'AVE, CROESUS, MORITURI TE SALUTANT'
"The problem is a very urgent problem. The necessity of going forward
is an urgent and vital necessity in the economical condition of the
country. I will tell the House why in a sentence. The mines are 30,000
natives short of the number engaged in the pre-war period."
These were the words subsequently used by Mr. Lyttelton, the Colonial
Secretary. The matter _was_ urgent. Already protests were pouring
in from every part of the Empire. Imperial meetings, white league
meetings, anti-slavery meetings, political meetings--all the machinery,
in short, of protest and obstruction was being got under weigh, and to
the Rand lords it seemed as if the ideal of slavery for which they had
struggled so long and so hard was to be denied them at the last hour.
The anguish of Sir Lancelot when a vision of the Holy Grail was denied
him after all his trials and tribulations was not greater or more
poignant than the trepidation of the mine owners. It became, indeed, a
very urgent problem for them, for unless they could bring the matter
to a head, not even the strongest Government of the century could hope
to withstand the popular will when once it was organized sufficiently
to voice its petition loudly enough.
But of economical necessities there were none.
It was natural after such a devastating war that some time should
elapse before the mines could get into full working order and attain
that wonderful output of gold which prevailed immediately before the
outbreak of hostilities. The progress of the gold industry after the
war had to be gradual; but so far from it being depressed or showing
signs of being stagnant, it had, as I have already shown, increased
enormously. Already it was within measurable distance of the output of
the pre-war period. The economical necessity was not the necessity of
importing cheap labour, but the necessity of paying a proper wage to
the Kaffir and of treating him well.
Already Dr. Jameson, who in no sense was a partisan opponent of the
Rand capitalists, had declared in November 1903 that the De Beers
Company would not employ Chinamen--that they had plenty of labour,
white and black, because they treated their people well.
But the Rand mine owners not only did not pay their Kaffirs a proper
wage, but meted out to them such treatment that the death-rate among
them had increased since 1902 to an extent which, to express it in
mild terms, was appalling. I quote the figures below--
NATIVE MORTALITY ON MINES
IN JOHANNESBURG, KRUGERSDORP, BOKSBURG, GERMISTON, AND SPRINGS.
Period: November 1902--July 1903.
No. of Death-rate
During the Month. Natives No. of per 1000
Employed. Deaths. per annum.
November 1902 46,710 247 63·4
December " 48,542 324 80·90
January 1903 49,761 253 61·01
February " 55,288 207 44·9
March " 57,022 235 49·4
April " 62,265 269 51·8
May " 65,371 431 79·1
June " 68,819 492 85·7
July " 70,474 627 106·7
Average number of natives employed per month 58,250
Average number of deaths per month 343
Average death-rate per 1000 per annum per month 70·6
This was the economical necessity that should have occupied the
attention of his Majesty's Government, and not the question of
introducing Chinese indentured labour into the colony. That the mine
owners have successfully baulked in the past all inquiry as to their
treatment of natives is proved conclusively by the fact that even these
statistics did not draw forth a commission from the Government to
inquire into such a terrible state of affairs. Instead of the question
being, "Why is it Kaffirs die at the rate of seventy per thousand
per month?" the problem they set themselves was how to provide an
alternative to these quick-dying wage-wanting niggers. Attempts had
been made to procure coolie labour from India, and Lord Curzon never
did a greater or a nobler thing than when he refused the sanction of
his Government to such a step.
Mr. Chamberlain said in the Commons that Lord Curzon should have been
overruled; an inexplicable remark from a man who had had the courage
to say to the miners that it was better they should be governed from
Downing Street than from Park Lane.
In December 1903 General Ben Viljeon informed a labour commissioner
that a petty chief had told him recently that if he sent 100 boys
to the Rand only 66 returned, and some of them had scurvy. It was
not wonderful, therefore, that black labour was scarce; but it
was wonderful that his Majesty's Government did not take steps to
put an end to a state of things which they must have known to be
terrible, instead of merely substituting for the ill-used, underpaid,
criminally-treated but free labouring Kaffirs Chinamen who were to be
nothing better than slaves.
