The Thames Star. Resurrexi WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1907. SOUTH AFRICA OF TO-DAY.

Thames Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 10524, 24 April 1907, Page 2

The Thames Star. Resurrexi WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1907. SOUTH AFRICA OF TO-DAY.

A; eoriespondtoit, who has just return-; ed aiiter spending sum© time Ln Soiv.;h Aiftrioa, sends a^raither cheerless acoouutof the condition of affairs in Johannesburg and Durban.. Hi& story is all the more impressive from the fact that it is ,not cast iv ai sensational veinl. In Johannesburg'there are, he says, nearly two thousand unemployed who -are constantly holding 1 nieietinjgjs. and calling upon the autihorities to provide them with. work. Ai lairge proportion of the unhappy fellows signed a petition praying! Lord Selborne to deport thiean to other colonies, but thiei Governor is atot anxious, of course; to.- assist •jn sanding population away. Even, when, men are <oult of work tihey v may be : counted among the assets of a country. .Ait the beginniinig; of Ittst month there were 3000 empty houses in Johiamniesterg, and in January 328 bankruptcies were filed in this local Court. Several of the mines had ceased developmienit work, on. account of rfoeiving nlo money from L/ondon., and had greatly reduded tihe nuoxilbcr. of t3i«ir hiands. Tho meni dismissed have gone to swell the army of unemployed and to increase the diißfioulties ■of.th© officials wlxo are trying to deal with the prevailing 1, distoeias'. The state of, affairs in 'Durban is even worsen The Nabal Government has gdven a Dumber of mien ©xr^'-'nient at 2s a. dair and tshefiir fations fof the reclamafcioo, works ait Comjella Hiairibour, but- tH,ere are still Ihiunidireds of men wailikiing nlboint tihe town with noithinig to do. Many of these are vAiustrali'ania.' who have iramped to Diurban from, "updoomtirv" with the hope of Ibeinpr aiMe to beg or work. tbieir passag© home. East London is inm/ueih the sanvs condition. This was a great resort for rasfugees from the 'Bland during the w*aar 'tame, and tihe seven or eight thousand people who invadedi "tihie town helped to fill the coffers of the tir'adesirsien and! the lodgjiiig-house -keepers 5 but when tihe visitors returned to their iHlomes alter the peace, Hie prosperity of the place departed with them, and it is .ntoiw one of the most .desolate spotsl ml Sbuth Alfrica,. The>" truth is thaifc tMa dountry is sufferinigi a r&eoveiry frotaii the feverish activi*- of a fe^v yeaim aso. and a vary ;bad recovery.It, wtili require all the rwitriotism and nil, th'S sapidity of its staitesuKMfc tb Jead it took' to •dpnvalesrenre. ,