The Boers, who through their political organization the Het Volk have refused to take any active part in the management of the country, determined with a sort of grim humour, since the British sought to destroy the corrupt Government of their late President, they shall be allowed to mismanage the country as they will, have been led to break their political silence to petition the Government for more protection. At a meeting held at Krugersdoorp at the beginning of October, they decided to forward a resolution to the Imperial Government requesting that the importation of Chinese coolies should be discontinued, and those already in the country should be repatriated. Regret was further expressed at the danger to life and property, and it was pointed out that the policy of not allowing the Boers to carry firearms prevented them from properly protecting the lives of their families.
GOOD SPORT.
General Botha did not exaggerate the dangers which resulted from the importation of Chinamen, and he voiced the common sentiment of Boer and Briton when he asked that a Commission should be appointed to investigate the treatment of the Chinese coolies, and ascertain the cause of the disturbances.
The mine owners' press informed the public that there are very few cases of desertion; that when any number of Chinamen do desert the South African Constabulary deal with them efficiently. They are hunted down, rounded up, and brought in by their pigtails for trial. At the trial they are convicted, or were before the amendment of the Ordinance in August last, and locked up.
Any one going through the Transvaal will see hundreds of these Chinese convicts working in large batches on the roads. White men are placed in charge of these convicts, and when the repairing and macadamizing of the roads is not done to their liking, the Chinamen are flogged, and flogged in the open. They are subjected to every kind of brutal treatment; and it is probable that almost as many desert from the convict prisons as desert from the slave compounds.
In "C" Court, Johannesburg, on October 3 (or 4, I am not sure of the exact date), before Mr. Schuurman, several Chinese labourers were prosecuted for wandering from the mines in which they were employed, without possessing the necessary permission. They all pleaded guilty, and were fined £1 each. When asked what excuse they had to offer, three of them said they were homesick, and were on their way to China; two others stated that they had only gone for a short walk, and were close to the mine when arrested. The policeman, however, declared they were twenty-five miles from the mine. A few of the accused stated that they were ill-treated, and consequently deserted. The magistrate sapiently advised them that in such a case, instead of absconding, they should complain to the representative of the Labour Importation Association when he called at the mine.
Under the new regulations, sixty-five Chinamen, including an alleged professional robber, were arrested on October 18. A Johannesburg correspondent describes them as "a band of 450 coolies of bad character." What has Lieut.-Colonel W. Dalrymple, the Rand mining man who lately at Tunbridge Wells denounced the "infamous lies" which were circulated in this country about the Chinese labour question—what, I repeat, has Lieut.-Colonel Dalrymple to say to that?