Six months later--on September 5, 1904--the Colonial Secretary replied as follows, to a correspondent who wrote asking him whether it would be now advisable for a man to go out to the Transvaal. "Mr. Lyttelton," so ran the answer, "would certainly not advise any one to go out without a definite prospect of employment." So far from 50,000 white men finding employment in the Transvaal since the introduction of 50,000 Chinamen, the proportion is thousands below this number, and not even the poverty-stricken state of Poplar or West Ham can compare with the impecuniosity to be met with at every street corner of the Gold Reef City. There are thousands of men in South Africa who have been lured there by the prospects of the Rand in a daily state of destitution. The streets of Johannesburg are crowded with unemployed. The evil seeds of poverty and destitution have been scattered throughout the length and breadth of South Africa. Business in Durban is in a parlous condition. In Cape Town there are thousands of absolutely destitute men, women, and children who have to be provided for weekly out of funds now almost exhausted. Night after night these unfortunate wretches are compelled to sleep on the mountain slopes, whether it be winter or summer, and quite recently a man was found on one of the seats in the Public Gardens in such a state of starvation--for he had tasted nothing for five whole days--that he died an hour and a half after. This is the boasted prosperity which was to have come to the country through the introduction of Chinese labour. And yet Mr. Balfour writes to Mr. Herbert Samuel on November 22--_vide_ the correspondence in _The Times_--that he can see "nothing in the condition of things to induce the Government to reverse a policy which was recommended by an overwhelming majority in the Transvaal Legislative Council, with the approval of the great bulk of the white population."(!) Many attempts have been made to justify the pledge made by Lord Milner, that for every 10,000 introduced, 10,000 white men would find employment. This is a side of the question which was admirably put by Lord Coleridge in May last:-- The Government's policy seems to be that of the mine owner, or rather to serve that of the mine owner--to get labour as cheaply as possible, and, above all, to keep out the white man for fear he should grow independent. Mr. Lyttelton, speaking at Exeter on May 5, said:-- "The result of the introduction of Chinamen has been that 3000 white men are employed on the mines in addition to those that were employed before the introduction of that labour, and the result is that, in round figures, £500,000 has been received by British artisans."