1910 is not 2010, and all countries in the world are tough on workers' strikes.

In 1914, the Colorado workers went on strike, and the capitalists, including Rockefeller, sent troops to suppress it by force, using heavy weapons including armored vehicles and heavy machine guns, resulting in the death of more than 200 workers.

In 1926, when the British Trade-Union declared a national strike over the issue of miners' wages, Winston, who was chancellor of the exchequer at the time, took a hard line in the strike, suggesting that the army use machine guns to disperse the striking miners.

The day after he returned to Johannesburg, he held a meeting to discuss how to respond to the Marcellus gold mine strike.

Roque did not attend the meeting, and after the meeting, Smalls approached Roque and Marcus Beaufort to hope that the Johannesburg City Government would take more into account the advice of the mining coalition when dealing with the strike.

"We can't compromise, although the Africans are not very demanding, but if we compromise this time, then there will be endless troubles—" Xiao Si was adamant, the Mining Alliance is the largest source of tax revenue for the Johannesburg City Government and even the federal government, and their proposal really needs to be heeded.

This time, in fact, the miners' requirements are not high, their initial requirements are only to improve the standard of living, not to eat only potatoes every day, but also to see a little meat from time to time like the Rock gold mine, after all, mining is a very heavy industry with manual labor, without enough nutrition, it is indeed unable to support high-intensity labor.

Out of the usual French character, the management of Marcellus Gold Mine agreed to the miners' request, and even gave the miners more benefits on this basis, including an extra meal once a week, more rest time for the miners, half a day off each week, and so on.

Human greed knows no bounds, and Africans are really good at it, and soon they have more demands, including better working and living conditions, higher wages, the same paid leave as white people, and the same pension as white people after a mining disaster.

It was only then that the management of Marcellus realized that they had opened a Pandora's box, that things were out of their control, and that the strike had finally turned into a riot.

"If it's just the Marcellus gold mine, then it's simple to meet their demands, the question is that there are 37 gold mines in Johannesburg, and if we compromise, what do we do if the miners from the other gold mines demand the same treatment? What if those greedy Africans ask of us anything else in the future? We invest in the mines, we buy the machines, we hire them to work, if they feel that the treatment is too bad, they can not accept it, incite others to force us to obey in a coercive way, trying to get the part that does not belong to them is a crime, we must not compromise. "Xiao Si is categorical, and he thinks more about punishing the former and the latter.

"If it is possible to solve the problem by peaceful means, it is better not to shed blood." Marcus Beaufort also knows that there is a lot to come, but as the mayor of Johannesburg, Marcus Beaufort has more to think about.

The use of force to suppress this kind of thing will certainly have a bad impact if it gets out, and Southern Africa is not monolithic now, and there are many journalists in Johannesburg right now, not all from The Times, but also from Orange.

The Orange reporters would have liked the military and police to use coercive measures.

"The Mining Union is very resolute in this matter, we are against any form of compromise and hope that the city government will fully consider the interests of the mine owners, and we have raised 180,000 rand for the aftermath of the rehabilitation, five thousand rand each in addition to the Marcellus gold mine, this is only the first amount, and if the money is not enough, it can be continued." Xiao Si is indeed wealthy, and he directly smashes it with money.

This 180,000 yuan is certainly not used for post-mortem compensation, if coercive measures are adopted, even if it causes casualties among striking workers, according to the custom of the Johannesburg mines, even if compensation is given, it will not be used up so much, this money is the remuneration of the military and the Johannesburg city government, as for how Roque and Marcus Beaufort will distribute, Xiao Si will not interfere.

"Why exclude the Marcellus gold mine?" Roque was curious, not knowing how far the Mining Alliance could go.

"Marcellus Gold Mine has been very disappointing this time around, and our decision to expel Marcellus Gold Mine from the Mining Union and auction the mine to compensate for the damage caused to the Mining Union by this incident is our collective decision." Xiao Si has a good reason, don't the French like to vote, then use the vote to drive the French out of the mining union.

"If we take a strong line, Aiden's safety may not be guaranteed." Roque said the ugly words in front.

"If I could, of course I would like to get Aiden out first before taking action, but if it doesn't work, I'll give Aiden's family a large pension." Xiao Si is really ruthless and has gradually become a qualified capitalist.

Roque nodded, having already said this, of course Roque chose to maintain the Mining Alliance, after all, the Rock Gold Mine is also a member of the Mining Alliance.

