On Thursday Mr. H. W. Forster began a debate, which
was adjourned at midnight, on an amendment to the Address condemning the Government for having described the employment of Chinese indentured labour as slavery, while it was manifest from the King's Speech that they did not intend "bringing it to an end." Limitations of space will not allow us to devote a detailed precis to the flret night of the debate, but we may say that Mr. Churchill, who was the spokesman of the Government, acquitted himself with very great ability, and defended the attitude of the Cabinet on grounds which will, we believe, prove satisfactory to all whose eyes are not blinded by party passion on the one side, or by the extreme of fanaticism on the other. An evil thing was done by the introduction of Chinese indentured labour under the conditions prescribed by the Ordinance. But though it is easy to do a political wrong, it is often by no means as easy to undo it. To remove immediately the Chinese from the Rand would produce an industrial revolution which would cause immense suffering and inconvenience, and not to the people responsible, but to persons who have had nothing to do with the importation of the Chinese. The Government are willing to leave the question of the use of Chinese indentured labour for the future in the hands of the people of the Transvaal, and they believe that their decision will be against the permanent employment of such labour.
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