§ MR. FELL (Great Yarmouth)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if, approximately, 1,000 white men are employed in the Transvaal mines for every 10,000 Chinese employed there, and 1,000 white men for every 15,000 Kaffirs employed.
§ MR. CHURCHILLThe last official returns—those from January—give 16,700 whites, 123,000 natives, and 33,800 Chinese. The proportions suggested in the Question, which would give 11.580 whites, do not therefore appear to be correct. I may add, however, that I was drawn unwittingly into an error, in reply to a Supplementary Question by the hon. Member for Gravesend on 31st March, when I stated that 932 Lord Milner had predicted that 1,000 white men would be employed for every 10,000 Chinese. What Lord Milner really said was that he was prepared to stake his reputation on the prediction that for every 10,000 coloured labourers, 10,000 whites including women and children would be added to the population within three years. This was 1904, and although between the dates of the arrival and the first departures of the Chinese there was an increase of 87,800 coloured labourers, the population of Johannesburg according to the latest returns has remained stationary.