sources of supply of the raw material | upon Monday next, and to be printed. from the various parts of the Empire. [Bill 69.] "To make provision for the appoint ment and remuneration of Resident Magistrates in Belfast," presented by Sir James Haslett; supported by Mr. Wolff, Mr. Sloan, Mr. Charles Craig, and Mr. O'Doherty; to be read a second time upon Wednesday, 2nd March, and to March, and to be printed. Bill 70.] WINTER ASSIZES (IRELAND) BILL. "To extend the jurisdiction of Winter Assizes in Ireland," presented by Sir James Haslett; supported by Mr. Wolff, Mr. Sloan, Mr. Charles Craig, Mr. Thomas Corbett, Mr. O'Doherty, and Mr. Wood; to be read a second time upon Wednesday, 2nd March, and to be printed. [Bill 71.] REGISTRATION OF FIRMS BILL. "For the registration of firms and persons carrying on business under trade names," presented by Mr. Emmott; sup, ported by Mr. James Heath, Sir Alfred Hickman, Sir William Holland, and Mr. Walter Palmer; to be read a second time upon Friday, 13th May, and to be printed. [Bill 72.] ELECTRIC LIGHTING (LONDON) BILL. CROFTERS' HOLDINGS (SCOTLAND) "To amend the Acts relating to Crofters' Holdings in Scotland," presented by Mr. Ainsworth; supported by Mr. John Dewar, Mr. Cathcart Wason, Mr. Weir, and Mr. Harmsworth; to be read a second time upon Tuesday next, and to be printed. [Bill 73.] CONGESTED DISTRICTS (SCOTLAND) ACT (1897) AMENDMENT BILL. "To amend the provisions of The Congested Districts (Scotland) Act, 1897, as to the application of the fund constituted by the Act; and for other purposes," presented by Mr. Ainsworth; supported by Mr. John Dewar, Mr. Cathcart Wason, Mr. Weir, and Mr. Harmsworth; to be read a second time. upon Tuesday next, and to be printed. [Bill 74.] LAND VALUES TAXATION (SCOTLAND) "Most Gracious Sovereign, "We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Majesty for the Gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament."-(Mr. Hardy.), "To provide for the adjustment, in accordance with changes of boundary effected under The London Government Act, 1899, of the areas within which local authorities and companies are authorised to supply electricity," presented by Mr. Gerald Balfour; supported by M. Bonar Law; to be read a second time And we humbly represent to Your Majesty Which Amendment was— "At the end of the Question, to add the words, that it is highly inexpedient that sanction should be given to any Ordinance permitting the introduction of indentured Chinese labourers in to the Transvaal Colony until the approval of the colonists has been formally ascertained."(Mr. Herbert Samuel.) almost necessary to preface one's remarks by saying that those who supported the Government in this matter were not necessarily associates, accomplices, and hirelings of those traders in the Transvaal whom hon. Members opposite were never Question again proposed, "That those tired of denouncing. The insinuation, at words be there added." any rate, would lie lightly on him, for he never owned stock or share in any gold or other mine. The hon. Member for Cleveland had expressed a hope that they should give a free vote on this occasion. Now, whatever he might have done the night before last, he certainly would be giving a free vote that night; because he proposed to give a vote in favour of the best interests of a colony for which, however unwillingly, they had taken the therefore it was their bounden duty to try to raise even above the level it enjoyed before the war. A new explanation of the war had lately been discovered. They were now being told that the war of 1899 was waged in order that an unlimited number of white men might find employment in the Transvaal, and it was added that the projected importation of Asiatic labour would mean that all the advantages gained by the expenditure of blood and treasure in the war was to be wasted. That was a new explanation of the war, which had not been discovered at the time when Gentlemen opposite were exercising all their ingenuity to find unworthy reasons for war in the Transvaal. It was ridiculous as a motive, for they held that the war was waged because the South African Republic did not acknowledge the suzerainty of Great Britain, because of the indignities inflicted upon British subjects in the Transvaal, and because of the invasion of a British colony by a Boer army. *MR. MALCOLM (Suffolk, Stowmarket) said there were two features of the preceding day's debate which must be prominent in all their minds. The first was the lucid and masterly speech of the right hon. Gentleman the Colonial Secretary, whose knowledge and whose judgment on this particularly thorny question not only showed him thoroughly sole responsibility, and whose prosperity qualified for the important position which he now held, but also in an ordinary case would have rendered further justification of the Government attitude unnecessary. That led him to the second prominent feature, that this debate was differentiated