THE CHINESE RAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1716, 18 January 1905, Page 59

THE CHINESE RAND.

THE WHITE LEAGUE. AN EMISSARY IN WELLINGTON. The white colonists of South Africa ane not going to allow the Chinese question to go by default. Though there are now over twenty thousand Chinese labouring in the Rand mines, and the ordinance for their admission is promulgated beyond dispute, the whites are not standing quietly by. Two years ago a White League was formed at Johannesburg. It has progressed in the face of every sort of boycott and discouragement, and today the honorary secretary is in Wellington. He is on his way to England to take part in the general elections, which he is confident will prove a success to the Liberal party on the Chinese question alone.

Interviewed by a “Mail” reporterlast week, this gentleman mentioned that Oswestry was represented by a Conservative for over seventy years. At the recent by-election the Chinese question was brought prominently forward, the secretary of the league taking an active part in the campaign and the Liberal candidate won. That election the White League regards as the turning point of Liberalism, and, as a sequence, of the anti-Chinese campaign. HOW THE LEAGUE WAS BORN. When the White League was formed the movement was remarkable for its spontaneity. All the services are voluntary, and the officers pay their own expenses, believing that the best results can be obtained by unpaid men. Soon after its inception, the league held large meetings in different towns in the Transvaal, and resolutions were forwarded to t*he Acting High Commissioner. No reply was received, and it was thus evident at once in what direction the sympathies of the authorities were. A draft law was prepared, and a numerously-signed petition was presented to the Acting High Commissioner asking that a referendum should be taken before the ordinance was sanctioned. The reply was that to take such a step would be “a slight to the Council at Pretoria,” which Council consisted partly of the heads of departments and partly of representatives nominated by the Commissioner. In the event of representative government being granted to the Transvaal, the league has no doubt whatever as to being able to carry the elections. Tli© fight was-soon a grimly real one. One after another the Rand newspapers, formerly the organs of the people, passed under the aegis of the great controlling companies. The latter were determined to carry out their policy. Cape Colony would not allow the Chinese to pass through its ports; so the controlling houses set to work to establish what was to ail intents and purposes a boycott ; to divert trade to Durban or Delagoa Bay. The same system was adopted within the Transvaal Colony. For a long time pastanyone in Johannesburg who opposed the Chinese policy has been boycotted. This means ruin. Consequently, it is not surprising to hear that one of the leading anti-Chinese agitators in-Jo-hannesburg has fallen away from the cause. “He is lying low, for fear o? further injuring his business. He has not been heard on the public platform since June.” AN ASIATIC DEPENDENCY.

The object of the Chinese policy is thus referred to by a prominent member of the Cape Parliament, writing to the secretary of the league: : —“You have no doubt seen the significant remarks of Dr Jameson, who has entirely gone back on his election declarations, and no doubt carries the capitalistic wing of his party with him. The end, the attainment of wealth, justifies the means in the eyes of most people. The true end, the creation of an Asiatic dependency, will come later.” Any such establishment of an Asiatic dependency in South Africa, the White League is convinced, must reflect its injurious effects on the other colonies of the Empire. The secretary expresses it thus succinctly:—“The Asiatics do not require any of your produce, butter, or foodstuffs of any description. The rice, dholl, and condiments they consume are naturally obtained from India or China. In this way an injury will be done to all the colonies.” HOW TO OUST JOHN. The visitor aptly applies the proposition of Chinese competition to the case of New Zealand and Wellington. Assuming, he said, that Chinese living on from 10s to 20s per month displaced Europeans earning say £lO per month, it was a matter of easy calculation to arrive at a period within which they could repay the poll tax of £IOO. When this tax and interest had been repaid to the controlling company in China which advanced the money, the Chinaman was at liberty to continue making his £lO a month and more on limited expenses. He not only displaced whites, but the mo rev he saved went to enable others

to com© out who would willingly pay a polltax of £2OO. If the cry was put forth that the prohibition of Chinese would do away with the fruit trade, the reply was that a syndicate could be formed to open shops and supply vegetables and fruit. Then there might be the cry: Where were the vegetables to come from unless the Chinese grew them? He had seen vegetables growing in profusion in many parts of Wellington. Surely the Government could allocate, say, fifty acres for workmen’s gardens, or to be cut up into sections for market gardens. There were endless possibilities for fruit-growers’ and farmers’ associations to establish distributing shops and obtain the profit that was due to them. Hand laundries could also be established to provide employment for young girls. PUBLIC OPINION THROTTLED.

