JOHANNESBURG JOINT COUNCIL OF EUROPEANS AN ~ A TIVES. FORCED LABOUR "ICA Ty MEMORANDUM No. 6 . hn L. NY Pina 78. A. ” L ro LL wee SRS Ba whnh ned 7 CONTENTS : Fage 1 FORCED L..LIUT. IN AFRICA Reprinted from The Suh African Outlook Fuge 3 THE VIEWS OF THE JOHANNESBURG JOINT COUNCIL. A 293584 vinlT- Bag 504 wine 28 1.54 Forced Labour in Africa, F* several years now the question of forced labour has been prominently before the governments of the world. In 1925 and 1926 when the Assembly of the League of Nations adopted the Convention on Slavery, an article was inserted therein condemning in general terms recourse to forced labour, and in 1926 the League adopted a Resolution inviting the International Labour Office to investigate the subject. From that date till now the Labour Office has given the matter unremitting attention, calling for reports from governments, consulting administrators and experts with local knowledge (Mr. Taberer represented South Africa on the Experts Committee) and publishing for general information in orderly form the mass of facts and opinions that were thus obtained. There was a discussion on the subject at last year's International Labour Conference and it has been put down as Item I. on the Agenda for this year’s (1930) Conference. THE COMPLEXITY OF THE SUBJECT. Anyone who takes the trouble to read through the evidence accumulated by the Labour Office will be struck by the wide extension of the practice and the variety of the methods employed to compel the *“ Natives > of Africa and other countries, but especially of Africa, to labour. Labourers may be compelled to work for public purposes or for private employers. The compulsion may be applied directly by officials or subsidized chiefs or indirectly by such means as taxation, vagrancy or pass-laws, depriva- tion or restriction of lands. WHAT IS “FORCED” OR *‘‘COMPUL- SORY” LABOUR? The South African Government, discussing the Draft Slavery Convention, defined compulsory labour, apart from slavery, as the state of affairs that exists when * the person doing the labour unwillingly does so because he fears that a worse thing may befall him.” In the Questionnaire addressed to the various govern- ments last year forced labour is defined as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty for its non-performance and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily.” FORCED LABOUR FOR PRIVATE EMPLOYERS. The Temporary Slavery Commission of the League of Nations in concluding its labours in 1925 submitted to the Council of the League certain “ suggestions ” with reference to compulsory labour. One of these reads: “ The Commission considers that forms of direct or indirect compulsion the primary object of which is to force Natives into private employment are abuses.” THE “RIGHT” OF PRIVATE PERSONS TO BE SUPPLIED WITH LABOUR. The principles of British policy were laid down by [Lord Lugard in his report on the amalgamation of North- ern and Southern Nigeria, in which he stated that the Government would not apply coercion in any form in order to provide labour for private undertakings. “ Employers must, therefore,” he continued, * make the conditions of service sufficiently attractive to secure the labourers they need . . . Labour will be secured only by kind and fair treatment, decent hutments, the entire absence of blows and ill-usage. ....” Mr. Ormsby-Gore, Under-Secretary for the Colo- nies, during 1925 made a special pronouncement on the subject with regard to Kenya: ‘No new settler,” he is reported to have said, “ must go to Kenya under the impression that he has a right to labour. He will get his labour if he goes the right way about it. It is one of the hazards of the undertaking.” THE POSITION OF SOUTH AFRICA. “A list submitted by the Secretary-General to the members of the Council of the League of Nations on 30th August 1928 shewed that at that date twenty-four States had ratified or definitively acceded to the Slavery Conven-~ tion.” One of these States was the Union of South Africa. In returning the Draft Convention to the Secretary- General the South African Government had remarked that its provisions *“ would not affect any existing condi- tions or customs obtaining in South Africa.” This on the face of it is a very fortunate position for this country to be in, and would seem to justify the claim made by General Smuts at Oxford that for the solution of Cen- tral African Native problems the experience of South Africa should be called in. “ For a century and more South Africa has laboured and suffered over the very problems which are beginning to agitate the young com- munities in the North. This experience should be help- ful beyond the Union.” A little reflection however tends to modify the optimism of such a conclusion. With the exception of the indentured Indian labour which was brought to Natal to work the sugar estates and the Chinese employed for a short