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and to remove all barriers to the intellectual and moral development of the people, were soon, however, hampered by severe commercial depression. Economic Depression and Chinese Labour.One of the least results of this depression was that the second war loan arranged by Mr Chamberlain was never issued, Great Britain finally (in 1906) abandoning all her claims. The commercial depression was due to many causes; of these the most apparent was the shortage of labour at the Rand mines. When work restarted after the war, the mine owners offered the Kaffir workmen little more than half the wages paid in 1898; but this effort at economy was abandoned, and the old rates of pay were restored in January 1903. Nevertheless, the labour available continued to be very much below the needs of the mines. The consequent small gold output meant a serious decrease of revenue, which was not compensated for by the heavy tax levied on the output of the Premier diamond mine, where operations began in 1903. Finally, to enable them to work their mines to their full capacity, the Rand houses asked for leave to import Chinese labourers.[1] Milner, anxious above everything else to obtain sufficient revenue to carry on his work of reconstruction, gave his consent to the experiment. The home government concurred, and during 1904–1906 over 50,000 Chinese were brought to the Rand on three-years’ indentures. The objections to the introduction of the Chinese, urged in South Africa, in Great Britain and in other parts of the British Empire, are discussed under South Africa: History, § D.; here it need only be added that in the Transvaal the point upon which all parties were agreed was that no new racial or economic complications should be permitted; and these were guarded against by the restriction of the coolies to unskilled labour in the gold mines and by their compulsory repatriation. By the introduction of the Chinese the gold output from the mines was greatly increased, with the result that the Transvaal suffered less than any other part of South Africa from the restriction of commerce, which lasted for several years.
The discussions in the legislative council on the Chinese coolie question had been accompanied by a demand on the part of the Boers that such an important step should not be taken “without the constitutional approval of the white people of the Transvaal”; and after the importation of the coolies had begun, the agitation for the grant of representative institutions grew in volume. The British government was also of opinion that the time was near for the setting up of such institutions, and the pending grant of a constitution to the Transvaal was announced in parliament in July 1904. Meantime the existing (nominated) legislative council was dealing with another and a vital phase of the Asiatic question. There were in the Transvaal some 10,000 British Indians, whose right to “enter, travel or reside” in the country was secured by the London convention of 1884. Under republican rule these Indians—who were mainly small shopkeepers, but included some professional men of high standing—had suffered many restrictions, and their cause had been espoused by the British government. Position of British Indians.Nevertheless, under British rule their situation was in no way improved, and a determination was shown by the European inhabitants of the Transvaal further to restrict their privileges and at the same time to stop the immigration of other Indians. In this matter the Boer and British sections of the community were in agreement, and they had the support of the Transvaal government and of the other South African colonies. The problem was both economic and racial, and on both grounds South Africans showed a determination to exclude the competition of Indians and other Asiatics. Mr Alfred Lyttelton (who had succeeded Mr Chamberlain as secretary of state for the colonies) endeavoured to meet the wishes of the Transvaal by sanctioning legislation which would greatly restrict the immigration of Indians, but he would allow no tampering with the rights of Indians already in the colony. In 1907 the royal assent was given to bills restricting the immigration of Asiatics and providing for the registration of all Asiatics in the country.
Self-Government—the Botha Ministry.In accordance with the promise made in 1904 a constitution for the Transvaal on representative lines was promulgated by letters patent on the 31st of March 1905; but there was already an agitation for the immediate grant of full self-government, and on the accession to office of the Campbell-Bannerman administration in December 1905 it was decided to accede to it. New letters patent[2] were issued (December 12, 1906), and the first general election (February 1907) resulted in the return of a majority belonging to Het Volk, a Boer organization formed for political purposes. (See further, South Africa: History, § D.) Sir Richard Solomon,[3] it was thought, might have formed a coalition cabinet, but he was among the defeated candidates. Lord Selborne, who had during 1905 succeeded Lord Milner as high commissioner and governor of the Transvaal, entrusted General Botha with the formation of a ministry. Botha chose as his colleagues Messrs J. C. Smuts (colonial secretary), Jacob de Villiers (attorney-general), H. C. Hull (colonial treasurer), J. F. B. Rissik (minister of lands and native affairs) and E. P. Solomon (minister of public works). These were all men of progressive, in some respects democratic, views, and in thus forming his cabinet General Botha showed his determination not to be dominated by the “back veld” Boers. Botha was strengthened in his attitude by the firm action of the Progressive (i.e. the ex-Uitlander) party, which secured 21 seats (out of a total of 69) in the legislative chamber, entirely in the Rand and Pretoria districts, and was led by Sir George Farrar and Sir Percy Fitzpatrick.[4] The government, which obtained an imperial guarantee for a loan of £5,000,000, announced that while there would be no wholesale repatriation of Chinese, the labour ordinance under which they were recruited would not be renewed, and by February 1910 all the Chinese coolies had returned home. At the same time successful efforts were made by the ministry to increase the supply of Kaffir labour for the mines. In the re-establishment of the field cornets and in other directions a return was made to the republican forms of administration, and on the education question an agreement satisfactory to both the British and Dutch-speaking communities was reached. Ample facilities were given for the teaching of Dutch, but it was provided that no pupil should be promoted to a higher standard unless he (or she) was making satisfactory progress in the knowledge of English.
One of the first problems which confronted the Botha ministry was the attitude to be adopted towards the other British colonies in South Africa. The Union Movement.Lord Milner, by the creation of an inter-colonial board—which administered the railways of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony and controlled the constabulary of both colonies—and in other ways (e.g. the inclusion of the Transvaal in the South Africa customs union), had endeavoured to pave the way for federation. Mr Chamberlain when in South Africa in 1903 had also put forward federation as the desired goal. The existence of the inter-colonial council hampered, however, the freedom of the Transvaal government, and steps were taken to determine it.
- ↑ A careful summary of the facts regarding the shortage of labour and of the economic situation in the Transvaal at that time, together with the debates in the legislative council, will be found in The Annual Register for 1903, from the pen of Mr H. Whates.
- ↑ The letters patent provided, as to the Chinese coolies, that no further licences be issued for the introduction of indentured labour, and that none of the contracts be renewed.
- ↑ Sir Richard Solomon (b. 1850) was attorney-general of Cape Colony 1898–1900, attorney-general of the Transvaal 1902, and acting lieutenant-governor of the Transvaal 1905. He resigned office to contest a seat for the Transvaal parliament. Subsequently he was agent-general for the Transvaal in London, and (1910) agent-general for the Union of South Africa.
- ↑ Sir George Herbert Farrar (b. 1859) was a son of Charles Farrar, M.D., of Chatteris, England, and was a member of the Johannesburg Reform committee at the time of the Jameson Raid. He served in the war of 1899–1902, and was knighted in the last-named year. Sir James Percy Fitzpatrick (b. 1862) was a native of Cape Colony. He went to the Transvaal in 1884 and became honorary secretary to the Johannesburg Reform committee. He was the author of The Transvaal from Within; Jock of the Bushveld, &c.
