In six months they convinced the majority of the House of Commons, they convinced the Government, and they even made Lord Milner eat his own words. His dispatches began to take on a garb of gloom. In August they were of the mitigated grief shade; in September the shade darkened; in October it was more than half mourning; in November it had become black; in December it was as black as the Egyptian plague. His lordship talked of crises; of what would happen unless some noble, national sacrifice was made to save the sinking ship. Chinese labour was the only cure for the deplorable condition of the gold industry in the Transvaal! Meanwhile, a Labour Commission had been appointed, a mission consisting of ten persons, eight of whom were known to be in favour of the introduction of Asiatic labour. This Commission was authorized to find out whether a scarcity of Kaffir or white labour existed, but was forbidden to answer the question which was in the minds of all, whether it would be proper or desirable to introduce Chinese labour. The agitation proved successful, and it was decided to import Chinese labour. The grave disasters attendant on the impending crisis Lord Milner insisted in his dispatches in December 1903 had to be met. It is curious, of course, to compare the statement of Lord Milner in December 1903 with his statement in June 1903. In June the output of gold was 237,000 ozs., and according to Lord Milner everything was satisfactory. The production of gold, in his own words, was greater than in 1895 or 1896. Six months later, in December, the output was 286,000 ozs., an increase of 49,000 ozs. Yet, according to Lord Milner, the prosperity of the gold industry was in inverse proportion to the output of gold! Two hundred and thirty-seven thousand ounces per month was prosperity in June; 286,000 ozs. in December was grave disaster, and the rest of it. Moreover, in those golden days of June 1903 there were 59,400 Kaffir labourers working on the mines. In that dark, cheerless December, when the output of gold had increased 49,000 ozs., and the gold industry was rapidly sinking back into the pit of gloom and disaster, the number of labourers employed was 68,800, being an increase of 9400--or 15 per cent. Moreover, in this terrible, deplorable month the production of gold was greater than it had ever been before, except during that period between the beginning of 1898 and the commencement of the war. As to the question of labour, the production per labourer per month in December 1903 was 4 ozs. of gold. In 1899 it was only 3·4 ozs.; that is to say, it had been increased by the use of machinery by one-seventh, so that six labourers in December 1903 were equal to seven labourers in the golden period before the war. Actually, therefore, those 68,800 labourers were doing the work of 80,262 labourers, and were doing it at wages 33 per cent. less than they were before the war. But this was not prosperity. The dividends were not large enough.