinese Government, the coolie would embark on board a ship provided with every comfort found in emigrant ships. On his arrival in Africa he would be protected by officials of his own and of British nationality, and would be sent to a location or compound of a very considerable size, larger, in fact, than the compounds at Kimberley. "Housing rations, and. medical assistance were to be provided at the expense of the employer. Then he could assure the House that the Chinese coolie would receive at least 12 or 15 times the amount of the wages which he could earn in his own. Again, if a coolie was dissatisfied he could break his contract without incurring any penalty; he would only be required to make good his employer's out-of-pocket expenses. He brushed aside the imputation that the Government and Lord Milner were pandering to the capitalists, What he wanted was that the Transvaal should be made a country to which while men would freely go.
Mr. Fletcher Moulton, Sir G. Parker, Mr. Bryce, who questioned whether it would be fan easy matter to induce the Chinese to leave the Transvaal, if once they got into that country, Sir F. Milner, Mr. Haviland Burke, and Sir H. Seton-Kerr, having spoken, Mr. Balfour wound up the debate for the Government, being much interrupted by the Opposition. Mr. Balfour defended the Ordinance, laying special stress on the importance of enabling the Transvaal to sururount, a great economic crisis. Having finally dismissed the slavery charges as one of the most preposterous accusations ever levelled against a British Government, he dealt with the Colonial protests. Australia and New Zealand were, however, white men's colonies. The same could not be said of the Transvaal, where there were eight blacks to one white inhabitant, and where the natives were increasing steadily. Eventually there would be in all probability an aristocracy of whites over a proletariat of blacks.
Mr. Asquith, replying to the challenge as to what the Opposition would do if the vote of censure were carried, observed that the Ordinance would be disallowed and that nothing more would be heard of it. There was a fundamental difference between this Ordinance and every other ordinance in the British Empire. For the first time the imported labourer was to be prohibited from aspiring to become a free member of the community in which he lived.
The motion was rejected on a division by 299 votes against 242—majority 57.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.