period at the gold mines, all, or practically all, the unskilled labour of South Africa on railways, roads, mines, farms, at the harbours and in the towns is being done by the Natives and has all along been done by them. Indeed, though General Smuts was obviously thinking only of the White people when he spoke of South Africa having laboured and suffered, the South African Natives might quite well claim that the labour had been all on their part and a large share of the suffering too, and that it is their experience that would be most instructive as a guide to Central African policy. No one who knows anything of the con- ditions under which for many years Native labourers worked in the gold mines and the coal mines and what the death-rate was among those unfortunate men will have any doubt about the suffering. IS THERE COMPULSORY LABOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA AT THE PRESENT TIME ? In the Labour Office Report the following principle is suggested to cover a variety of forms of “legal indirect compulsion.” * Taxation, vagrancy or ‘ pass ’ laws, the deprivation of lands, the restriction of lands cultivation or cattle-owning, and other measures, when adopted with the intention of forcing workers into employment, are methods of insti- tuting forced labour for private employers, and should be condemned equally with the direct form of compulsion for this purpose.” The saving clause “ when adopted with the intention of forcing workers into employment >’ may be found to cover all existing agencies in South Africa even though they are of the nature specified in the above paragraph and are actually having the effect of compelling labour. What are these agencies ? INDIRECT COMPULSION BY DEPRIVATION AND RESTRICTION OF LAND. In the Union of South Africa roughly speaking a mil- lion and a half Europeans own 87 per cent of the land, while five million Natives own the balance. Efforts on the part of the Natives to rectify this disparity are in great measure defeated by the operation of the 1913 Natives Land Act which makes it illegal, with certain limited exceptions, for Whites or Blacks to purchase or even to hire land in each other’s areas. This limitation, as the population increases, compels men to leave the more congested areas of the reserves for work, and prohibits many of those who have already left from returning. These men form a proletariat, obliged to accept what wages and conditions they can get on the mines, on the farms or in the towns. It is too late now to go into the question of the justice or the reverse of the numerous Kafir wars which make up so large a part of South African history. It is suffi- cient to say, in the present connection. that the net result of those wars is the present distribution of land between the races, and that this, combined with the legal restric- tion on land purchase, constitutes a continuous and ever- increasing compulsion upon Natives to labour for the benefit of White emplovers. INDIRECT COMPULSION BY INTERFERENCE WITH THE NATIVES OWNING OR SELLING CATTLE. “ As to cattle-owning,” the Labour Office Report states “there is a demand for restriction of the numbers held by individual Natives in South-West Africa, and the demand is supported by arguments tending to shew that such restriction would relieve the shortage in the labour market.” This suggests that another kind of restriction in the Union is having a similar effect. Mr. Payn, Member for Tembuland, speaking in the House of Assembly on the 29th January “said that in the Transkei they had more than half the cattle of the Cape Province, yet in view of repressive legislation which had been introduced their cattle were valueless unless dead, when the hide could be sold. They had not had a case of East Coast fever for twelve years, and still they were not permitted to export. .. . If the Native was called upon to pay a heavy tax then he should be allowed to dispose of his products.” INDIRECT COMPULSION BY TAXATION. So impartial and influential a body as the Associated Chambers of Commerce last year passed the following resolution ““ (a) That the Native is sufficiently taxed through the Customs tariff ; (b) that the poll tax is out of proportion to the income tax levied on Europeans ; and (c) that the collection of the tax is expensive, irksome and unjust, causing inconvenience and annoyance to the Native who has paid the tax and to employers generally.” As Mr. Mowbray of Kimberley remarked in moving the resolution: ‘There are Natives in some instances getting as low a wage as £12, £15 or £18 a year, and being called upon to pay out of that to inland revenue, while a European did not pay any personal tax until he was earning £300 and, if married, £400. The Native was also taxed far more heavily indirectly through Customs duties.” Whatever the motives may have been for the imposi- tion of heavier taxation upon Natives than upon Euro- peans, the