from an ordinary case by the fact that in the very able speeches of the mover and seconder of the Amendment absolutely no consideration at all was given to the voice of the majority of the Legislative Council in the Transvaal, neither was any allowed for the Majority Report of the Labour Commission, or for the overwhelming evidence of experts whose lives had been given up to the study of labour questions such as these. The case of the mine-owners had been dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders, although they occupied the position of trustees of thousands of shareholders in this country-the sole suggestion was that they feared financial loss, and that all they desired was to flog work out of a voteless and subservient race. The official members of the Council were disposed of as placemen and the rest of the majority were discounted-unworthily, as he thought as being "open to influence" and as "tame Boers -a rather strange term to apply, for instance, to P. Roux, who was one of the last to surrender in the war. Thus, by a process of what he might call violent elimination, the hon. Member built up the superstructure of *MR. MALCOLM said he was only his own and succeeding arguments on the dealing with the explanation given by evidence of two individuals, the only men hon. Members opposite as to the cause of he assumed to be of fearless and inde- the war, but, of course, he would not press pendent character, and the only experts the matter further. He thought that if, whom he considered worth consideration. as a result of victory, the Transvaal MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.): What about the Jameson Raid? *MR. SPEAKER: I think the hon. Member had better abstain from speaking on the causes of the war. was no reason for urging a procedure on labour alone which prevented progress the Transvaal Government of to-day which towards immediate prosperity. must logically lead to a monopoly of labour for Europeans in the mines. That was an impossible ideal in the first place, and in the second place it would be fraught with danger to the ultimate prosperity of the colony, and would very likely add much to the friction caused by the black labour problem which was already causing grave anxiety in various countries. Perhaps one might 'be allowed to protest against the interference of outside opinion in a matter which only concerned the Transvaal Government and the Imperial Government. He thought the remonstrance of Mr. Deakin, and of that im petuous Imperialist, Mr. Seddon-a new friend of hon. Gentlemen opposite The problem was now to supply that labour. Had they exhausted as source yet every other They would all admit that the Transof supply? vaal Government, since the war, had spent large sums of money in improvand at the same time they had to regret ing and developing recruiting methods, that its efforts had proved unavailing and unsuccessful. The latest returns showed that in spite of all their expenditure 129,000 men were wanted to bring the mines up to the state of efficiency they were in just before the war. Since 1886 there never had been sufficient Kaffir labour. Before the war they had 100,000 Kaffirs; now there were not MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, after allowing for those employed on more than 50,000, and the rest of these, E.): No, an old friend. their own public works and in agriculture, were little better than wastrels scattered over the land. In this connection he hoped the House would allow him to accentuate what seemed to him likely to prove a great danger—and that was the number of unemployed Kaffirs unwilling to work and unbroken to discipline. As the number *MR. MALCOLM said he thought these remonstrances were strangely out of place in the mouths of men who themselves would most violently resent outside interference in the affairs of colonies, and they must seem equally strange to the ears of those who held that local self-govern- of these loafers increased they would bement was the keystone of our colonial come more and more a serious menace Why was it that the Transvaal to the safety of the white minority. And Government was so anxious to secure foreign labour? The reason was that they were desirous-as we all wished to restore prosperity to the one industry which could pay the way of the colony-the one industry which caused money to success. circulate in the country and would allow British citizens to lead a happier life than they were likely to do under present circumstances. Gold was to the Transvaal what the cane fields used to be to the West Indies, what cod fishing was to Newfoundland, and what tea was to Ceylon. The development of that particular industry meant the development of the colony; its stagnation meant ruin to the colony. Could one be surprised that this was an urgent question to be settled, as he thought, without the referendum and without delay; for so long as development was delayed so long