China -- Emigration and immigration; Chinese -- South Africa
At Germiston railway station twelve Chinamen were waiting on the
platform for a train. A white woman happened to pass by, and as she
passed the Chinamen hurled some bestial insult at her. One of the
railway officials immediately called a policeman, who tried to take
the offending Chinaman into custody. He was promptly knocked down.
Three more policemen were hurried to the scene. These met with like
treatment, and even when two other comrades came to their assistance
they were utterly unable to effect the arrest. After twenty minutes'
violent fighting, during which the gang of Chinamen were absolutely
unhurt, six policemen were taken on stretchers to the hospital.
Here are two or three more instances taken at random from the
"Butcher's Bill" of a Johannesburg correspondent, whose letter appeared
in the _Daily Mail_ a few weeks ago:--
"_Sept. 5._--Chinese attack Kaffirs in the Lancaster Mine. They throw
one Kaffir in front of a train of ore, so that he is cut to pieces. A
second Kaffir dies of his injuries.
"_Sept. 8._--Homestead at Rand Klipfontein attacked and looted, and
£150 in money taken. The Chinese try to fire the house by throwing a
fire-ball through the window.
"_Sept. 16._--Band of Chinese rush a Kaffir kraal at Wilgespruit, on
the West Rand. Native woman's head nearly severed. Chinese armed with
knives 2 feet 6 inches long, made by a Sheffield firm.
"_Sept. 18._--Riot Geldenhuis Deep. Compound manager assaulted. Mounted
police attacked by 1500 coolies armed with drills, stones, bottles,
etc., and forced to fire their revolvers. One Chinaman killed and a
number wounded."
And so on and so forth. One more instance to show to what length
the Chinamen will go. A gang of the breed employed at the Van Ryn
Mine, where there had previously been a number of disturbances,
struck work and attacked the whites underground. A white man pulled
the signal cord, and police, galloping up, descended the shaft and
saved the whites. The ringleaders were arrested, and, adds the
correspondent somewhat ingenuously--"This phase of attacks underground
is disquieting." From the adjacent colony of Natal, too, come words
of complaint about Chinese stragglers; and it is significant in this
connection that "over a thousand rifles" were issued to the farmers in
the Transvaal at the end of September last. These are facts which Mr.
Reyersbach, of Messrs. H. Eckstein & Co., would be well advised to put
in his pipe and ponder.
Of course the immediate cause which leads to the Chinese committing the
above-recorded acts of violence is the result of bad treatment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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