effect is to drive the Natives to earn more money by working for Europeans. The poll tax in certain circumstances is in effect a labour tax. CONVICT LABOUR FOR PRIVATE PERSONS. On 10th Dec., 1929, Ons Vaderland announced (Reuter, Pretoria) that before the end of the year convict labour would be made available for farmers. It was estimated that about 3,000 convicts would be dispatched in order to perform ordinary farm work. On 9th January, 1930, Reuter Pretoria reported “ In an official statement to-day dealing with the employment of prisoners for farm labour, the Director of Prisons states that farmers requiring prison labour must take gangs of not less than 25 for a period of three months. The price of this labour is 1s. 6d. per unit per day. If, however, the employer is willing to supply food and accommodation the cost is reduced to one shilling per unit per day. . . .. In the event of farmers being unable to employ 25 prisoners, arrangements can be made in one area for central accommodation for a gang of 25, which may be divided up between a number of farms, provided that they are within reasonable distance of the accommodation provided.” It is obvious that the men whom it is proposed to dis- tribute in this casual fashion among the farmers are not criminals in the ordinary sense of the term. For what offences are these men in prison ? LABOURERS BECOME CONVICTS THROUGH A TRICK OF THEIR EMPLOYERS. At a public meeting in East London on 26th Sep- tember last Mr. Ballinger, European adviser to the South African I.C.U., “ gave an instance of what he described as the exploitation of forced labour in the Union. It was well known, he said, that many diggers were at the mercy of the diamond buyers and could not afford to pay their Natives wages. They therefore deliberately forgot to enter into a wage contract or otherwise did not fill in their Natives’ passes correctly. The result was that these Natives were arrested and, on being unable to pay a 15s. fine, were sent to a labour colony. Their services could then be obtained by a combination at 1s. 6d. per head per day without a warder, or 1s. 9d. per head with a warder.” TWO MONTHS HARD LABOUR FOR FAILURE TO PAY POLL TAX. The daily papers frequently contain accounts of Na- tives being charged with failure to pay the poll tax or failure to produce the receipt therefor when challenged by the police. The following from the East London Dispatch is an example ; “ That Natives who have paid their poll tax must carry their receipts with them and produce them to the police on demand, being guilty of an offence should they fail to do so, was made plain in the R. M. Court yesterday, when in more than one case it was found that the accused had actually paid but had left their receipts in their homes. Some of these were lucky enough to get off, the alternative charge of failing to pro- duce not having been included in the indictment; but future offenders are not likely to find this loophole left them. .. . There was a large batch of charges of failing to pay the tax, the sentence in each case being an order to pay forthwith with the alternative of two months hard labour.” INCREASING THE NATIVE CONVICT POPULATION. There are no doubt men who omit to pay the poll tax from reasons that cannot be defended. On the other hand there are certainly others who do not pay for the simple reason that they have not got the money. They have come to town for the double purpose of assisting their families and paying their tax. The Medical Officer of Health of East London in his last Annual Report speaks of the large number of unmarried Native males who enter the area looking for work.” Such men, failing at first in their search for work, are yet not criminals. Still less are those who have paid their tax and left the receipt at home. The effect of both the Native Labour Regulation Act (1911) and the Masters and Servants Acts is “ to import penal consequences into what in common law is a purely civil contract.” (Economic Commission’s Report, p. 39.) Breach of contract is made a penal offence. Breach of the Pass Law is another offence for which many Natives are imprisoned. Methods such as these of increasing the Native convict population are open to criticism as being in themselves oppressive. Now, however, that the Government is advertising its readiness to supply convict labour to farmers who cannot themselves attract voluntary labour, the matter assumes a still more sinister aspect. It is forced labour in a peculiarly disgraceful form. The latest returns, (year 1928-29) show that in the twelve months 43,937 Natives were brought before the Courts for breaches of the Pass Laws, 59,912, for failure to pay tax, 24,660 under the Masters and Servants Acts, and 18,731 under the Native Labour Regulations. THE NATIVE VIEW. The view of moderate Natives on this subject was well expressed by Mr. Selope Thema (Reuter, Bloemfontein, Dec. 6, 1929) “The