Chinese for South Africa.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 85, 14 April 1904, Page 4

Chinese for South Africa.

A correspondent. writes to iho Otago l>aily Times As i( is possible that snune of .your readers insiy not know the scandalous terms under which it is proposed to import . labour; may I aslv you to reprint, the following from Mews of the Week :—"The Government of the Transvaal evidently intends to im- | port Chineso lalxwr. It issued on January 0 a draft ordinance settling the terms on which non-European la w bour will be admitted. The contractors are to be licensed, and their labourers are prohibited from working except in the mines, or from quitting the employer who introduces them without his consent. The employer can, of course, 'assign his rights.* Xo labourer is allowed to trade or to possess land or to move without an "identification passport,' or to qfuit the premises' in which ho resides. No contract or renewal of contract shall extend beyond live years in all, and all ial)/r>urers at the expiration of their term Im 'repatriated'—that is. sent back 1o China—if necessary by force. We trust the Home Government will refuse to sanction this hfw, even if such refusal should involve the repudiation of the share of the war detft guaranteed by the colony. The passport system, the system of residence in "ErfjastuJa, and the forcible repatriation make it a system of slavery ; , and as the ChiilPSe never submit to ] slavery there will be the possibility of rebellion, followed by bloodshed. Moreover, as the Chinese Government will certainly reject such terms for its, people, we run the danger of seeing the old system of kidnapping, with its accompanying horr.ors of mutiny on tward siiip, once more revived. If we cannot enrich the Transvaal without this plunge Hack into barbarism—which we do not believe—the Transvaal must stay poor." In these days, when com-pany-owned papers are too often run to pay dividends, and not to fearlessly do their duty regardless of directors' interests or balance-sheet, it is charming to reaii such outspoken words, and notably so from the Spectator. The last sentence sums up the whole position. pig-headed s(upidity on live part of Great Britain drove America to rebellion. Cowardly truckling on the part of the British Ministry of today to a gang of financiers has sown a crop of bitter reflections jwhich arc a very real menace to Britain's supremacy. Iler action in this matter must be a source of delight to those nations which realise that without her colonies Great Britain would tfink to Hut a two-penny-balf-penny power, and that she has watitonly alienated the sympathy of her mainstay. The best result to be hoped from this cheap labour is the creation of a dozen plutocrats—Em-pire-builders after t lie type of Cecil Rhodes, without the saving (i)ialities ! which enabled this big ami busybrained man to pass muster ! A small return indeed for the black shame of being a party to such an iniquitous intrigue.