But the drawing up of the draft Ordinance went forward. It was hurried
on at an incredible rate. Until the last minute it was kept back from
Parliament, and the Blue-book dealing with the alleged necessities for
introducing yellow labour was only placed in the hands of the members
of the House of Commons a few days before Mr. Herbert Samuel moved his
famous amendment to the King's Address--"It is highly inexpedient that
sanction should be given to any Ordinance permitting the introduction
of indentured Chinese labourers into the Transvaal Colony until the
approval of the colonists has been formally ascertained."
At one end of the cable sat Lord Milner, pricked on by the Rand
lords, at the other end sat the Colonial Secretary, anxious to be
fair, anxious to be humane, anxious to do nothing contrary to the
historic principles of British rule, but bemused by the clamour of the
Transvaal, and seeing in the protests against the Ordinance only party
moves and party partisanship. The clamour for the Ordinance increased
day by day.
Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman had managed to extract a pledge from the
Government, by which Lord Milner was instructed to introduce into
the Ordinance a clause suspending its operation pending further
instructions from home. But it was pointed out that the matter was of
such great urgency that his Majesty's Government could not undertake to
postpone their decision longer than the termination of the debate on
the Address.
As a matter of fact, they had already made up their minds. It was
stated that if a colony desired Chinese labour it was not for the
Imperial Parliament to interfere. To have done so would have been
contrary to the traditions of Imperial Government. But when Mr. Herbert
Samuel asked that the Ordinance should not be permitted until the
approval of the colonists in the Transvaal had been formally obtained
by the natural expedient of a referendum, Lord Milner asserted that to
hold a referendum was impossible--it would occupy too much time, that
at any rate it was an expedient unknown in any part of the British
Empire.
As a matter of fact, a referendum has been put in practice in South
Australia, in New Zealand, in New South Wales, and was used more
recently to decide upon the important question of the Australian
Commonwealth. That it would have occupied six months to take such a
referendum, during which period the gold of the Transvaal would have
vanished, everybody would have refused to work, and the Kaffir market
would have been blotted out, was preposterous. Yet, at the moment when
Lord Milner made this statement, a census of the colony was taken,
which only occupied seven weeks. It is not unreasonable to assume that
such a referendum would have occupied more than a month.
All the arguments of the Opposition were in vain against such
plausibility. It was useless to point out that while the educated
Chinese were good citizens, the bitter experience of Australia,
Canada, the United States and New Zealand proved conclusively that the
uneducated Chinamen, wherever they went, were vicious, immoral and
unclean, hated by the white man, loathed and feared by every decent
white woman. The Government admitted the danger of allowing 50,000
Chinamen to be planted down in a colony without any restrictions. Their
introduction was a regrettable necessity; and so it was proposed to
keep them in compounds, to round them up every night like sheep, to
make them liable to heavy penalties if they wandered abroad without a
permit. This was the only way, they declared, in which these necessary
evils could be used. Of the necessity of utilizing the evil at all they
were convinced, and no argument succeeded in shaking their faith. It
was pointed out to them that this would be semi-slavery, if not indeed
actual slavery. The Chinaman was not to be employed in any position
but that of a miner; he could not improve his position; he could not
give notice to one employer and go to another. He could never leave the
compound without permission. If he struck work he could be imprisoned.
He was bound to reside on the premises of his employer, in charge of a
manager appointed for the purpose. Permission to leave these premises
might or might not be granted; but in any case he could never be
absent for more than forty-eight hours at a time. If he escaped, he
could be tracked down, arrested without a warrant and imprisoned by a
magistrate, while anybody who harboured or concealed him was fined £50,
or imprisoned in default of payment.
The Ordinance was without parallel in the Empire. Because the Chinese
were competitors, because they were a moral and social danger, the
supporters of the Ordinance were compelled to devise some system under
which it could become law in the Transvaal, and by which they could yet
prevent any one of the Chinamen brought in being able at any time to
leave his employment and turn to other and more profitable undertakings.
Only a casuist could call this anything else but slavery. One of our
most unsuccessful ministers tried to find a parallel between this
system and the life of our soldiers--a parallel so bright and so
pleasing that no one, I think, has yet attempted to spoil the bloom of
this flower of grim humour by disclosing its absurdity. The Transvaal
Government had, in fact, gone to the statute books of the slave states
of America for a model for their Ordinance.
