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ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 207
war. None of these interruptions, however, can be
considered of great importance in themselves. The coal
mining of Natal and Cape Colony, everything reckoned.
has occupied a few hundreds of people only. and the
districts of Cape Colony and Natal, as well as the
Orange Free State. which have been the seat of war, are
very sparsely populated. The losses sustained in these
ways are not to be compared with the suspension of so
much of the chief industry in the Transvaal itself,
which has to be reckoned as the one great economic
loss of the war. as far as South Africa is concerned.
I ndirectl y, some of these stoppages may ha ve been im-
portant. The interruption of coal mining. for instance.
may have helped to aggravate the coal famine. But it
would take us too far here to follow out such indirect
consequences. \Ve are speaking now from the point of
view of the communities directly affected by the war.
On the other hand. large numbers of the communities
of South Africa have probably gained a great deal
directly and indirectly through the war. Viewed
economically, from the standpoint of the people of
South Africa, the conduct of the war has in fact been
equivalent to the establishment of a new industry in
the region. providing a good market for the produce
of the country and giving large employment to labour.
and all this being done by means of new money coming
into the country from abroad. There is no doubt waste
and loss somewhere in connection with the war, but the
waste and loss do not fall upon the people of South
Africa generally. The losers have been the people of
Johannesburg and the Rand, who have been driven
from their homes and prevented from carrying on their
usual industry; but the farmers and towns-people of
Cape Colony and Natal generally, and the farmers and
towns-people of that portion of the Orange Free State
occupied by our troops, are all clearly gainers Iro tanto
by the war expenditure. Fanners everywhere ~rough­
out those districts have a better market for their pro-
duce, and every local industry is stimulated. This