of the military. Assuming
that from 8,000 to 9,000 are refugees, this would represent about
one-sixth of the total number of well-accredited Uitlanders
registered in the books of the 'Central Registration Committee.'

"The best that can be said on the thorny subject of the return of
the refugees, is that latterly the rate of return has been
steadily increasing. Last month the military authorities allowed
us to grant 400 ordinary permits (this number is over and above
permits given to officials or persons specially required for
particular services to the Army or the Government). This month
the number has been raised to 800. I need hardly say that the
selection of 800 people out of something like fifty times that
number is an onerous and ungrateful task. South Africa simply
rings with complaints as to favouritism in the distribution of
permits. As a matter of fact, whatever mistakes have been made,
there has been no favouritism. I do not mean to say that a
certain number of people--not a large number--have not slipped
through or been smuggled up under false pretences. But the great
bulk of the permits have been allotted by the Central
Registration Committee, a large, capable, and most representative
body of the citizens of this town and neighbourhood. And they
have been allotted on well-defined principles, and with great
impartiality.... I am satisfied that no body of officials, even
if our officials were not already over-worked in other
directions, could have done the business so well.

[Sidenote: Labour and transport.]

"There can, I think, be little doubt that the present rate of
return can be maintained, and I am not without hope that it may
in a short time be considerably increased. But this depends
entirely, for the reasons already given, on the question whether
the resumption of mining operations can be quickened. The
obstacles to such a quickening are two-fold: first, want of
native labour; secondly, want of trucks to bring up not only the
increased supplies which a larger population necessitates, but
also, and this is even a more serious matter, to bring up the
material required for their work. The latter, I need hardly say,
is a very heavy item, not only in the case of the mines, but in
the case of all those other industries, buildi