Yellow or White.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 102, 4 May 1904, Page 2

Yellow or White.

ii'UK TRUTH about the rand.

CoiJUIION, OOUJU'I'TION AND BETRAYAL. SOME ASTON IS [ll \(i REVELATION S.

" The vast majority of Hie people in South Africa mv opposed both to forced ami Asiatic labour, and so long as tlmt condition obtains the Government is not going to force compulsory or Asiatic labour upon them." Spoken by Mr Chamberlain in the House of Commons on 24th March of last year, aiv these words true to-day? Was the petition of over 45,000 signatures in favour of Cliiive.so immigration, which was sent to his Majesty, a genuine reflection of the feeling of tlie Rnnd workers, and if not, why not. V What is the temper of the citizens who, when tho movenu..' to scale a Chinese population in the Transvaal lirst became serious, held a meeting in tho Wanderers' Hall in Johannesburg, and decided by 5000 votes to two against Chinese importation ? What, in short, is the truth about, the Ruiul V

These are some of the quesLio'.g investigated ill February lust by a Special Commissioner of the " South and answered in a series oT articles now collected into a pamphlet, which forms an amazing chapter in the history of the re-es-tablishment of barracoon slavery on British soil.

It is a tale, says the Washington l'ost, which reprints the following summary, of terrorism and oppression, lying and deceit, coercion and corruption a story of the betrayal of 50,000 British people, disappointed, sullen, discontented, distrustful of their own Government, contemptuous of the King's representativewaiting for the Chinese.

Properly to understand how the people have been beaten, it is necessary to glance at the condition of .1 ohunnesburg to-day. "It Is the mines which have made Johannesburg, ami they can undo It if they be put to it.i The finances of the mines practically control its monoy supply, and Johannesburg to-day is practically moneyless!. Business Is at a standstill. Trade was never worse. Huge stocks lie in the warehouses. The engineering yards are stocked with machinery ; the veldt is scattered with machinery. Numbers of artisan engineers are out of work, waiting and waiting for this machinery to Ire put up. The streets are overrun with men out of work, , . Workmen are nightly leaving the Rand in largo numbers. The low state of the share market is generally admitted to be the cause of this." This state of 'things is said to have been meaningly and 'deliberately brought about by the mine-owners and the magnates, but at any rate this is the material on which they worked for the purpose of their mission.

Having got the commercial and trading classes in their grip, the proChinese party cleared the decks for action, and attacked the anti-Chinese meetings. They hired—and do not deny having hi red—bunds of garotters, sandbaggers, gaol birds, and roughs, at 1.35, to 'brook up these meetings l . The South African Guardian published a photograph of two hundred of these roughs being paid in broad daylight at an office in Johannesburg. A less brutal, but more insidious, weapon was a flood of proChinese literature, which warned' the workers that their choice was between, Chinese labour or the importation ol cheap while labour from the Continent. Jtut their right bower was the petition to Lord Milnor in favour of Chinese labour—a petition bearing -15,078 signatures. The pamphlet explains in detail how the petition was prepared. Signatures were asked for and taken indiscriminately. The collectors, who were paid at so much per hundred signatures, formed a regular regiment , and welcomed thu duplication of the signatures. Thu streets of Johannesburg Were dotted all over with tables bearing copies of the petition, and men in the pay of the magnates signed over and over again. One man was seen to sign fifteen times on fifteen different, petition sheets. Door to door collections of signatures were made, and to tell a collector that you hatl already signed did not geL rid of him. "Oh * it's all right," lie would soy; "sign it again. The more signatures the quicker tiie Chinese." Heside tile paid touls there was a body of fashionable ladies who canvassed the shops, the oilices, and warehouses, and obtained signatures by their wheedling persistence. The petitions were hawked through the mines, and in some cases where the collectors met with a general refusal, the men were lined up by the mine manager and asked to sign. They signed. The Commissioner of the News interviewed miners, clerks, and me. chunks indiscriminately, and from each he heard the same tale of coercion and fraud, so that lie had either to believe that a huge lying conspiracy exists among all classes of workpeople, or to conclude that the petition was a fraud. And he believed the latter. Lord Milner accepted the petition as representing the feelings of 00 per cent', of the people, and it was asked, as there was doubt on the subject, why a referendum was not taken to justify the magnates for ever. 'I he demand for a referendum was made and refused.