It was soon seen and realized that any attempt to negative the
Ordinance must prove abortive. All that the Opposition could do was to
render it as innocuous as possible, and to secure as many guarantees
as they could for the proper moral and physical treatment of the
unfortunate Chinamen. They extracted pledges and promises galore, most
of which have been completely broken.
On March 21, 1904, Mr. Lyttelton, after stating that the average Kaffir
wage was 50s. for thirty days' work, made this statement in the House
of Commons--"Chinamen would receive in the Transvaal at least 2s. a
day. I stand here and give the House my assurance that the Chinese
will receive at least the amount I have specified."
At that time, when this well-meaning pledge was made, the Kaffir was
only receiving 33s. per month. But even had he been receiving 50s. a
month, which Mr. Lyttelton in his ignorance imagined, was it at all
likely that the Rand owner would pay the Chinaman 2s. a day, or 60s.
a month, that is to say, 10s. a month more than they were presumably
paying the Kaffirs? Of course, the mine magnates were not going to pay
the Chinaman more than the 33s. they were paying the Kaffir.
Mr. Lyttelton's pledge was summarily disposed of by Lord Milner and the
mine owners.
After at first insisting on a minimum of 1s. a day instead of 2s.,
Lord Milner finally made this plausible promise, that if within six
months the average pay was not more than 50s. for thirty days' work,
the minimum should be raised from 1s. to 1s. 6d. a day. Mr. Lyttelton's
maximum of 2s. a day was thus reduced to a possible minimum of 1s. 6d.
a day.
Another delightful pledge was also given. It seemed almost indeed as
if the Transvaal Government were continually advising Lord Milner to
cable, saying, "Promise anything in heaven or earth, but let's get this
Ordinance through."
With somewhat unusual consideration, the opinion of the Chinese
Government had been asked on the subject. Speaking through their
ambassador, the Chinese Government insisted that the immigrant should
have free access to the courts of justice to obtain redress for injury
to his personal property.
On March 10, 1904, Mr. Lyttelton stated that the Chinese labourers
would have the same right of access to the courts as all the other
subjects of his Majesty's dominions. Any subject of his Majesty's
dominions has the right to appear before a court when he has any
grievance. That is the right of all subjects of his Majesty's
dominions. The Chinaman, according to Mr. Lyttelton, was to have the
same right. As a matter of fact, he has no right of access to the
courts, except by leave of an inspector.
Again, Mr. Lyttelton declared, when the Chinese Government raised the
point of flogging, that there was no power in the Ordinance to impose
flogging. There was not at that time. But four months later, on July
28, an Ordinance was assented to by which the resident magistrate had
the right to flog in cases where the conviction was a conviction of
robbery, in cases of any statutory offence for which flogging could be
only given for the second conviction, in cases of assault of a grave
character or intended to do serious bodily harm, or, indeed, to commit
any offence.
I shall deal later in detail with the punishments that have been
inflicted on the yellow slaves that work in their slavery under the
Union Jack. It is at present only my object to outline the policy
of promising anything and making all sorts of preposterous pledges
in order that the clamours of the Rand lords might be gratified. In
Johannesburg they knew well that if once indentured labour was agreed
to in principle, it would be easy to make what alterations they wished
in the spirit or the letter of the Ordinance.
In February 1904 Mr. Lyttelton stated with regard to the importation of
women with the Chinese--"We are advised in this matter by men of the
most experience in the whole Empire on the subject of Chinese labour.
We are advised that the coolies would not go without their womenfolk.
Manifestly it would be wrong that they should go without their
womenfolk if they were desirous of taking them with them."
To quiet the lethargic conscience of that adept courtier, his Grace
the Archbishop of Canterbury, it was declared that the interests of
public morality demanded that the Chinamen should be accompanied by
their wives, and that this was one of the essential conditions of the
Ordinance. It was pointed out at the time that once the mine owners
had 5000 indentured labourers, they would not take upon themselves the
burden of supporting their wives, with an average of three children
apiece. It would mean 250,000 women and children. And it is almost
inconceivable that even Mr. Lyttelton could have imagined that the
cosmopolitan proprietors of the Transvaal would have taken upon
themselves the superintendence of human beings utterly incapable of
dragging gold from the earth.
