At Germiston railway station twelve Chinamen were waiting on the platform for a train. A white woman happened to pass by, and as she passed the Chinamen hurled some bestial insult at her. One of the railway officials immediately called a policeman, who tried to take the offending Chinaman into custody. He was promptly knocked down. Three more policemen were hurried to the scene. These met with like treatment, and even when two other comrades came to their assistance they were utterly unable to effect the arrest. After twenty minutes' violent fighting, during which the gang of Chinamen were absolutely unhurt, six policemen were taken on stretchers to the hospital.
Here are two or three more instances taken at random from the "Butcher's Bill" of a Johannesburg correspondent, whose letter appeared in the Daily Mail a few weeks ago:—
"Sept. 5.—Chinese attack Kaffirs in the Lancaster Mine. They throw one Kaffir in front of a train of ore, so that he is cut to pieces. A second Kaffir dies of his injuries.
"Sept. 8.—Homestead at Rand Klipfontein attacked and looted, and £150 in money taken. The Chinese try to fire the house by throwing a fire-ball through the window.
"Sept. 16.—Band of Chinese rush a Kaffir kraal at Wilgespruit, on the West Rand. Native woman's head nearly severed. Chinese armed with knives 2 feet 6 inches long, made by a Sheffield firm.
"Sept. 18.—Riot Geldenhuis Deep. Compound manager assaulted. Mounted police attacked by 1500 coolies armed with drills, stones, bottles, etc., and forced to fire their revolvers. One Chinaman killed and a number wounded."
And so on and so forth. One more instance to show to what length the Chinamen will go. A gang of the breed employed at the Van Ryn Mine, where there had previously been a number of disturbances, struck work and attacked the whites underground. A white man pulled the signal cord, and police, galloping up, descended the shaft and saved the whites. The ringleaders were arrested, and, adds the correspondent somewhat ingenuously—"This phase of attacks underground is disquieting." From the adjacent colony of Natal, too, come words of complaint about Chinese stragglers; and it is significant in this connection that "over a thousand rifles" were issued to the farmers in the Transvaal at the end of September last. These are facts which Mr. Reyersbach, of Messrs. H. Eckstein & Co., would be well advised to put in his pipe and ponder.
Of course the immediate cause which leads to the Chinese committing the above-recorded acts of violence is the result of bad treatment.
The murder of Mr. Joubert in the Bronkhorst Spruit Mine—for which, on November 20, four Chinamen were executed in Pretoria jail—who received some fifty stabs before succumbing, was due to starvation. The men wanted to find food. They were not allowed to eat apparently, and so, maddened by ill-treatment, overwork, and starvation, they committed murder. Perhaps the most tragic part of the whole business is that one cannot completely blame them for such an awful act. They have grown to hate the white man. It is small wonder.