The Ensign. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1914. SOUTH AFRICAN CRISIS.

Mataura Ensign, 14 January 1914, Page 4

The Ensign. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1914. SOUTH AFRICAN CRISIS.

The Labor crisis in South Africa is undoubtedly the most serious labor outbreak of late years. The conditions prevailing in the African union are peculiar. The country has never really settled down since the war and the demobilisation of the Boer and colonial forces after tlia protracted struggle threw many men into unaccustomed positions. Veldt farmers had had a taste of town life and many of them refused to return to their ihomes; adventurers from all parts of the world who had assembled to take part in the war, found South Africa to their liking and remained in the two chief citiea of the Transvaal. These and other elements combined to form a town population of a most unsatisfactory character. Then the mine owners, who had been largely responsible for the war, took advantage of the position they had gained to make the worker's lot a difficult one, and the importation of Chinese had a prejudicial effect upon labor conditions. After the Union was formed and party politics were introduced, Mr Botha, like politicians the world over, desired to retain office, and coquetted with the Labor party which had been formed. This was done to make certain of defeating the Opposition. But Mr Botha was not prepared to pay the price. The result of tie political and social jumble is not only a bitter feud between capital and labor, | but also between a large Section of the working class and the Government. This feeling was accentuated last July when the miners' strike was put' down with such a strong hand. The mobilisation of the forces of the Union on this occasion proves without doubt that the Government intends at all costs to pre-

servo order and put down the lawlessness which has been shown. There are classes of men to be found on the Rand who will stick at nothing to attain their ends, but these classes are not confined to the workers. Thev are just as common among the employers. This has been proved over and over again during the past few years. But the tactics followed by the strikers deserve condemnation—-dynamiting railway lines and plant cannot bring success to their cause. The State must J in these cases vise the strongest we"a-1 pons to put down such lawlessness. In so far as the men are seeking to remove legitimate grievances they are within j their rights, but they cannot expect to i attain their ends in Africa or elsewhere i bv the sympathetic strike and the use j of the other direct methods advocated | by the syndicalist. The problems be-, fore the statesmen of South Africa are' very intricate indeed, and are com pi i- ■ cated by the native question. The native far exceeds the white population in number, and it is increasing much faster. Many of their chiefs are w»ll, educated —some are graduates of thpj English Universities. These educated men are endeavoring to raise their fellows and give them a wider outlook;

they are encouraging them to learn and read and thus acquire some knowledge of what is occurring outside the'r villages. The native obeys his chief implicitly even to the death. Everywhere throughout South Africa the native is ceasing to regard the white as a being to be reverenced and regarded as a master. There is in existence it is said, a union between the Basuto and Zulu nations with the object of establishing 'a, black Kingdom. With these important matters .before it the Union Government has quite enough to occupy its attention without attacks from within, for when the natives find there are dissensions among the whites they will in all probability take an early opportunity of putting their aspirations to the test. The fact that the natives must be kept in check if the white race is to remain paramount, explains the severe methods adopted at Jagersfontein, where it was reported the native workmen had risen. It largely explains also the action of the Government in mobilising the large force of 60,000 men in the present crisis. This is probably intended as a demonstration in force not only to the lawless elements in the white population but also to the blacks, whose leaders are constantly watching the progress of events. The strike will end as all other general strikes have done in the defeat of the workers; but out of the defeat will come better conditions wherever they aro justified according to public opinion. For it is public opinion that settles all working and social conditions. So soon as this indefinable but exceedingly powerful factor has become convinced that alterations for bettering working conditions are necessary they will be brought about, and this will be the case in the South African mines and other employments.