THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY, JAN. 12, 1914. SOUTH AFRICA.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 326, 12 January 1914, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY, JAN. 12, 1914. SOUTH AFRICA.

The infancy of the South African Federation seems fated to be passed in a scries of convulsions, and those to whom it has fallen lo nurse it through its earlier troubles are experiencing a time <4 great diffiei<lt\. The initial embarrassments wore mainlv political and atose chiefly out of internal jealousies and hostilities, the outcome of racial differences and of the natural soreness resulting from an acknowledgement of defeat. These are conditions u inch it will probably take more than one generation t<> remove. and the growth of a now nation out of components at present repellent of one another must be a matter ol considerable time. At present, however. the pressing difficulty arises out of labour troubles, and apparently these are of a,multiple, if not of a complex nature. In the first place has arisen the question of the disposal of the large body of workers who were imported from India. White labour is desirous that this formidable rival should be removed. The Government seemingly found itself unable to advance a scheme of actual deportation, and so conceived the device of a poll tax which it was hoped might have the effect of inducing voluntary withdrawal. The imported labourers, however, claim their rights as British subjects, and resent any such discrimination in taxation as is sought to be imposed upon them. They argue that their presence among the population is in breach of no law ; that it is, in fact, the result of express invitation at a time when their services were thought to be essential to the industrial welfare of the countrj. The position is complicated by the serious indications of native unrest in the Indian Empire itself, where the alleged injustice to their compatriots in South Africa is being eagerly adopted by the malcontents as a moans of stirring up enmity against British rule. The South African Administration thus finds, itself hampered by Imperial considerations m dealing with its difficulties so far as the Indian contingent of workers is concerned. On the top of this came a revolt on the part of white labour, in which, judging from the names cabled, men of more than one national origin are taking prominent part. Now comes news that a section of the aboriginal workers employed in the mines has caught the contagion and is threatening trouble which has thrown at least" one community into something like consternation. It is quite possible that, should this last movement assume, as it might well do, proportions which call for combined resistance on the part of the whole white population, the differences between white employers and white workers might be sunk for the moment to make common cause against a common menace. However, for the present the native uprising appears to be confined within comparatively narrow limits both as to numbers and area, and the forces at- command of the authorities will probably be sufficient to effect a speedy repression. The chief trouble, then, seems to lie in the adjustment of the differences between the employers and white labour. The cables would indicate that the 'strikers have among their leaders men of a most violent type, and the methods to which they have already resorted give promise of their being ready to carry their campaign of destruction to greater excesses. It is notable, however, that, in connection with the later developments, the Government are keeping the military in the background, and are merely calling upon a citizen organisation to meet the crisis and protect its own property. In any event, what with dissensions in and defections from his Cabinet, with racial jealousies among the white population, and with insurgent labour, both black and white. General Botha’s position is not a bed of roses, and it will call for all his tact and resource to maintain it. It is perhaps well, and may in the end make for a more rapid, and ultimately for a more healthy and permanent amalgamation, that so many maladies should have developed at. the one time, but it most certainly is a severe test of the statesmanship of those with whom the guidance cf the fortunes of the Federation lie for the time being.