European had the right to be in South Africa, and had rendered the country signal service in bringing the blessings of civilization, but what the Natives objected to was that the Europeans exploited the Natives and the wealth of the country, while the Native was doomed to everlasting servility. . . While the Natives were landless, vast tracts of the country were lying waste and uncultivated. The farmers, said the speaker in referring to the labour question, ran to the Government for everything. When there was a drought they . . . invoked the assistance of the Government. . . . When there was a shortage of Native labour, the Government must legislate to force the Natives to the farms whether the farmers were prepared to pay wages or not.” SHORTAGE OF LABOUR ON MINES AND FARMS : A COMMITTEE APPOINTED. On 18th December last Reuter Pretoria reported that an inter-departmental committee had been appointed, representative of the Native Affairs, Mines, Railways and Agricultural Departments to investigate European and Native labour resources in South Africa and in a later report stated that *“ The principal matter for investigation will be the Native labour resources of the country, and how far a redistribution can take place so as to make up the shortage of about 10,000 Natives on the Rand mines, as well as the shortage on the farms.” The position which it was desired to rectify was that there was a shortage of Native labour on certain farms and at the gold mines and at the same time a surplus of Native labour in the towns. It is evident that, notwithstanding the high cost of living and relatively low wages obtain- able in the towns, a large number of Natives prefer to take their chances in the towns to going to the gold mines or up-country farms. What can be the reasons for this preference ? THE REASON WHY NATIVE LABOURERS PREFER TOWN WORK TO THE GOLD MINES Many—in some parts at least of the country the great majority—of the Native labourers who flock to the towns have already worked in the gold mines. They are not returning to the mines because they know that prolonged work in the gold mines is ruinous to health. They fear miner’s phthisis and consumption. This is an entirely reasonable anxiety, as reference to the Miner's Phthisis Commission’s reports will show. This explanation of the men’s preference for the towns is borne out by the Medical Officer of Health of East London who says (last Annual Report p. 14) © Twenty- eight per cent of the year’s notifications of Tuberculosis were recent arrivals. What further percentage should strictly be reckoned as importees it is impossible to say, but a review of the subject suggests a large proportion.” A labourer who during his last period of service at the gold mines has had some slight but suggestive symptom —pain or cough—will not go back to Johannesburg. He will make for the nearest large town to seek work. In many respects, food etc., the conditions of work at the gold mines are now good, but the wages are still practi- cally what they were before the war. (Native Grieo- ances Inquiry 1914, p. 36, and Economic Commission's Report 1925, p. 351.) The employers’ agreement limit- ing the maximum daily average wage to 2s. 3d. is not very encouraging to the labourers, considering the grave risks to health of the work in what the Miner's Phthisis Medical Bureau calls “ notoriously the most harmful underground occupation.” (Report 1924, p. 30). REASONS WHY NATIVE LABOURERS FEAR EMPLOYMENT IN REMOTE PLACES WITH UNKNOWN MASTERS. A Memorandum recently published by the Pretoria Joint Council on The Administration of Fustice in South Africa, with special reference to the Natwe population, contains the following illustrative cases. * A European, charged with culpable homicide against his Native servant, admitted that he had hit the servant with a pick handle and killed him. He was found not guilty by the jury and discharged. (Transvaal Criminal Record, No. 383 of 19 5).” * A Native charged with the murder of his European master . . . was found guilty and sentenced to death. . +. . In his report on the case the judge said, inter alia. “I do not feel that the magistrate’s finding that the con- demned prisoner was not assaulted by any member of the police force at . . . . is correct. . . . I think that the ques- tion of carrying out the death sentence should be dealt with on the assumption that the accused was illegally thrashed by the police in order to induce him to return to the service of an employer whom for some reasons he greatly disliked, I and that resentment at having been thus forced into the deceased’s service and some feeling of desperation as to his prospects of ever getting away from deceased’s service afforded the motive for the commission of this crime. . . . Had I had before me at the trial all the informa- tion which is now available I should have added to my verdict a recommendation to mercy.” (Transvaal