THE TRANSVAAL'S WAR CONTBIBUTION.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11482, 15 January 1903, Page 4

THE TRANSVAAL'S WAR CONTBIBUTION.

There is • good deal of difference between the hundred millions sterling which it was stated some time ago was to be the amount of the Transvaal's contribution to the cost of the war, and the thirty millions whach we are informed by cable ia the amount which has been decided upon. Mr Chamberlain doubtless found the task of inducing the Band magnates to agree to tihe smaller sum considerably easier than it would have been had he determined to stand out for the larger one, against which the Band protested /vehemently from the first. In settling the amount of the contribution, however, a number of circumstances had to be taken into consideration, first and foremost being the fact that so far the Transvaal has been a country with one industry, and thai industry, though not stagnating, is being carried on under severe difficulties. The crux of the mining industry ia the labour question. Labour ana been scarce ever since the mines resumed work, and at a recent meeting of the Chamber of Mines Sir George Fairrar stated that £50,000 a year was being spent in salaries of recruiters alone, who were endeavouring to recruit labour in various parts of Africa. Their efforts in Uganda were checked by the Home Government, and the authorities of the Blantyre settlements, in the Shire highlands, are up in arms against any proposal to import labour from that district. It will be seen that as the result of the conference (between Mt Chamberlain* and the Band magnates an understanding has been reached on this important question, but even under this fortunate circumstance it must be many months before the output of gold reaohe? its ante-bellum proportions. In the meantime the- industry is slowly progressing under great difficulties, and to impose a heavy wax debt on the colony would have added to its burdens. In a statement of the case for the Transvaal on this question, which oouupied a full page of the London "Times," Sir Percy ""FitzPatrick, President of the Johannesburg Chamber of Mines, admitted that some contribution to the cost of the war was possible, and that it would be as unjust to mate it too small as too large, "for it "would in yearn to come provoke a feel"mg of bitterness that the honourable discharge of Imperial duty at great cost " of life and means had fallen unfairly upon "the people of the British Isles, and " brought profit to otjben." Hie confrere, Sir George JParrar, has since declared that the Chamber, wita the community, was willing to pay what the country could afford without crippling its resources. But Sir Percy also argued, with undeniable truth, that upon the British, residents, whom it is desirable in every way to encourage, would fall the burden of the taxation if & heavy war charge ■were made, whole itfte Boers would practically escape scot-free, as ttwir farms are, under the Vereenigmg terms <rf peace, expressly exempt from taxation on account of tibe war, and tie farm a ell that the average Boer possesses of a taxable nature. It •was also pointed out that if British settlement is to be hoped for, the development of the country must be expedited by railways, irrigation works, and so on. As summarised by "The Times," Sir Percy FitaPatrick'e joint was this—"That io "money payment towards tihe cost of the "war that can possibly be contemplated "•would ever ibjtng to this country (Great " Britain) raoh advantages as would accrue "from making tihe Transvaal contribute as "much as possible to the development «f " he own resources by judiciously-contrived "public woiks." The agreement that has been arrived at appears, from the scanty detafls so far published, to be a happy compromise. The Transvaal receives an Imperial guaranteed Joan of thirty millions for public works, and its war contribution is fixed at the same sum, thus bearing out the expectation which the Pretoria correspondent of " The Times" erxpessed some months ago. The manner ia which tihe arrangement has been received in London argues that it is satisfactory all round, and if Mr. Chamberlain's tour produces no other result, it will be noteworthy for this settlement of a difficult question.