As a matter of fact, Chinese have never taken their wives into foreign
countries, and therefore the moral question, which so concerned Dr.
Davidson for one brief day, was not settled. As a matter of fact, it
was stated at the beginning of this year by the Colonial Secretary that
while 4895 wives were registered as accompanying their husbands, only
two women and twelve children had actually been brought over!
It was stated by Mr. Lyttelton, at the same time as he satisfied the
conscience of the most Reverend Primate, that the Chinaman would be so
well fed and so lightly worked that in the interests of morality it
was physically necessary that he should be accompanied by his wife.
In explaining the fact that only two women and twelve children had
accompanied the thirty or forty thousand Chinamen up to the beginning
of 1905, the Colonial Secretary remarked in effect that this fact would
not lead to immorality, because the Chinaman's food was so frugal and
his work was so steady that he would be almost physically incapable of
those passions which are a source of so much trouble, of so much crime,
of so much happiness, and of so much beneficence to the white man, the
black man, the red man, and the brown man. Life under the Rand lords,
in short, was practically emasculating, and therefore immorality was
impossible.
I shall deal with this subject later on. For the present I will point
out that this was the fourth pledge that had been given in the House
of Commons, only to be broken, not, I admit, by Mr. Lyttelton and the
Government, but by their masters, the mine owners on the Rand.
The Opposition steadily opposed the Government in the House.
Major Seely and Mr. Winston Churchill left the Conservative Party,
Major Seely resigning his seat to test the temper of his constituents
in the Isle of Wight on this very subject. The electors in the Isle of
Wight were of no uncertain temper. They returned Major Seely to the
House, thereby proving, as all subsequent by-elections have proved,
that the Chinese Labour Ordinance is bitterly opposed by the vast
majority of freedom-loving Britons.
It had been the custom during the war to submit very largely to the
opinion of the colonies. In fact, the influence of colonial opinion
had partly directed the policy of the Government for several years.
Mr. Chamberlain constantly submitted to it, before, during, and after
the war. He had based his bold venture of Tariff Reform on this very
opinion. It was because the colonies would think this or would say
that, that the British workman was to submit to a tax upon corn, a tax
upon clothes, a tax upon everything else. It was reasonable to expect,
therefore, that on such an important Imperial question, touching the
welfare of a colony, to possess which the whole of the Empire had
risen in arms, and men had poured from the snows of Canada and the
rolling plains of the Bush, the opinions of the Five Nations would
have been consulted. But even if the Government did not submit to this
recognition of their services, to this acceptance of a common Imperial
interest, it was only natural to have supposed that they would have
at least taken into account the advice of Canada, Australia, and New
Zealand, who had experienced the evils of Chinese immigration.
I have travelled all over the Orange River Colony, Natal, Cape Colony,
and the Transvaal, and the colonial people and the Dutch were all
unanimously against the introduction of the Chinese on the Rand. I
have never yet met one person in favour of the Ordinance. And since
the Ordinance became law, and the yellow slaves began their work at
the mines, nearly every person I have met in South Africa has openly
regretted the war, and declared that they preferred the days of Paul
Kruger, whose Government may have been corrupt, but was at any rate
based on the principle that it is the duty of a white government to
look after the moral and social welfare of its white subjects.
Mr. Chamberlain himself declared that there was considerable
indignation expressed throughout South Africa at the proposal to
introduce Chinese labour, and that a vast majority of the people
throughout South Africa were bitterly opposed to the Ordinance.
The colonies were not slow in sending passionate protests to the
Colonial Office against the Ordinance. Mr. Seddon wired--"My Government
desire to protest against the proposal to introduce Chinese labour
into South Africa. They foresee that great dangers, racial, social and
political, would inevitably be introduced by Chinese influx, however
stringent the conditions of introduction and employment may be."
Mr. Deakin, the Premier of Australia, declared that Australia had been
told that the war was a miners' war, but not for Chinese miners; a war
for the franchise, but not for Chinese franchise. The truth, if it had
been told, would have presented a very different aspect, and would have
made a very different appeal to Australia.