would the general welfare of the country be retarded, and so long, incidentally, would its share of the war debt to this country remain unpaid. It was lack of their number would increase as laboursaving machinery was imported into the Rand, unless serious efforts were made to alter the conditions of native labour as they at present existed, to deal with the taxation and to modify those native habits which led to absolute sloth and worthlessness among the Kaffirs early in life. Their ancestors were only huntsmen and spearmen, but as they learnt the dignity of le bour, and as their wants and the wants of their wives increased, they would be attracted to that form of labour the remuneration of which would most quickly satisfy their ambitions. The day had not yet come, but the process was going on slowly, and it would be pessimistic indeed to think it would not come. In Bechuanaland and Basutoland especially the change in the last twentyfive years had been extraordinary. But until that day dawned it would be for the good of all to insist on indirect compulsory labour, under, of course, humane conditions, for races in a backward state of civilisation. It was morally for black races to be made to work as for white children to be made to go to school. It was their first lesson in discipline, and to argue that there was anything of slavery in such a system was to misread or ignore the history of countries ruled and developed by white minorities and to show ourselves indeed slaves of our own misleading phraseology. In the Transvaal he believed 50,000 more men were immediately wanted. Where in Africa could they be found? Central Africa had been tried, but there were many difficulties and objections in the way, one of which was that natives who lived in the tropical zones of British as necessary corresponding obligation on the white class that those in authority should as far as possible be drawn from the best classes of the white race. These men could not descend to work beside the Kaffir in the mines. Not only would it lower them in the estimation of the natives and of their neighbours, but it would be impossible to give them the wages they would ask. White labour had been tried by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick in his Eckstein mines. Before he tried it he was a most ardent supporter of white labour-he was the only one of his partners who advocated it. But he had to give it up, and so indeed did the directors of a mine managed by Mr. They only stopped when they found they were losing £3,000 a month by it. Central Africa soon succumbed to the severe cold which often reigned in the Transvaal. East Africa, too, had been tried, but here again they tried to recruit from tribes of warriors and spearmen who would not labour for any wage. Some might be procured from British India, but it was difficult to get them at anything' like possible prices, as the demand already exceeded the supply. The coolie experiment had already been tried in Natal, with the result that the Indian coolie had overrun the place, and had established himself by superior adaptability and more diligent habits of life as master in all the small trades of that colony, and there was no evi dence to show that his importation would satisfy those who now declaimed against Chinese labour. They were left then with two sources from which to draw labour for the mines and so to send the river of prosperity flowing through the Rand. It could be got from white sources or from yellow. Anybody who had had or from yellow. Anybody who had had anything to do with black labour knew there were certain forms of labour of an unskilled manual kind which the native expected and was expected to do. There were other branches of the same industry -higher branches of skilled labour, overseeing and administration, which were the peculiar province of the white The natives appreciated it, for nowhere was class or caste feeling developed as it was amongst native races, who were most particular to accept only that employment which their social status would allow them to perform; and it was realised also by the white men, from experience of the influence of the white men over black on the mines. But there was a Creswell. MR. FLAVIN (Kerry, N.): It is all a question of money then. *MR. MALCOLM said the Government also tried it in railway construction; the work done by 1,000 navvies sent out from England cost four times as much as similar labour done by Kaffirs, and they saved £40,000 by giving them a month's wages and shipping them back to England. If then they could not get the best class of whites they were driven to the only other white market-experience had already shown that there was none between-and that was to the low class of Hungarians, Swedes, Norwegians, and Italians, whose moral tone imported to the Rand would be deplorable in its effect upon the Kaffirs. It would, he thought, be nothing less than a scandal to any Government, to suggest