Crimi- nal Records, No. 8 of 196). “ The Native was duly hanged.” THE FARMERS’ PROPOSALS. The Transvaal Agricultural Union sent the inter- departmental committee a copy of the evidence which a deputation from that body laid before the Native Affairs Commission on Nov. 11. This deputation urged “the complete segregation of the Natives from the towns and the gradual repatriation of all male Natives, except such as are housed under the compound system.” “The deputation asked for a board representative of the mining and agricultural industries to be appointed to regulate the number of Natives admitted to work in urban areas. The board should have the power to restrict gradually the number of Natives entering urban areas in search of work and to divert them into other directions.” The idea apparently is to reproduce at the towns the system that exists at the mines and to replace the pre- sent Native villages (locations) by compounds for single men or at least men without their families. This would mean that the families evacuated from their present houses in the locations would have to find homes some- where else, and, as there is not room for them in the more congested reserves, they would be forced to apply for per- mission to live on farms, where the men would be obliged to give three month’s labour in each year to the farmers without pay before they left for the town compounds to work for a wage, leaving their families on the farms for the rest of the year. The disastrous effects on Native social life that such a system entails are obvious. FORCED LABOUR FOR PRIVATE EMPLOYERS. The Labour Office Report (p. 286) states, “ almost all legislation on the subject of forced labour forbids recourse to it for the benefit of private individuals. The only direct legal compulsion of this kind appears to be in the Dutch East Indies, where it is a survival of a feudal in- stitution. . . . the Government’s policy in this case is to buy out the rights of the feudal lords, and considerable progress, at great expense has been made.” The Report further states (p. 290) “ Taxation as a means of forcing workers to seek employment. There have been cases where the taxation imposed upon Native populations has been devised with the express intention of forcing them into private employment in order that they might earn the money necessary to pay their taxes, and measures of this kind have been frequently advocated by interested parties. “Tt need hardly be said that taxation designed for this purpose is an alternative to the direct enactment of forced labour for private employers.” THE NATIVE SERVICE CONTRACT REGISTRATION BILL. The Minister of Justice has prepared a Bill with the above title under which with certain limited exceptions, any Native male domiciled in the Transvaal or Natal outside any location who is or appears to be above the age of 18 and under the age of 60 will be liable to a special tax of £5 unless he can prove that in the year in question He has worked for at least three months under a contract of service or as an artizan. This is in addition to the poll tax and, as in the case of the poll-tax, non-payment is an offence rendering the defaulting Native liable to im- prisonment and that without cancellation of his liability to pay the tax. THE BILL EMBRACES ALL THE SUGGES- TIONS OF THE FARMERS. The Minister of Justice, in an interview with Ons Vaderland stated that the new Bill * embraced all the wont Boag 504 wistme 28 1. 57 suggestions that had so far been received from the Platte- land and that any further suggestions that were put for- ward would receive the same sympathetic attention if they appeared to be of real practical help for the solution of the Native labour question.’ IS THE PROPOSED LABOUR TAX A BREACH OF THE SLAVERY CONVENTION ? Article 5 of the Slavery Convention is the one dealing with compulsory labour. It reads as follows: “ The High Contracting Parties recognize that recourse to compulsory or forced labour may have grave conse- quences and undertake, each in respect of the territories placed under its sovereignty, jurisdiction, protection, suzerainty or tutelage, to take all necessary measures to prevent compulsory or forced labour from developing into conditions analogous to slavery. It is agreed that : (1) Subject to the transitional provisions laid down in paragraph (2) below, compulsory or forced labour may only be exacted for public purposes. (2) In territories in which compulsory or forced labour for other than public purposes still survives, the High Contracting Parties shall endeavour progressively and as soon as possible to put an end to the practice. So long as such forced or compulsory labour exists, this labour shall invariably be of an exceptional character, shall always receive adequate remuneration, and shall not involve the removal of the labourers from their usual place of residence. (3) In all cases the responsibility for any recourse to compulsory or forced labour shall rest with the compe- tent central authorities of the territory concerned.” The Article is somewhat vaguely expressed but two points are clear, first that where compulsory labour for private profit already exists it must be put an end to, and, second, that where it does not exist it must not be begun. Is the Minister of Justice forgetting that South Africa has ratified the Slavery Convention ? 