CHINESE LABOUR FOR THE RAND

Otago Witness, Issue 2607, 2 March 1904, Page 15

CHINESE LABOUR FOR THE RAND

— ♦ LONDON, February 25. The New South Wales Agent-general, Si a long letter in the Standard expressing his private opinion, regrets the Imperial Government standing godfather to Chinese labour, and predicts that much physical and moral evil will result to the whole' of South Africa. He says it is a mistake to ignore the opinion of industrial workers at Home and Australasia at a time when perhaps every man may shortly be required for the defence of the Hag. He insists that Australasian experience shows that deep mining is

» payable with white labour. He hopes the importation of Chinese will at least be restricted to a bare experiment. The letter attracted the Hon. A. Lyttelton's attention. Some of the Agents-general, ! apart from the merits of the case, think interference injudicious. The General Federation of trades unions protested against the introduction of forced and fettered cheap labour into South Africa. The Miners' Federation of Great Britain protested against a system which amounted to slavery.