CHAOS IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1416, 26 November 1904, Page 6

CHAOS IN THE TRANSVAAL.

TJIK I'lU IT OF CHINKSK LAI'.OU. Although it is sonii' tinii' now iiu<> llio lirst Chinese were introduced into tin' Transvaal. (lie white resi,le<]ts there feel as strongly about tin* inaltci' us \\ln'n it was first mooted. I'roni ti mi' to tinie tlnre have appeared t'.c. counts of tin' nuuiiu'i' in which the mine-owners organised (In- petition in favor of tlic introdiu'tion of tln- Asiatics. A resident in a country town of this district. (says flier Wellington 'Post') lias just received an inteiv-iinif letter from his brother, datod Pretoria •September 8, in which the state of affairs (hero is described in startling terms. ]fe describes the forced stnunation of the mini's engineered by the capitalists. "It must be understood (hut minintr is the one and only in dustry of the Transvual—the* \lplui and Omegu of the State's very existence. JJeinovc tlio- minus or the lain iiiij industry, und in six months there would not bo one thousand people in either Johannesburg or Pretoria." The stagnation rami', bankruptcy was imminent to the small firms, and people turned to each other and :aid : "Isn't anything better than this?" " I lie people, facing starvation and bankruptcy, called out for Chinese. Indians, coolies, convicts, lepers, eiiylliimr to relieve the terrible- .-.'tail tion." C'oncerniiia the Chinese at «.-nt ;

at work, the writer hau some interest, ing things to say. ••Tim compoind manager of the Now Comet Mine, - whore the hrst batch wore. drafted to t i)ld me that the A,sialics wei-e till' laziest and dirtiest set of cut throats lie hud ewr seen. 1 hey go down th« mine and \\ «.i U for Jiuff un l, oul . or so,and then ask to be taken to tbe top again, and if they are not taken up the whole gang goes 011 strike. Constfjm'litly the .ace is consU'itlv taking "p units all the day. ] n fact, they cost more for haulage tliun they are worth. They do contract work at from Is lid per foot for earth-drilling to .'is per foot rock-drilling, und they insi.-t on a minimum wugc, which in, f believe, C- 5s nioiitllly". . . Tliev cannot niuke their waue by piecework und though their clu«<pic will perlmp# reach £1 /is at (he end of the month they insist on the minimum wage, 'lho other day forty-one wore fined His each for refusing to work ; « few duVK hack thirteen others rioted, and knocked the compound manager down, anil stoned tin; mine manager, mid rushed the ollice. Tlioy who all sri'ested, and (lie majority received three inontlis' imprisonment. . . . Thin all occurred when they had been thiro le<-s than a month, and numbered in all about tbnc thousand. Wait till the forty thousand are hero and set going. J reckon we may anticipate some fun then. ..." ,

Anything, thinks the writer, might, happen now , as lie- Boers ure diss-itis-lied and uneasy, and the KufTirs insolent ami overbearing, while the influx of till' Chinese has caused thousands of these latter to be thrown out of work, ant! tiny arc a menace to the country, ('rime has increased, and lho unemployed whites are being driven to resort to d' -perate measures. "Sandbagging in the streets of Pretoria is becoming life ; banks are stuck up ; stores jre looted, and deaths and as.-aults all' common. And still tho Chinese conic in their tens of thousands. What a country this will bo sooll 1 Society is in a chaotic state. "Tho Uriton hates the IW.r and vice tersa, the Kallir hates both Boer und Hriton and vice versa, and everyone lodthes Ihe Chinese. The country is out.vardly ipiiei. but trouble may cuinc jn a year, when, according to promise, some -'ort of self^_.o\ernuient will be conceded. In Capetown alone there are thirteen hundred men on relief works. Durban is the -unie, und Johannesburg and Pretoria are inliiiit?ly* wor-e. for in addition to the unemployed ISrit islii-rs there is an army of worklis- liners." Things, he concludes, simply cannot go on as they aie for more than twelve months.

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