3 THE VIEWS Of THE JOHANNESEURG JOINT COUNCIL OF EUROPEANS AND NATIVES ON ¢ FORCED LABOUR.” To the Editor, The South African Outlook. Sir,—The article “ Forced Labour in Africa,” which appeared in the April number of the Outlook, was of great interest to the Johannesburg Joint Council of Euro- peans and Natives, especially as the Council itself has been engaged in a study of the Report of the International Labour Conference on Forced Labour, and the applica- tion to conditions in South Africa of the principles enunciated in that Report. The very able survey of this subject embodied in the article referred to is highly appreciated, and the conclusions reached are very similar to those arrived at by this Council. The trend of legislation in the Union renders the whole question of Forced Labour a matter of the greatest im- portance. This is especially true of indirect compulsion. In view of the principles laid down in the Report of the International Labour Conference for 1929 the Joint Council desires to call attention to the following addi- tional points. A. Direct Compulsion. The practical effects of the South West Africa Vagrancy Proclamation of 1920 should be examined in view of its distinct likeness to early 19th century Cape enact- ments. In this regard the Report states (p. 65) that there is no system of forced labour for public works, porterage, emergencies or compulsory cultivation ; but “ Proclamation 25 of 1920 provides, in Section 14, that upon a first conviction of wvagrancy or of being an idle or disorderly person, the court shall sentence the prisoner to a term of service on the public works of the territory or to employment under a municipality or a private person, and shall fix a reasonable wage therefor. If no such service or employment can be obtained for the prisoner, the court may impose the ordinary penalties provided by the law.” On pages 195-6 the Report deals at greater length with this section of the Vagrancy Proclamation. Obviously it is advisable to clear up the position arising under this Proclamation. B. Indirect Compulsion. The provisions of the Prime Minister’s Land Bill in regard to licenses for squatters and of Mr. Pirow’s Native Service Contract Registrations Bill, together with the Pass Laws of the Union and the question of the supply of Con- vict Labour to Private Employers, should be compared with the principles suggested in the Questionnaire adopted by the Conference (p. 67), as follows : “Do you consider that the International Labour Conference should adopt a Recommendation depre- cating resort to indirect means of artificially increas- ing the economic pressure upon populations to seek wage-earning employment, particularly by (a) imposing taxation on populations on a scale dictated by the intention of compelling them to work for the benefit of private enterprises : (b) rendering difficult the gaining of a living in complete independence by workers by unjustified restrictions as to the possession, occupation, or use of land : (¢) extending abusively the generally accepted mean- ing of vagrancy ; (d) adopting pass laws which would result in giving the workers in the service of others a position of advantage as compared with that of other workers ? >’ Under Section 12 (1) of Mr. Pirow’s Native Service Contract Registrations Bill any Native domiciled in the Transvaal or Natal, and being between the ages of eigh- teen and sixty, is liable, in addition to all other taxes. to a | fA fie of five pounds in respect of any calendar year in which he has not rendered any service:under a contract of service, or worked as an artisan, for not less than three months. Chiefs, headmen, ministers of religion and teachers, are excepted, also physical and mental defectives, and those who have three sons working. The Native has to prove that he is not liable. Non-payment of the tax if due is deemed to be an offence, and renders the defaulting Native liable to imprisonment without cancellation of his liability to pay. It should further be noted that under the Colour Bar Act almost any field of labour can be shut out from the Native labourer. It is therefore evident that the inten- tion of the Bill is to curtail the field of employment for Natives and to compel them to enter and remain in the service of European employers. This is made still more clear by the fact that Ministers have declared their inten- tion to bring the Colour Bar Act into operation and to specify certain kinds of work which