POSITION ON THE RAND

Otago Witness, Issue 3099, 6 August 1913, Page 29

POSITION ON THE RAND

MORE HOPEFUL OUTLOOK. OWNERS’ TERMS INADEQUATE. VIEWS OF RAILWAYMEN. LONDON, July 29. Lord Gladstone’s despatches in reference to the Johannesburg riots have been published. They state that the use of troops was necessary for the safety of the whole community. He would not have consented to their use in a trade dispute if tile police had been adequate. Allowance, he says, must be made for the miners, who have only recently realised the awful sacrifices exacted by phthisis, which he believes is the main root of the trouble. The troops saved the situation, and prevented the wholesale loss of life which would have followed in a period of Anarchy and pillage, in which tens of thousands of natives would have joined. July 30. Lord Gladstones despatches declared that the course of events after June 30 showed that the strike leaders’ counsels had been set aside. The strike was rushed, and there was no orderly organisation for the cessation of work. The native attitude was full of peril. If the natives had been reduced to idleness in massed compounds and brought to starvation by a railway stoppage it is only too probable that they would have broken loose. The sorrow of the situation could hardly be exaggerated as every kraal in South Africa would hear of the white man’s impotence. The Strike Committee had issued a circular inviting the strikers to come armed to the Benoni meeting, and evidence was accumulating that the strikers intended to use explosives in the mines. Any miner was able to appropriate dynamite with but a slight chance of detection. The military were separated into 62 detachments along 50 miles of reef, but only six detachments fired. It would have been impossible for the Union Government to have dealt with the situation with its own police and military, particularly as the men were mostly raw recruits owing to the transition to a citizen force. Lord Gladstone added that he intended formally to call the Ministers’ attention to the lessons taught by the recent events, and ho was sure that they would realise that the Imperial troops were not retained in South Africa to do the work which they had performed since June 30. On the Rand a more hopeful tone prevails owing to the Government’s firmness. The federation secretary writes that the Government’s terms have not been wholly rejected. August 1. In the House oi Commons Mr Outhwaito, in moving a reduction in the Colonial Office vote, declared that the Imperial troops in South Africa wore used lo hutti’ess a brutal and inhuman system. The death rate amongst the white miners was 3CO per thousand yearly. Mr Harcourt justified Lord Gladstone’s use of the troops, and said lie had acted promptly in circumstances of great difliculty under the advice of the responsible Ministers of a self-governing dominion. Mr A. Bouar Law agreed that Lord Gladstone’s action was necessary Mr Outhwaite then withdrew his motion. Further despatches from Lord Gladstone include the Labour proclamation which was published at Pretoria. It states In the name of law and order all those not having a grievance are invited to enroll themselves as a special police force to intimidate other citizens who foolishly think that they have grievances against the present-day pernicious society. The reward will be the glory and honour of keeping the working man in his place. Roll up with your rifles. Be free, he hi roes ! August 2. Router’s Johannesburg correspondent slates that the Parliamentary Labour party, which has previously been excluded from a direct voice in the Federation of Labour, took a new part after Sunday’s menacing decision, and throw all its weight against a strike. It is understood that the moderates intend purging Hie Federation of all syndicalist factors, and remodelling it on constitutional trade union lines. JOHANNESBURG, July 28. The Cabinet sat most of the day, and the police and troops have been quietly moved to their appointed stations. July 29. All the leading business houses in Capetown are organising, and their employees will bo sworn in as special constables if necessary. The English and Dutch farmers resent tlie dictatorial tone of the Labour leaders. The rejection of the mine owners' concessions is alienating public sympathy from the workers. The Rand Mail urges the Government to grant eight hours, inclusive of winding, and to withdraw tlie condition that union funds shall not be used for political purposes. The Transvaal Txader urges the Government and the community not to allow themselves to be terrorised. There is a great demand for food, householders laying in large stocks, but otherwise trade is stagnant, and merchants have cabled instructions to stop shipments. The Labour leaders threaten to organise and strike on so-called scientific lines,

