South Africa.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3617, 27 February 1906, Page 3

South Africa.

CABLE NEWS.

iyONDON, Feb. 23.

In the House of Commons Mr H, W. Forster moved an amendment to the Address-imßeplV') ex s pressing regret that the Government, after bringing the country’s reputation into contempt by alleging that Chinese slavery existed in the Transvaal, took no effectual methods of_ ending it. Mr Winston Churchill admitted that it was not slavery in the extreme acceptance, of the terra, but was an undeisrable form of contract, constituting a melancholy derogation of labour not hitherto tolerated in the British Empire. The sudden deportation of Chinese would produce an economic cob lapse, but he believed the Trans* vaai would decide against the permanent retention of the system under the present repugnant conditions, the Imperial sanction would be withheld from any arrangements with China. The Government intended to cancel the provision permitting coolies to re-arrange at the end of their contract. Three thousand licenses which were granted but not signed on the 18th will be allowed to stand, likewise thirteen thousand who had formally signed.

Speaking to Mr Forster’s amendment, Mr Wyndham declared if the charge of slavery were true, Mr Winston Churchill’s unheroic, half-hearted palliatives were wholly insufficient. The Government was courting disaster in South Africa. Mr Markham said it was impossible to work the mines with white labour even if the wages were reduced fifty per centum. The debate was adjourned.