ng, for instance,
which only need a chance in order to burst into extreme activity
in this place. For the Rand requires just now an increase of
everything--dwelling-houses, offices, roads, sewers, lighting,
water-supply, etc., etc. Capital would be readily forthcoming for
every kind of construction, and many skilled workmen are waiting
at the coast. But it is no use bringing up workmen to live in the
dearest place in the world unless they have the materials to work
with. The most necessary materials, however, are bulky, and the
carrying capacity of the railways, greatly improved as it is,
gives no promise of an early importation of quantities of bulky
material, if the other and more urgent demands upon our means of
transport are to be satisfied.

"As regards native labour for the mines, the greater development
of which is a condition of all other industrial development, the
difficulty is that, while natives can be found in abundance to
do surface work, the number of those who are willing to go
underground is limited. There are only certain tribes among whom
underground workers can be found in any great numbers, and these
reside mostly in Portuguese territory. As you are aware,
difficulties have arisen about the introduction of Portuguese
natives, and the matter is at present the subject of negotiations
between the Governor-General of Mozambique and myself. Having
regard to the friendly attitude of the Governor-General, I have
every hope that this difficulty may soon be overcome. But even
then we shall not be able to count on any great immediate influx
of labourers from Portuguese territory....

[Sidenote: The concentration camps.]

"The delay in obtaining native labour would be more serious if it
were not for the existence of that other and still greater
obstacle to the rapid revival of industry here which I have
already dwelt on, namely, the difficulty of transport. And this
latter difficulty is immensely aggravated at the present time by
the constantly increasing requirements of the concentration
camps. Not only has the number of people in these camps
increased, with overwhelming rapidity, to an extent never
contemplated when they were first started, but the extreme state
of destitution in which many of the people arrived, and the
d