Natives shall be forbidden to perform. The Bill as it stands affects numbers of Native students at Training Institutions, and such classes as Native lawyers and doctors are not exempt from its provisions; but although published it has not been gazetted, and possibly it will not be heard of again. Pass Laws. The legal position with respect to the Pass Laws of the Union is that their application can be modified or with- drawn by the Department of Native Afiairs without reference to Parliament (cf. Native Administration Act, No. 38 of 1927, Sections 28 (1), 36). Furthermore, the Department favours simplification to the extent that public opinion will allow. Representations in this direction to the Government are therefore of little use, and public opinion has to be educated. There is little room for doubt that the Pass Laws are capable of being used as a means of indirect compulsion to labour. Attention is called to the findings of the Cape Town European-Bantu Conference of 1920 (see Report, i “7 pp. 49-50) as a considered opinion of a widely represents ative gathering of leaders of both races. Supply of Native Convict Labour to Private Employers, The recent undertaking that Native convict labour should be made available for farms in the Bethal District is not without precedent. Not only are gangs of such labourers used on Government work such as road-making (e.g. on the Pretoria-Johannesburg road) but they are also employed on certain mines on the Witwatersrand, by the De Beers Company in Kimberley, and are avail- able for hire by private employers for garden work, etc. Under the arrangements with the De Beers Company the working convicts are accommodated at night in suitable barracks, are under adequate supervision, and receive the necessary medical attention. It is doubtful if such conditions can be obtained on farms. The gangs will be small, and if proper accommodation is stipulated for, the Government will have to provide it, together with food and other supplies. The class of warder available will probably be of a less reliable type, and constant supervision will be necessary to prevent abuses. In fact, it seems probable that in the case of small detachments in isolated districts even serious abuses might continue for a long period without being discovered. The Joint Council takes a serious view of the sugges- tion to make more general the use of this type of labous, and holds strongly the opinion that it should not be made available for use by private employers. Furthermore, the low rate which is paid for convict labour, in contrast with rates paid to ordinary employees, renders such labour undesirable from an economic point of view. With these additions the Johannesburg Joint Council desires to endorse the views expressed in the article referred fo at the beginning of this letter. Yours faithfully, E. W. GRANT, Hon. Secretary, Johannesburg Joint Council of Europeans and Natives. 28 5 : § s § 3 ES x A 1 4 03 mo and that resentment at having been thus forced into the deceased’s service and some feeling of desperation as to his prospects of ever getting away from deceased’s service afforded the motive for the commission of this crime. . . . Had I had before me at the trial all the informa- tion which is now available I should have added to my verdict a recommendation to mercy.’ (Transvaal Crimi- nal Records, No. 8 of 196). “The Native was duly hanged.” & Lh > 2 OD J (2) THE FARMERS’ PROPOSALS. The Transvaal Agricultural Union sent the inter departmental committee a copy of the evidence which a deputation from that body laid before the Native Affairs Commission on Nov. 11. This deputation urged “ the complete segregation of the Natives from the towns and the gradual repatriation of all male Natives, except such as are housed under the compound system.” “The deputation asked for a board representative of the mining and agricultural industries to be appointed to regulate the number of Natives admitted to work in urban areas. The board should have the power to restrict gradually the number of Natives entering urban areas in search of work and to divert them into other directions.” The idea apparently is to reproduce at the towns the system that exists at the mines and to replace the pre- sent Native villages (locations) by compounds for single men or at least men without their families. This would mean that the families evacuated from their present houses in the locations would have to find homes some- where else, and, as there is not room for them in the more congested reserves, they would be forced to apply for per- mission to live on farms, where the men would be obliged to give three month’s labour in each year to the farmers without pay before they left for the town compounds to work for a wage, leaving their families on the farms for the rest of the year. The disastrous effects on Native social life that such a system entails are obvious. | vy