26o 



The Review of Reviews. 



March 20, 1906. 



people living it it ? Neither can you know anything 

 about the country when you don't live in it, and you 

 leave the whole of vour business to be managed b\ 

 ydur clerks. With the exception of Sir George Far- 

 rar, how many of the Randlords are to be found on 

 the Rand ? They live in London, and lea\e their 

 business to be majiaged by men who have not even 

 a ])retence to be statesmen or even politicians. The 

 result is, knowing nothing about the country, with 

 their whole gaze concentrated upon the Stock Mar- 

 ket, they make the most stupid blunders, even in 

 their own interest." 



''For instance," said I, "the reduction of the 

 Kaffirs' wages at a time when the natives were flush- 

 ed with money." 



" That is one instance, and the introduction of the 

 Chinese is another." 



"They admit the first, but not the second." 



" They are endeavouring to brazen it out," said 

 Mr. Massingham, " by trying to believe very hard ; 

 but the introduction of the Chinese was one of the 

 worst blunders they have made. They imagined 

 that the Chinese were just like the Kaffirs, and that 

 they could engage and manipulate them as if they 

 were so many pieces of machinery ; but they had 

 not got them very long l:>efore they found that they 

 had made a mistake in the nature of the human 

 l)eings whom they were proposing to use as beasts of 

 burden. John Chinaman is no fool. Very many 

 Chinamen had no idea, as Lord Selborne has ad- 

 mitted, what kind of work they were to be put to do. 

 When they found out what it was they did not like 

 it. Promises made them have been broken; the con- 

 ditions of the first ordinance under which they were 

 engaged have been revised and altered without ask- 

 ing their consent. They don't get their minimum 

 wage, and the result is that they are in a very ugly 

 mood. It may not technically be slavery, the condi- 

 tion in which they find themselves, for it is nominally 

 based upon contract ; but it is a contract obtained 

 by false pretences, the conditions of which have not 

 been complied with, and the Chinaman, feeling that 

 he has been cheated, often refuses to do any more 

 work than he pleases. So he has been flogged, fined, 

 or imprisoned. There is no dispute alx)Ut the main 

 facts in Johannesburg. They are franklv admitted 

 by officials as well as by everybody else. No one 

 denies that the Chinese compounds are miniature 

 Cities of the Plain. No one denies that the Chinese 

 have been flogged, and that they have been subjected 

 to the usual barbarous punishments of their own 

 country. No one denies that they are practically 



forbidden access to any court, being handed over to 

 he tried by officials who need know nothing of law, 

 and have had no experience as magistrates. Neither 

 is it possible to deny that the bands of predator)' 

 Chine-se who have broken loose and are acting as 

 bushrangers have struck terror into the whole j)opula- 

 tion." 



" Then would you expatriate the Chinese at 

 once ?" 



"That, I am afraid, is not practical." he said, " I 

 would leave the whole (juestion to the responsible 

 riovernment of the country."' 



" Which means, I suppos*-, tlu' elective assembly?" 



" Ves." 



" How do you think the Boers would go?" 



'■ Solid against the Chinese.'' 



" But I am assured exictly the contrary by repre- 

 sentatives of the Chamlver of Mines." 



'' Verv likely. But what do they know about the 

 opinion of the Boers? Even Lionel Phillips, who is 

 intelligent enough, does not know General Botha by 

 sight. The last men in the world who can tell you 

 what the Boers think ar<' the mine owners of the 

 Rand." 



"What about. the b;isis of representation?" 



" The Bf:)ers are (juite content to accei)t a repre- 

 sentation based upon population." 



" But," I said, " the other side tell me this would 

 l)e rather better for the British than for the Boers." 



■ If so," said Mr. Ma.'^singham, " the controvers\ 

 is at an end, because the Boers are committed to re- 

 presentation according to population, and if the 

 other side are willing to concede this, the thing is 

 ended. Some people here seem mightily afraid, of 

 the Boers taking over the government of the country ; 

 but so far as I can judge, and I saw all their 

 leaders, they are by no means anxious to take over 

 such a mess as Milner left behind him. Of Mi- 

 ner's administration, his personnel, and the people 

 whom he trusted, it is almost impossible to speak. 

 He has ruined the Orange River Colony by simply 

 doubling the co.5t of its administration." 



" .And what about compensation ?"' 



" The Boers are very reasonable, and some money 

 they really must have. I think it would not be diffi- 

 cult to arrange a settlement with them. As for the 

 National Scouts," said Mr. Massingham, " they are 

 at the present moment the hottest anti-British people 

 in the whole country. And as for the English 

 settlers who have been planted out on the land, they 

 are more Boer than the Boers." 



THE FREE CHURCH VICTORY AND AFTER: DR. CLIFFORD. 



Few men have more reason to rejoice over the 

 downfall of the Tory Party than has Dr. Clifford. 

 By common consent he stands head and shoulders 

 over all the rest of the Nonconformist Church 



Militant. He is at once the Nestor and Hotspur of 

 Nonconformity. During the last month he has 

 almost lived in a motor-car, careering about like a 

 fiery Phaeton from one constituency to another, 



