SOUTH AFRICAN LABOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 14, 17 January 1905, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICAN LABOUR.

the McDonald mission

(By Telegraph-—Press Association.)

CHEISTCHURCH, this day. Mr A. L. McDonald, lion, secretary of the White League of the Transvaal, passed through Christchurch southwards on Saturday. Mr McDonald, as already stated, is on his way to England with the object of endeavouring to influence the coining elections by putting before the people the white man's side of the case in respect to th:<* employment of Chinese in the mines of the Transvaal. The hopes of the opponents of Chineee labour in South Africa are, he states, centred wholly in the result of the British elections, a result which he considers will certainly be favourable to the case which he represents. He indicates, in short, that the present Government will be supplanted by a Liberal Administration, which will recall Lord Milner from South Africa and put a stop to the flooding of the country witli Asiatic labour. There is, he says, no hope of reform from any other source, for there is no power in South Africa which could overthrow that of the capitalists who now dominate the country. The condition of the white population of the Transvaal, British as well as Boer, is now one of sullen discontent. Everything and everybo-dy is under the thumb of the "landlords," and anyone who attempts to change the state of affairs is practically boycotted. For that reason the working , of the White League has, he remarked, to resemble that of the mole, and be done to a great extent in secret. A peculiar feature of the organisation is that all its affairs are honorary. Every officer, including, of course, himself, gives hi« services for the sake of the cause. Mr McDonald expects to be in England by the middle of March, and is to open the campaign by addressing a great meeting under Liberal auspices at Bury, Lancashire. This is in accordance with a promise which he made while on a recent visit to relatives in the Old Country. On that occasion he took part in the Oswestry election, and the eaptuTP of the Conservative State by the Liberal candidates. Mr Allen Bright largely influenced him in coming to his present decision to take part in the general election campaign.