Cape Colony, which was more intimately concerned with the welfare of
the Transvaal than any other portion of the Empire, passed a resolution
in the Cape Parliament, "That this House, taking cognizance of the
resolution passed at the recent Conference held at Bloemfontein on the
subject of the qualified approval of the importation of Asiatic labour,
desires to express its strong opposition to any such importation as
prejudicial to the interests of all classes of people in South Africa."
This last resolution had been sent to the Government as long before as
July 1903, when the first steps were being taken to pave the way for
yellow slavery.
But of all these protests the Government took no notice whatever.
They met all questions with a statement that the Transvaal was to be
allowed to decide on its own internal affairs; and when the Opposition
demanded that the opinion of the Transvaal should be taken, so that
these principles could be carried into effect, they replied that a
referendum, the only means of ascertaining this opinion, would take six
months, during which time the Transvaal would be ruined.
Never was the logic of any of the characters in _Alice in Wonderland_
so unanswerable.
In the Transvaal itself loud and indignant protests were made against
the proposal. But the Rand lords asserted their supremacy with ruthless
severity. The _Transvaal Leader_, the _Transvaal Advertiser_, and the
Johannesburg _Star_ all opposed the introduction of Asiatic labour.
Their respective editors, Mr. R. J. Pakeman, Mr. J. Scoble, and Mr.
Monypenny, were compelled to resign because they refused to sacrifice
their opinions for their proprietors. Some idea of the pressure that
was brought to bear, may be seen in the valedictory editorial which Mr.
Monypenny wrote on retiring from the editorship of the Johannesburg
_Star_:--
"To the policy of Chinese immigration, to which the Chamber of Mines
has decided to devote its energies, the present editor of the _Star_
remains resolutely opposed, and declines in any way to identify himself
with such an experiment. To the ideal of a white South Africa, which,
to whatever qualifications it may necessarily be subject, is something
very different from the ideal of a Chinese South Africa, he resolutely
clings, with perfect faith that whatever its enemies may do to-day
that ideal will inevitably prevail. But as the financial houses which
control the mining industry of the Transvaal have for the present
enrolled themselves among its enemies the present editor of the _Star_
withdraws."
It is not difficult to read between the lines here and see the
determination of the mining magnates to crush every opposition to their
will.
Mr. Cresswell, who had stood out for white labour on the Village
Main Reef mine, and had proved conclusively that white labour could
be employed at a profit greater than that at which black labour was
employed, was compelled to resign his general managership. Mr. Wybergh,
Commissioner of Mines, and for long a distinguished servant of the
Government, had dared to protest against Chinese serfdom, and was
forced also to resign.
Every day it became more clear that the Transvaal was to be no place
for an Englishman. The white man's blood and the white man's treasure
may have been spent to win it for the one-time flag of freedom, but the
Englishman was not to make his home or earn his living upon the land.
"We want no white proletariat," Lord Milner had said.
But the magnates did not stop at merely coercing the press. Indignation
meetings were held at Cape Town and Kimberley, and they employed men
to break them up at 15s. per head.
At a meeting at Johannesburg, held by the African Labour League, it
was arranged that a proposal should be put to the vote deploring the
importation of Asiatics, and protesting against the action of the
Government, and demanding a referendum in the colony. At this meeting
several men were present, paid by a certain Mr. B. of Johannesburg to
create a disturbance. Their efforts were so successful, they shouted so
long "You want the Chinese," that the meeting became an uproar, and the
speakers were unable to be heard.
But all protests were unavailing and futile. All opposition was
considered as a party move. The cry of "Yellow slavery" was attributed
to shameless Radical tactics. The Liberal Party, it was said, would
stoop to anything with which to besmirch the fair name of the
Conservative Party. The Ordinance passed the House after having been
debated at length. It has since been altered in some of its most
important details, thereby emphasizing the fact that in permitting the
question to be debated in the House the Government only regarded the
discussion as a sham.
But even in the Conservative Party there were men whose consciences
pricked them over the Ordinance. One old respected member, who has
recently died, declared privately on the day that the vote was
taken that for the first time in his life he had voted against his
conscience, at the urgent instance of the Conservative whips. He for
one realized, when it was too late, that the introduction of the
Chinese on the Rand was--as Mr. Asquith lately remarked at Leven--"a
most gigantic and short-sighted blunder."