It was natural after such a devastating war that some time should elapse before the mines could get into full working order and attain that wonderful output of gold which prevailed immediately before the outbreak of hostilities. The progress of the gold industry after the war had to be gradual; but so far from it being depressed or showing signs of being stagnant, it had, as I have already shown, increased enormously. Already it was within measurable distance of the output of the pre-war period. The economical necessity was not the necessity of importing cheap labour, but the necessity of paying a proper wage to the Kaffir and of treating him well. Already Dr. Jameson, who in no sense was a partisan opponent of the Rand capitalists, had declared in November 1903 that the De Beers Company would not employ Chinamen--that they had plenty of labour, white and black, because they treated their people well. But the Rand mine owners not only did not pay their Kaffirs a proper wage, but meted out to them such treatment that the death-rate among them had increased since 1902 to an extent which, to express it in mild terms, was appalling. I quote the figures below-- NATIVE MORTALITY ON MINES IN JOHANNESBURG, KRUGERSDORP, BOKSBURG, GERMISTON, AND SPRINGS. Period: November 1902--July 1903. No. of Death-rate During the Month. Natives No. of per 1000 Employed. Deaths. per annum. November 1902 46,710 247 63·4 December " 48,542 324 80·90 January 1903 49,761 253 61·01 February " 55,288 207 44·9 March " 57,022 235 49·4 April " 62,265 269 51·8 May " 65,371 431 79·1 June " 68,819 492 85·7 July " 70,474 627 106·7 Average number of natives employed per month 58,250 Average number of deaths per month 343 Average death-rate per 1000 per annum per month 70·6 This was the economical necessity that should have occupied the attention of his Majesty's Government, and not the question of introducing Chinese indentured labour into the colony. That the mine owners have successfully baulked in the past all inquiry as to their treatment of natives is proved conclusively by the fact that even these statistics did not draw forth a commission from the Government to inquire into such a terrible state of affairs. Instead of the question being, "Why is it Kaffirs die at the rate of seventy per thousand per month?" the problem they set themselves was how to provide an alternative to these quick-dying wage-wanting niggers. Attempts had been made to procure coolie labour from India, and Lord Curzon never did a greater or a nobler thing than when he refused the sanction of his Government to such a step.