A NEW FORM OF TORTURE. Frontispiece JOHN CHINAMAN ON THE RAND BY AN ENGLISH EYE WITNESS WITH INTRODUCTION BY DR. JOHN CLIFFORD, M.A., LL.B. AND FRONTISPIECE AND FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON R. A. EVERETT & SON 10 & 12 GARRICK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 1905 [ All rights reserved ] Richard Clay & Sons, Limited , BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK....

BY DR. JOHN CLIFFORD, M.A., LL.B. I have read the following account of the importation of Chinese coolies into South Africa with the keenest pain and sorrow. It is an authentic story of one of the foulest tragedies in our British annals; the witness of one who has seen the facts for himself. It is an indictment packed with sifted evidence, written with knowledge; but also with the indignation of the patriot and of the humanitarian, against wrongs wantonly inflicted upon our fellow-men and sancti

In the following pages I have made no reference to the founder of the Christian faith. There is a particular form of blasphemy current in Great Britain which ascribes to the highest and noblest Christian motives actions which are prompted by the meanest passions of cupidity and self-interest. Any shadow is good enough for the criminal to creep into in the hope of escaping detection; but blasphemy is not too hard a word to express the attitude of those advocates and supporters of Chinese slavery

"The problem is a very urgent problem. The necessity of going forward is an urgent and vital necessity in the economical condition of the country. I will tell the House why in a sentence. The mines are 30,000 natives short of the number engaged in the pre-war period." These were the words subsequently used by Mr. Lyttelton, the Colonial Secretary. The matter was urgent. Already protests were pouring in from every part of the Empire. Imperial meetings, white league meetings, anti-slavery meetings

"It must be admitted that the lot of the Chinese labourer does not promise to be very gay or very happy from our point of view" (extract from The Times ). Experience has shown that it is not economical to employ Chinese under the only conditions in which public opinion will allow them to be used, that is, under semi-servile conditions. This was the experience of all other parts of the Empire, but it was the last thing to have any weight with the mine owners. Their one idea of economy was to get

When Mr. Lyttelton said that flogging must cease, flogging ceased on the Rand, and the Oriental methods of torture were adopted instead. But even this penal system—reminding one so strongly of the days of Stephen, when the wretched, tortured peasantry openly said that Christ and His saints slept, for Pity had veiled her face and Mercy had forgotten—had to be practised with great secrecy owing to the force of public opinion at home. These methods were, however, unavailing to check the growing ins

The mark of the yellow man is upon the Rand. He has set his seal upon the country, and it is to be seen in a hundred things. Johannesburg was never an exactly heavenly place. A gold centre attracts all the evil passions of men—draws to it, like the lodestone draws the needle—every species of adventurer and world vagabond. President Kruger knew how to deal with the cosmopolitan hordes that thronged the streets of the "Gold-Reef City." He put a check upon the importation of undesirables, and alway

The introduction of Chinese indentured labour to the Transvaal has been a complete failure—(1) Financially, (2) Socially, (3) Politically. The slave-owning ideals of the Rand lords has made the Transvaal a hell. It has not even made it a paying hell. Every security connected with the Rand industry has decreased enormously. It is estimated that the loss of capital runs to many millions of pounds sterling. It cannot be said in excuse that this is the result of general commercial depression through