A vast number of blank pages were attached -to the pelilion by a pin or fastener to the page on which the petition was printed. The signatories placed their names on tho pages on which there was no printed matter, arid many s-igned it believing it was current, at Hie same time. Individual instances are given of miners who had to sign against their will, at tho invitation, which amounted to the order, of Hie manager. A letter signed by Dutch fanners, and addressed to the Legislative Council is quoted, the purport of which is a request that their signatures to the pro-Chinese petition might not be taken into account, because it had been represented to them as an an-ti-Unnose petit-ion. At Winburg a pro-Chinese tout obtained a hundred ioer signatures by lolling U u , Big , na _ tones that the petition was one to increase t he supply of farm labour ihe pamphlet contains ample ovi(tense that the vast majority of the people ol the country are opposed to Chinese labour, direct evidence that is strengthened! by the strenuous lavor'iri'",/ 10 !llas T u ' s W «"«*» the woild believe otherwise. The magviii e ° l ' K i u,,Ka,lim »"«» perfect, and hilt lOi. hs were, lured to break up 111 Johannesburg, "Ts 7 n n 1,1 l "V VIT ,l,e Wftnd - As ia.,t as tlhj IVansaaal Miner---Association held on thj \siaHcs " r , 7\ V " tH# Wnst the ,y. "lootings, (he chair was 1:1 . a - v l>y the mine manage? or mine captain, mid at voting £ meeting nsuaH.v divided. each taking separate sides of the room to vni 1 ' tlU, " S< ' Wh " tlK ' temerity to \ote ng-ainst th,. Chinese ( , jtl > the full observation of manager. . . . 1 „. 1|ly ( . usps Chinese votes were carried at n.«vt- ! ■ m majorities consistinij (nainlv . t,v < ' l( ' rks «»d ollieiaK t ,f lh V. | mines backed |,v R a,i l;y . „,en im- !!!' , " the openly i n

/''!»■ .Pn.:C(UM, w |tar(\- claim ,| mt I.'-- mi adequate supply of Kafavailable, am j (| ljs Hon is si Iso dealt: with ,j n ,| u . .L ' ! 'II', 1 ', , 1 1lK ' or th ( . miners hrn >'•"1 "Tr ,s " f African Inborn hut. till' 111.110 owners will not pay the Nallirs. simply because tliev don t want. Hum,,. There is „ svsU .„, 01 lines m force, by wWfh a »aUw o ? , ln . su,llf< raiif-riM twin , r >s ~°' s '"'"IS alisem a. iluv, and, moreover, the nnti-„..< a re ill-treated, llirei'huwlrort uattvas in a stad not far oiitsHit' J oiiaiiiicslnirjr wi'id nreventcd tjy iheir chief from u'rtin# 1o wor* on the mines, oivJnjf to the ill"sitKe I h,.y received in comparison with the old, days.

Very Interesting i s tl,„ jf e^ commissioner s account of his mvestisraion of the lioer atUltido. Tho Boer leaders rnade one single protest, but Lord Milncr declared that, thoy did not epoak for the whole Doer peg*

P' o ;, Pj 'f 1 Sm y ta pointed outth&flfl rcsolu tioßs were repe*CM edly introduced i n the Volksraod.buSfl were not passed into law in once to the desire of the British GoJM vernment. General Botha and Rev. JVJr Bosnian (Moderator of the '< Dutch Reformed Church) declared' positively that the Boers ore as (fetch opposed to Chinese labour aa™ha Trades Labour Unions, which are un- i deniably solid in their oppositions J . the Asiatics. This is no vague or M general statement, as facts, figure® and lints are given in support of the contention.

Most of the blame for the great betrayal must be borne by the Rand press. Tho three daily papers of Johannosburg are largely owned by the mine owners, and are run wholly in the mine owners' interests. No news or article likely to damage tho prospect of Chinese importation ever got into tho printing-room, and every little paragraph which favoured the l Chinese scheme received great prom-, inence. This suborned press has mis» led the people of South Africa, a.nd has liied to . the world In petniittg us a happy <and loyal country a sore and festering spot, in the body ol tho Empire. "

What is the feeling to-day ? "The British workman in the Transvaal to-day feels he has 110. Government ' to take care of him. He feels himself aggrieved, wounded and betrayed. Against Lord Milner all his disaffection, distrust, and contempt is "" directed. ... It is a sullen hatred aguinst the British administra tion." Tho fact that the mine-own-ers have carried their Chinese pro- , Ject haß fanned the fires of discontent. Two passages may be quoted from the pamphlet in this connection : "All,'the eyes of the workers are turned back to the days of Baul Kruger. They are now calling him the 'working man's friend' ; 'He til. ways stood by us,' they say. 'Ho you know what ho told the mineowners once ?' said a president of' a large workmen's club. 'He sAld to them—"Gentlemen, if you db not keep the mines working, I will them over and work them for the State." And what have we now? Bad wages, little work, and Chinese coming in pn us I' " And again:/ "Numbers of workmen told me that/ they 'did a bad day's work for' themselves when they hunted old Kruger out,' "What in Qod's name did we fight for ?' one of them asked. And then |'l would have that hand chopped of! rather than do th* same again/ " This is a brief survey of a remarkable pamphlet, one of the most damning documents ever produced a* gainst tho Rand magnate and his methods, and a document which \ leads most logically to the writer's ; conclusion—the only possible conulu- i sion in tho light of facts—that "There are two things which would '•} go very far Indeed to remedy this / state of things and win bock lbs*confidence, trust, and allegiance of the British people in the Transvaal. One is the vetoing of the Chinese Labour Ordinance, and the other Is ' the recall of Lord Milner.