the importation of low whites. Native races were accustomed to look on the white race as the race of masters and they would not be long in inferring the decay of the white man's power when they found white servants like themselves, with a lack of moral backbone and self-reliance to which they were unaccustomed in a white man. He could only say modestly that his experience of black countries which were ruled by a white minority was that the conthe best type of pale faces or none at all." sensus of reflecting opinion asked for Hence the United States, Canada, Ceylon. Singapore and Borneo, Australia, and New Zealand had gone to China to get MR. CROOKS (Woolwich): He does not know, but he soon will. *MR. MALCOLM said that the Chinaafter his own interests. He was to have man was, after all, a man likely to look the conditions explained to him by a Chinaman, and it was absurd to suppose that a Chinaman, whose intelligence was respected all over the world, and who was Member for Woolwich, was to be duped as intelligent as the hon. as the hon. Member for Woolwich thought. the unskilled labourers that they wanted. | voluntarily returned home, The ChinaWe had at the present day this advan- man was to be protected while at worktage, which the people of these countries if that were necessary-by an organisation and colonies had not-we had the benefit for the purpose which had worked exof their experience, and of knowing that tremely well in Singapore and Borneo, precautions would be taken by our orders and he had no more idea that he was which were not taken in these countries being sold into slavery than we at home in bygone years; and he was glad to chose to put into his head. say that by the regulations of the Colonial Secretary it would be found possible to take these advantages from them. There was absolutely no idea of supplanting the Kaffir or the white race by the Chinese, it was only to supplement the labour of the former. He ventured to think that that must be the view of the mine-owners, because the recruiting of a Kaffir cost £4 and of a Chinaman in China £8, and the more Kaffirs that would work, the fewer Chinese would be wanted. Therefore it was all to the advantage of the mine-owners that they should be able to recruit as cheaply as possible. His hon. friend the Member for Cleveland said that the Chinaman was hated wherever he went. He did not admit that at all, although he admitted that in many countries it was said that he was hated. That, however, was contrary to fact. He could not forget that the Western States of America would not have been what they were but for Chinamen; and in Singapore and Borneo the Chinese had very good characters as workmen. He believed that most people objected to whites doing unskilled labour with Kaffirs. If increased skilled labour was wanted the one thing that would get it was to increase the amount of unskilled labour. That had been proved beyond all controversy, and if the unskilled labour could be got from China a great deal of labour would be secured for the skilled white man. The Chinaman was an undesirable person if left alone; but he had three characteristics which were very valuable. He was very thrifty, he was very diligent. and he lived very peacably with his fellow men. [An HON. MEMBER on the OPPOSITION Benches: And very cheap.] The Chinaman was prepared to go to the Transvaal to earn a good wage; he was determined to return home if he could, to die in his own country. The statistics given by Sir Robert Hart showed that in the last twenty-five years, 4,750,000 Chinamen had gone abroad to work and that no less than 4,000,000 of them had VOL. CXXX. [FOURTH SERIES.] As to the Ordinance, he hoped that hon. Members who followed him would say what they really thought of that Ordinance. Some seemed to imagine it too strict, and others that it was too lax. Hon. Gentlemen had said that in consequence of the Ordinance Chinamen would flood the country in unfettered liberty, while in another breath it was stated that by the Ordinance Chinamen in the Transvaal would be reduced to slavery. They could not have it both matic relations with China would be ways. He had seen it stated that our diplostrained to a high point if we endeavoured to recruit Chinese subjects for such employment. He did not believe a word of it. Such difficulties had not hitherto occurred in countries where Chinese coolies were indentured; and he made bold to say that no country or colony had framed better regulations for the protection of the labourer before, during, and after the fulfiment of his contract than had the Legislative Council of the Transvaal. If the Ordinance were designed otherwise, if the conditions imposed were tyrannical and grievous, as was suggested, it would defeat its own object; the Chinese would not come. And if the yellow peril were so imminent as some hon. Gentlemen believed it could be stopped at a moment's notice. perusal of the regulations, which he B A |