Of course, if this kind of thing happened in a mining farm dominated by Chinese workers, Roque would definitely not deal with it like this.

Ahh

Looking back, Roque had to communicate further with Xiao Si: "What about those smuggled mines?" ”

"What else, the industry self-correcting and self-checking, the Boer War has passed ten years, the ownership of these mines was still relatively arbitrary, you can buy a good mine for a few thousand pounds, now the federal government has stabilized, the Rand mining area should better serve the federal government, these mines have not been dug for more than ten years, those mine owners have long recovered their costs, some people even live abroad, not southern Africans at all, more and more people have opinions about the Rand mining area, We always have to take into account the opinion of the majority. Xiao Si said so much, in fact, there is a central idea, the land mining area is also going to change.

Roque nodded speechlessly, thinking back then, Henry only spent 1,500 pounds to buy the Matilda gold mine, although the Matilda gold mine is not a rich mine in the Rand mining area, but over the years, the gold mined by the Matilda gold mine is more than 500,000, and other gold mines are the same, Roque bought the Roquec gold mine by square kilometers, and the price is about the same as giving it away for nothing, how much gold has the Roquet gold mine dug up over the years?

A whole RAND bank!

It has been nearly ten years since the end of the Boer War, when the Transvaal Governor's Office was trying to restore gold production in Johannesburg as soon as possible, most of the gold mines were sold at almost free prices, and those speculative capitalists were cheapened for nothing, and now the real power figures in southern Africa have not benefited much, this situation must change, Sidney Milner, Marcus Beaufort, and even Owen, these upstarts in southern Africa are eyeing the gold mines in Johannesburg, However, some gold mine owners are still actively dying.

It's so lively.

"I'm collecting information about Anglo-American Mining Company, and when the next mining alliance collective meeting comes to a collective meeting, I'm going to force them to transfer the mine, but this work requires the cooperation of the Johannesburg City Government and the federal government, after all, Anglo-American Mining Company also has a background." Xiao Si knows the severity, those mine owners who have no background forget it, the mine owners with a background still have to be careful, and it depends on the owner to beat the dog.

"Don't worry about the background of the Anglo-American mining company, communicate with Lord Northern Rock if you have any questions, The Times is a good tool, we have to make full use of it." Roque is insidious, the aristocracy in Britain cherishes the wind comment the most, if there is really anything, the "Times" report, without the federal government, the Congressional inquiry is enough for those big people to drink a pot.

That evening, good news finally came from the Marcellus gold mine, and the striking miners agreed to Roque's request and decided to send representatives to the Johannesburg City Council to negotiate.

A negotiating team consisting of Roque, Smalls, Sidney Milner, Marcus Beaufort and Sam was formed.

Sam was a lawyer before taking on the role of managing director of Umbrella Inc., so he had the opportunity to join the negotiation team.

What Roque didn't expect was that Small, Sidney Milner, and Marcus Beaufort, including Small, were all strongly opposed to Roque joining the negotiating team.

The reason is very simple, Roque is the Viscount of Nyasaland, and he is also the Deputy Minister of Defense and Deputy Minister of Justice of the Federal Government, and there is no need for Roque to directly participate in negotiations at this level, and he can't afford to lose that person.

Even according to Xiao Si's meaning, even negotiations are unnecessary, and it is better for Roque to directly order the troops to attack, so as to show the toughness of the military.

In any case, at 8 a.m. on August 3, the negotiations took place as scheduled in the Johannesburg City Hall.

Roque chose to sit in and attend.

Sidney Milner and Marcus Beaufort, Xiao Si and Sam sat on the podium, flanked by the recorder's table and Roque's seats, the miners' representatives had no fixed seats, only a chair was placed opposite the rostrum, and only one miners' representative could speak at a time, and everyone else had to stand in the corner ten meters away from the rostrum.

This arrangement was very symbolic, but even the representatives of the miners who participated in the negotiations did not feel that there was anything wrong, so the negotiations began in an extremely strange atmosphere.

"—Gentlemen, we demand, that our salaries be raised, from a penny now, to a shilling—" More was domineering when he was at the Marcellus gold mines, and when it came to this court-like occasion, the steamed fish felt the majesty of the official.

"Weekly or monthly?" Sam didn't give Moll much time, and Moll was interrupted by Sam just as he spoke.

"Daily wage!" Moore was sweating profusely.

Really, if this is a weekly salary, how can the miners live!