Part 5 (1/2)
”Behind this whole process of electrification lies the need, created by the Great War, for coal conservation and for a motive power that will speed up production of all kinds We have abundant coal in the Union of South Africa and by consuer position to export it and thus strengthen our international position and keep the value of our money up”
Since Sir Williaet a link,--and a typical one--with the ramified resource of the Union of South Africa No product, not even those precious stones that lie in the bosoolden ore inificance just now Nor does any coure quite so prominently in the march of world events
In peace, as in war, coal spells life and power It was the cudgel that the one-tily over the head of the unhappy neutral, and extorted special privilege At the moment I write, coal is the stores from the Ruhr Valley of Germany to the Welsh fields of Britain and affects the destinies of statesmen and of countries We are not without fuel troubles, as our empty bins indicate The nation, therefore, with cheap and abundant coal has a bargaining asset that insures industrial peace at hoe abroad
South Africa not only has a low-priced and ample coal supply but it is in a convenient point for distribution to the whole Southern hemisphere,--in fact Europe and other sections On past production the Union ranked only eleventh in a list of coal-producing countries, the output being about 8,000,000 tons a year before the war and so over 10,000,000 tons in 1919 This output, however, is no guide to the nitude of its fields Until comparatively recent times they have been little exploited, not because of inferiority but because of the restricted output prior to the new movement to develop a bunker and export trade Without an adequate geological survey the investigationsthe last twelve months indicate a potential supply of over 60,000,000 tons and ied the whole coal situation Labour conflicts have reduced the British output; a huge part of Gero to France as an indemnity, while our own fields are sadly under-worked, for a variety of causes All these conditions operate in favor of the South African field, which is becoly ie the prices rely lohen you colish coal, which in 1912 cost about nine shi+llings a ton at pithead, costs considerably e pithead price of South African coal in 1915 was five shi+llings twopence a ton and at the time of my visit to South Africa in 1919 was still under seven shi+llings a ton
Capetown and Durban, the two principal harbours of the Union, are coaling stations of Es of a dozen nations flying from shi+ps that have put in for fuel Thanks to the war these ports are in the center of the world's great trade routes and thus, geographically and econo and for export
The price of bunker coal is a key to the increased overhead cost of world trade, as a result of the war The Belgian boat on which I travelled froo to Antwerp coaled at Teneriffe, where the price per ton was seven pounds It is interesting to compare this with the bunker price at Capetown of a little more than two pounds per ton, or at Durban where the rate is one pound ten shi+llings a ton
In the face of these figures you can readily see what an econo to the Union of South Africa with reference to the whole vexing question of coal supply
We can now go into the larger ht of peace and world reconstruction I have already sho the war, and the social and industrial upheaval that followed in its wake have enlarged and fortified the coal situation in the Union
Practically all other interests are si factor in the prosperity of the Union has been the develop the conflict that shook the world, that this gospel of self-containain for the years of blood and slaughter So far as Britain is concerned this hope has not been realized When I was last in England huge quantities of Ger dumped on her shores to the loss and dis the war Ger in And yet England wondered why her exchange was down!
In South Africa the situation has been entirely different She alone of all the British donacious self-sufficiency Cut off from outside supplies for over four years by the relentless submarine warfare, and the additional fact that nearly all the shi+ps to and from the Cape had to carry war supplies or essential products, she was forced to develop her internal resources
The consequence is an expansion of agriculture, industry andas she was often called, ”a country of samples,” she has become a domain of active production, as is attested by an industrial output valued at 62,000,000 in 1918 Before the war the British and American manufacturer,--and there is a considerable oods in the Cape Colony,--could undersell the South African article That condition is changed and the home-made article produced with much cheaper labour than obtains either in Europe or the United States, has the field
Letfact in connection with this South African prosperity During the war I had occasion to observe at first-hand the economic conditions in every neutral country in Europe I was deeply impressed with the prosperity of Sweden, Spain and Switzerland, and to a lesser extent Holland, who hbors reaped the tares of war japan did likewise These nations were largely profiteers who capitalized a colossal ot much of the benefit and little of the horror of the upheaval
Not so with South Africa She played an active part in the war and at the saitimate expansion of her resources One point in her favor is that while she sent tens of thousands of her sons to fight, her own territory escaped the scar and ravage of battle All the fighting in Africa, so far as the Union was concerned, was in German South-West Africa and German East Africa After e to catch the buoyant, confident, unwearied spirit of South Africa
I have dwelt upon coal because it happens to be a significant economic asset Coal is merely a phase of the South African resources In 1919 the Union produced 35,000,000 in gold and 7,200,000 in diahly, 50,000,000
This ricultural output, of which nearly one-third is exported Land is the real old and diao on forever
The riculture you reach a real ro of the Aet a more dramatic spectacle of the triumph of the pioneer over combative conditions The Mormons made the Utah desert blooues wrested riches froht Indians and wrestled with drought, while the Dutch in Africa and their English comrades battled with Kaffirs, Hottentots and Zulus and endured a no less grilling exposure to sun
The crops are diversified One of the staples of South Africa, for exa ood It provides the principal food of the natives and is eaten extensively by the European as well On a dish offor twenty-four hours Its prototype in the Congo is manice flour In the Union nearly five million acres are under maize cultivation, which is exactly double the area in 1911 The value of the maize crop last year was approximately a million six hundred thousand pounds Similar expansion has been the order in tobacco, wheat, fruit, sugar and half a dozen other products
South Africa is a huge cattle country The Boers have always excelled in the care of live stock and it is particularly due to their efforts that the Union today has more than seven million head of cattle, which represents another hundred per cent increase in less than ten years
This matter of live stock leads me to one of the really picturesque industries of the Union which is the breeding of ostriches, ”the birds with the golden feathers” Ask any ainly birds and he will tell you that with luck they are far better than the proverbial goose who laid the eighteen-karat eggs The combination of F's--femininity, fashi+on and feathers--has been productive of many fortunes The business is inclined to be fickle because it depends upon the female temperament The ostrich feather, however, is always more or less in fashi+on With the outbreak of the war there was a tremendous slump in feathers, which was keenly felt in South Africa With peace, the plu industry expanded with get-rich-quick proportions
Port Elizabeth in the Cape Colony is the center of the ostrich feather trade It is the only place in the world, I believe, devoted entirely to plu before I arrived in South Africa 85,000 of feathers were disposed of there in three days It is no unco for a pound of prime plumes to fetch 100 The demand has become so keen that 350,000 ostriches in the Union can scarcely keep pace with it Before the war there were more than 800,000 of these birds but the depression in feathers coupled with drought, flood and other causes, thinned out the ranks It takes three years for an ostrich chick to become a feather producer
A the ostrich feather est consuroup of Yankees industriously bidding against each other On one occasion t York buyers started a coistered a total net sale ofabout it down there
South Africa has not only expanded in output but her area is also enlarged The Peace Conference gave her the mandate for German South-West Africa, which was the first section of the vanished Teutonic Empire in Africa It occupies more than a quarter of the whole area of the continent south of the Zambesi River While the word ”mandate” as construed by the peace sharks at Paris is supposed to mean the amiable stewardshi+p of a country, it really a more or less than an actual and benevolent assimilation This assi coood old Wall Street days felt for small and competitive concerns In other words, it is safe to assume that henceforth German South-West Africa will be a permanent part of the Union
The Colony's chief asset is comprised in the so-called Gero Diamond Fields, provide a considerable portion of the small stones now on the market These two fields are alike in that they are alluvial whichprocess No shafts are sunk It is precisely like gold washi+ng