THE CHINESE HOAX.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10960, 1 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE CHINESE HOAX.

COMPLETE EXPOSURE OF

ELECTION FICTION.

The severest rebuff which, has yet been administered to the Government m connection with the sham: cry. of "Chinese slavery" whioh won the general election (says the LondonJExpress) has come from one of its most active supporters, Sir J. West Ridgeway, who ".was specially chosen by the Cabinet as chairman of the Committee of Inquiry which went to South Africa to report and advise on the grant of the new Constitution to the Transvaal.

Iri a statement made to Reuter s Agency Sir West Ridgeway said*:—, '•There is : no slavery, and nothing having a : semblance of slavery. . The Chinese are there of their own- free^ will, and have the option to leave if they caro to do so. They, do riot accept the offer. . ''There is an impression m England that they are, ifripris^ed m enclosures. Nothing; of the sort. v ''The compounds which they inhabit cover a large area, and are unfenced and practically unguarded, and it is- 'impossible ."-to prevent the Chinese from leaving them if they care to do so. "The consequence' is that there is not a farmhouse • within fifteen or twenty miles of Johannesburg - which ,is gate from pillage and attack. If anything, the Chinese have too much, liberty, and I should not be surprised if the new. legislation of the Transyaal Government .were to impose further restrictions upon them." '. -