Eureka Reporter | 1906-01-19 | Page 3 | Coolies in South Africa

COOLIES iff AFRICA writes an observer in south africa the chinese are everywhere you see them in the streets of the towns on the platforms of the railway sta alons or about the rand there are now nearly 50 of them scattered up and down a slice of country about forty miles in length some are in mines which are practical ly in johannesburg itself yesterday morning I 1 was walking down commis aloner street when I 1 came across thir ty of them at work digging out the foundations of a new hotel they were prisoners serving terms of hard labor and were leased out to the con tractor at one shilling a head a day and they were employed in the very center of johannesburg out at knight s I 1 saw a huge camp where 1 more chinese prisoners are at work making i deviation of tho rail ay line from hermiston Ger miston to bol furg A these sweepings of the chinese prisons who are now overrunning a british colony are not content with mere robbery they do that as a mat ter of course what those in isolated farms and lonely stores dread Is the cry of tsa tsa hlll kill from he yellow fiends who roam over the veldt people in the country dare scarcely go to bed at night they gather at each other s chooses for protection and companionship what render Is it that terror reigns on the veldt or that the coun try people are now all armed and shoot first when they a chinaman at nighta the same writer adds that these circumstances are hidden care fully from the outside world the white men of south africa with the exception of the mine owners he says are satisfied that the introduce Intro duc tian of coolie labor was a mistake 1 1