The league, knowing too well the terrible wrong that had been done to South Africa by a few men whom it had made wealthy and who were desirous of becoming richer, was now putting forth its best effort to stay the evil, and would not rest until its efforts were successful.

Public opinion in Johannesburg and the Transvaal had been crushed and boycotted into sullen silence. The Chinese and Indians would have to* be taught to develop their own countries. Mauritius had been practically given over to them. Natal was overrun with Asiatics, and a similar doom would overtake, sooner or later, the colonies that listened to the fleeting charms of introducing coloured races. The Indians at public meetings had put. forth the claim for equal rights as British subjects, but the South Africans were not prepared to sell the heritage of the white people to a race whose conditions of living were admittedly insanitary and bounded by the expenditure of ten shillings per month. In New Zealand he believed we had a magnificently prosperous country; therefore, we had the greater need to zealously guard tlxe interests of the people. He came here particularly to express the gratitude of the people of South Africa for the helpful part that New Zealand had taken in the argument on the Chinese question, and to interview Mr Seddon, whose name appeared in the South African press in connection with the resolutions of the New Zealand Parliament. THE CHINESE IN BEING.

Speaking of the actual arrivals of Chinese on the Rand, the secretary of the league said:—“On my return from England last September I found the Chinese already installed in the Transvaal. There are now between 23,000 and 25,000 in South Africa, and from two to three thousand are arriving by each steamer. They are all being landed at Durban, because Cape Colony absolutely refused to allow them to land at Capetown, Port Elizabeth, or East London. In deference to the wish of tiie Archbishop cf Canterbury, a clause was inserted in the ordinance providing that. Chinese women should accompany their husbands, but not one Chinese woman has yet arrived. Consequently, the Chinese, whose tendency is towards bestiality, are depraving the Kaffir women, insulting white women, and bringing degradation upon the country.” JOHANNESBURG TO-DAY. The position in Johannesburg at present makes an unedifying narrative. For a period of nine months the Wern-her-Beit-Eck stein combine made a total profit of £2,173,454 out of the Rand mines and other interests, while five other controlling companies during the same period made £1,507,043 profit. Yet these great companies, making such tremendous profits, Avere unable to pay Avhite men’s Avages. “When I left Johannesburg at the end of November,” said the secretary of the league, “there were thousands of white men unemployed, walking about the streets. Public meetings Avere being held, and an appeal was being made to the Government for assistance. Many of the men were discharged volunteers; others had been working on the mines, and had been discharged as no longer wanted.” “Yes, they could get any number of blacks. The late Commissioner of Natives still holds the opinion that we have ample native labour for the mines if they will only go the right way to get it. As it is, there are thousands of Kaffirs living in their kraals in idleness, because the conditions the controlling companies make for the Chinese are very much better than they will allow the Kaffirs. They build special houses for the accommodation of the Chinese, and provide them with special food. One of the newspaper correspondents in Johannesburg graphically described what he saAV amongst the Chinese.—the tasty food, meat, and condiments, and white bread —-while the Kaffirs had greatly inferior accommodation, and often were fed on inferior mealie meal (Indian corn). And the Kaffirs have received little or no protection from the Commissioner. In spite of the introduction of Chinese, there are over eighty thousand blacks employed in the mines.” CHINESE AS WORKMEN. Questioned particularly as to hoAv the Chinese were succeeding in the mines, the visitor replied: “I ansivered that

same question put by the editor of one of the papers in the Transvaal. The reply is they are as great a success as they would be if employed in the dockyards in England, in the warehouses, on the railways perhaps driving an engine, and in other spheres of life. They Avould Avork, moreover, at a third of the Avages the Avhite people are now earning. But then comes the problem we are trying to grapple with: What are A\ r e do with the white people? In Johannesburg alone there were two years ago over three thousand licensed Asiatic tradesmen. We took up the coolie question years ago, because in Natal and other parts of South Africa there vrere coolies living in a manner opposed to all European ideas, at a cost ranging from ten to tAventy shillings per month. In Natal, coolies were acting as signalmen and firemen on the railways, and taking the places of \Adiit© men in offices.” It was only at a later date that the Chinese question appeared on the horizon, and made the league fight more strongly than before.