[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:]
SIR,—Few or no Britons at either the beginning or the end of the great South African War contemplated the probability of our huge if ill-directed efforts, so long and Patiently sustained, eventuating in the Asiaticising of the only portion of the "Dark Continent" away from the blue waters of the Mediterranean suited for European immi- gration. Such a result would be very distasteful to European feeling, and undoubtedly it would be still more disappointing and repugnant to the people of English speech throughout the world that so large a change in racial distribution on our swiftly narrowing globe should be brought to pass as a mere incident in the ledgerising of certain big shareholding
houses.
Probably the present feeble-minded and bewildered Cabinet in London would be only too glad to see a sudden development of company prosperity on the Rand which would justify them in shaking the care of the Transvaal out of their lap, would give them some appearance of success in their chief enterprise that might strengthen their damaged position towards the electorate, and at the same time free their hands for more vigorous diplomacy, and perhaps something more, in the Far East. But the interests of the Cabinet and those of the nation in this matter are far from coinciding. Most of us have participated in some degree in the not unworthy dream, originating in the brain 'of Cecil Rhodes, of a great South Africa, coloured red, not by the flags and uniforms of our soldiery alone, but by the blood of Anglo-Saxon settlers. A squalid province of subject Mongols, hybridised with negro races, would be to us a very poor exchange for what we have not only desired, but striven and paid for. if the people of England could be enabled to see clearly the signifi- cance of what is transpiring, they would make a speedy end of the pernicious scheme that is being hatched. Of soothing assurances intended to disarm hostility to the project there is a plentiful supply. We are told that indentures of semi-slavery will be so carefully drawn that the repatria- tion of the labourers in their distant homes after a period of three to five years' service in the mines is absolutely certain. Credat Judaeus Men of experienced judgment know well— often to their own cost—that there is nothing so insecure as a security. The same potentates of the Stock Exchange who bring over the Asiatics will Judge for themselves, when the time conies, whether it is worth the trouble or not to incur the expense of a return voyage. They will probably find it as convenient then to retain their labourers for the purpose of cultivating cabbage gardens for the "compounds," and grain farms for the supply of Johannesburg. as they now deem it to be to procure the labour at the cost of shipping charges for the increase of 10 per cent. dividends. Then railways and roads will be sure to be discovered in the very nick of time that absolutely need the help of the industrious Mongol. The outward migration will be brought to an end, while the inward flow of this undesirable population will be quickened ; and long before the Rand has become, as it is destined in the natural course of things to become within forty years, one big rubbish-heap, the overflowing tide of yellow-skins will have submerged everything that is worth preserving and developing between the Zambesi and the dock gates of Cape Town.
There is little time to lose. The Legislative Council of the Transvaal, which is but another name for the financiers, are pushing on their plan at full speed, and it is plainly intended by the authorities at home to have everything settled, irrevocably as they hope, before Parliament meets. A mere whiff of intelli- gent discussion of the matter in the English Press would balk their expectations. Will it come ? Surely we have good reason to hope that even in the midst of the fiscal hurly-burly there may be found patriotic voices at leisure for so important a theme, and listeners enough who can spare attention for a question of an importance second to that of no other for the future of our race and of the world.
Blenheim House, Teddingion.
[We cannot agree with our correspondent that the Rand will become a rubbish-heap in forty years. The mines will last longer than that, and even when they are exhausted we believe that South Africa will become the home of a vigorous and happy white population. it is because we believe so iriteneely in the future of the highlands of South Africa that we desire to guard them as a white man's country, and not to
introduce Chinese labour, even though such labour would make its progress for the moment more rapid.—En.
Spectator.]
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