causing damage and creating disturbances wherever the police are absent, hoping thus to terrorise the Government into submission. The Government’s chief anxiety is connected with the natives. Much seditious literature in native dialects is being circulated in the mines. Thirty thousand natives lost their wages for June and July owing to the stoppage of recruiting. This is threatening to throw man}' whites out of employment. Tlie Government and the mining authorities have completed plans to compulsorily repatriate a quarter of a million' natives in the event of a crisis despite the fact that it will take a year to restore the labour conditions. It has been arranged that the natives will be divided into parties of 1000 each. Lists have been prepared, and experienced men who speak the native languages are willing to command the parties. Haversacks have been prepared to enable each native to carry enough to take him from depot to depot. July 30. The Government has declined to reconsider the Labour demands. The Trades Federation has refused to adopt the Government’s suggestion for a general ballot on the question of a strike. Mr Connerty {president of the Railwaymen’s Society) has accepted the Government's invitation to join a commission to investigate the labour grievances. His acceptance indicates a split between a section of the railwaymen and the Trades Federation. The Crown law officers are considering the Federation’s manifestoes threatening to treat special constables as “scabs,” and calling on Labourites to resign from the citizens’ force. The Government anticipates that a largo proportion of the railwaymen will join in the strike, particularly those in the workshops, but a number of members of the running staff are believed to be loyal. It has been arranged that each train shall carry armed men and shall be preceded by a pilot engine owing to the fear of dynamite outrages. Vulnerable points on the route will bo strongly guarded. Martial law will bo proclaimed directly a strike is declared The Rand will be divided into zones, and will be patrolled by commandoes of burghers, who will prevent large bodies of strikers from assembling. Simultaneously the natives will be marched to their territories under armed convoys. The Government feels that this step is essential, otherwise the natives will be a menace to women and children, whereby the railwaymen will forthwith be asked to sign on for two years’, service in acceptance of the Government’s recent offer as the basis of settlement of their grievances. Those refusing to sign n il! be asked to resign. It is calculated that at least 70 per cent, will agree. July 31. The Government is continuing its preparations to cope with the situation m the event of a strike. Twenty thousand burghers will assist ihe Government if necessary. Gcnniston, which is an important railway junction, has been turned into an arsenal, including heavy ordnance, machine guns, and much ammunition. Many of the railwaymen are beginning to fear the results of extreme action. In the event of an illegal strike on the Government railways the strikers will forfeit their pensions and seniority. The would-be railway strikers are demanding from the Trades Federation a guarantee that the terms of any settlement shall include the restoration of the railwayman's privileges forfeited by striking. The railwaymen at Salt River and Towns River resolved against a general strike without a ballot. Some of the workers are asking that Sir G. Askwith (Urilish Industrial Commissioner) should arbitrate. Mr Huntsman (secretary of the Railwaymen’s Society) states that the railwaymen have totally dissociated themselves from revolutionary propaganda, consequently they secured the overthrow of a secret committee which was formed on Sunday with absolute revolutionary powers and a decision that the Trades Federation’s Executive and the railwayman's executive should conduct further negotiations jointly. Evidence given before the Judicial Commission which is inquiring into the riots showed that 1000 revolvers, many lilies, and 18,COO rounds of ammunition were looted from the gunsmiths’ shops on the night of the 4th inst. The police and the troops were subjected to a fusillade for two hours, chiefly from hooligans, and also snipers from buildings. The Socialist leaders earlier in the evening incited the mob to shoot and burn. Fifty delegates representing the amalgamated engineers and railwaymen carried a resolution that the Government’s offers and the employers’ terms were inadequate. A meeting of the Trades Federation resolved on no general strike at the present juncture. The men will rely on their industrial and political organisation to remedy their grievances. August 1. The Labour Federation lias expressed its disgust at the Government’s attitude. The resolution not to strike was carried by 65 votes to 18. The minority were all extremists. The miners voted solidly against a strike. The enforced discharge of many workers

from the mines owing to repatriation of' the natives is causing anxiety.

VIEWS OF AMERICAN SOCIOLOGIST. Thera is at present in Dunedin Mr E. S. Cox, a young American sociologist and a post-graduate of the University of Chicago, who is engaged on a live years’ tour of tha world in connection with his investigation* into the race question. Mr Cox has just completed a sojourn of three and a half years in Africa, during which ha travelled from Cane Town to Cairo. He has followed with a keen and discriminating vision the* struggles of the miners on the Rand for % betterment of conditions, and to a Daily Times reporter who sought an interviewwith him ho conveyed some idea of the causes of the trouble. “ The strike arose,” said Mr Cox in answer to a question, “ out of a defective Industrial Disputes Act. This Act require# that 30 days notoe shall be given before the conditions which may exist in a mine at one given time can be changed. To the Kleinfontein mine a manager was appointed who had been in charge of a mine that waa' employing mainly workmen of foreign extraction. On taking charge of the Kleinfontcin mine, where British workmen arc employed, lie gave notice that the conditions under which the men were working would be changed without the customary 50 days notice. 'J his was unsatisfactory to the workmen. In the previous strike five years ago the efforts of the men were not successful, because the engine-drivers would not go on strike, hut in this instance ifc was the engine-drivers who cone dored themselves aggrieved. The engine-drivers on coining out on strike were supported by the workmen below ground, and eventual ly by the workmen on tbs surface, including these in the crushing and cyanide departments. One sensational .'feature concerning the Kleinfontcin strike was that the native attempted to support his white boss, and tried to quit his work. Tin's was not tha case with the crude workers in the previous strike. At that time the work was done by Chinese. This disposition of the negro to side with h.is white boss accounts for tho proposed repatriation of file natives if the strike breaks out anew.”