The report of the consulting engineer of the Consolidated Goldfields still rang in the ear of the Rand lords. "Cut down the wages 33 per cent. and you will add two and a half millions to the dividends." An unlimited number of Kaffirs would not come to the mines under these conditions; they would not submit to bad wages as well as bad treatment. White men would combine to manage the country and to take the political power out of the hands of the Rand lords. "If we could replace 20,000 workers by 100,000 unskilled whites," said one of the directors, "they would simply hold the government of the country in the hollow of their hand; and without any disparagement to the British labourer, I prefer to see the more intellectual section of the community at the helm." Hence the gloomy picture painted of the gold industry in that December 1903. Hence the slump in the Kaffir market. Hence that cry that native labour would not come and that whites could not do the work. Hence that more ominous cry that Chinese labourers must be employed. The Transvaal was not to be for Englishmen. It was to be governed by the intellectual genius of Mr. Rudd and his bevy of German Jews and non-British Gentiles. Even if white labour was economically possible the Rand lords did not want it. It _was_ possible--it _was_ economical. But they wanted labour that would be _voteless_ and _subservient_! CHAPTER II 'AVE, CROESUS, MORITURI TE SALUTANT' "The problem is a very urgent problem. The necessity of going forward is an urgent and vital necessity in the economical condition of the country. I will tell the House why in a sentence. The mines are 30,000 natives short of the number engaged in the pre-war period." These were the words subsequently used by Mr. Lyttelton, the Colonial Secretary. The matter _was_ urgent. Already protests were pouring in from every part of the Empire. Imperial meetings, white league meetings, anti-slavery meetings, political meetings--all the machinery, in short, of protest and obstruction was being got under weigh, and to the Rand lords it seemed as if the ideal of slavery for which they had struggled so long and so hard was to be denied them at the last hour. The anguish of Sir Lancelot when a vision of the Holy Grail was denied him after all his trials and tribulations was not greater or more poignant than the trepidation of the mine owners. It became, indeed, a very urgent problem for them, for unless they could bring the matter to a head, not even the strongest Government of the century could hope to withstand the popular will when once it was organized sufficiently to voice its petition loudly enough. But of economical necessities there were none.