RAND CRISIS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1815, 30 July 1913, Page 5

RAND CRISIS.

WAR IMMINENT.

TROOPS MOVE TO THEIR

STATIONS,

GOVERNMENT AND MINE-OWNERS « TAKE COUNSEL. MINERS' SWORD OF DAMOCLES By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright (Roc. July 29, 11.30 p.m.) i London, July 28. The sitnation on tha Rand lias not improved. Mr. Tom Matthews has warned tli o men to prepare for tho tsignalfor a sudden strike. Johannesburg, July 28. Cabinet sat most of the day. 1 Police and troops have quietly moved to appointed stations. Johannesburg, July 29. There is; great demand for food, and the householders are laying in large stocks. Otherwise trado is stagnant, and merchants liavo cablcd to stop shipments. The growing impression is that tho Strike Committeo will defer filial action until tha bank holiday on August i. Tha bulk of tho monthly wages aro due on August 13, and if tho strike were called earlier tho result, from tho Committee's point of view, might bo jeopardised. Tho personnel of tho Strike Committee havo been secretly empowered to issue absolute orders. The leaders threaten to organise the strike on so-called ''scientific linos," causing damage and creating disturbances wherever the polico aro absent, hoping thus to terrorise the Government into submission. Tho Government's chief anxiety is connected with the natives. Much seditious literature printed in native dialects is circulating in tho mines. Thirty thousand natives lost their employment during June and July owing to the stoppage of recruiting, and theso aro threatening to throw many whites out of employment. Tho Government and tho mining authoritie havo completed their plans for tho ■ compulsory repatriation of 250,000 natives ■in tho event of a crisis in the dispute. It is considered that it will take a year to restoro labour conditions to formal. It has o1 so been arranged that the natives will be divided into parties of a thousand each. Lists havo been prepared of experienced men able to speak nativo languages, who aro willing to command these parties. Haversacks havo been prepaid to enable each native to carry enough to tako him from depot to depot. PUBLIC SYMPATHY ALIENATED. GROWING FEELING AGAINST TERRORISM. (Rcc. July 29, 10.50 p.m.) Johannesburg, July 29. All tho leading business houses in Cape Town are organising their employees, who will be s'worn as spscial constables if .necessary. Tho English and Dutch farmers resent tho dictatorial tone of tho Labour leaders in. their rejection cf the mine-owners' terms and concessions—a tone which, they declare, is alienating public sympathy from workers on tho Rand. , The ."Mail" urges the Government and tho mining industry to grant the eighthours' day, inclusivo of winding time, and withdraw the condition that tlvo union funds should not bo used for political purposes. The Transvaal "Leader" urges the Government and the community not to allow themselves to be terrorised. . THE HOUR AND THE BLOW. WRAPPED IN MYSTERY. (Sydney "Sun" Special—July 29, 0.25 p.m.) Johannesburg, July 29. The secretary of the Trades Federation, addressing a meeting of sixteen hundred railwaymen- at Pretoria, attacked General Smuts and Police-Commissioner Truter for their action during the strike, and stated that General .Smuts wanted them to striko now. But, said the speaker, they would chooso their own time, and would not tell when they would strike tho blow.