SOUTH AFRICA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16820, 27 May 1919, Page 7

SOUTH AFRICA.

RECOGNITION OF WAR SERVICES Australian and N.Z. Cable Assa. Received 7.30 p.m., May 26th. : CAPETOWN, May 21. In the Assembly, the Minister of Railways announced that tha Imperial s Government had decided to give the Union Government half a million sterling worth of railway material, in recognition of national service rendered during the war. THE DUAL CAPITAL. The Senate rejected a motion to abolish the present scheme of having.a dual capital. Capetown and Pretoria-, and to establish one central capital. THE GOLD MINES. BAD TIMES AHEAD. Sir E. Wallers, President of' the Johannesburg mine, in a letter to the Premier, warns him of_ the critical position of the gold-mining industry. Nothing could now prevent a number of important mines closing shortly. He urges on the Government consideration of the position in view of the unemployment and distress that must rev suit. The Minister of Mines, interviewed, said the Government realised the gravity of the position'and was anxious to assist, r but the Government could nob to keep the mines working at a loss. It was considering the appointment of a Commission to inquire into the whole position, with special consideration of the problem of the relation of native coloured labour, to the mines. The Cane Copper Company's mine in Namaqualand' is closed, idling three hundred European/} and three thousand natives.

SPREAD OF BOLSHEVISM. PRETORIA, May 21.. Evidence is increasing of the spread of Bolshevism in certain quarters, and' the constitution of an international socialist league in the Transvaal, which states that special attention will be paid to native workers, who must be educated in order to found a socialist republic along with the whites when the hour of revolution strikes. LAWS REGARDING ASIATICS. Received 8 p.m. May 26th. CAPETOWN, Mav 23. The Assembly amended the Indians Bill to prevent Asiatics holding mortgages of property except as security for a bona fide loan or as an investment; also providing that any Asiatic company which has acquired fixed property after the Ist instant should dispose of it within a given period. A clause was adopted giving any issuing authority in the Transvaal a right to refuse trading licenses to Asiatics without assigning a reason.