CHINESE LABOUR CARTOON PICTURE POSTCARD
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Jeff Woolgar
The postcard illustrated here (Ex Joan Matthews) was published by Grocott & Sherry, The Corner House, Johannesburg. The undivided back is printed in black and the postcard entered the post on 9th August, 1906 in Johannesburg; the arrival ‘CANTONMENT B.O. MIDDLEBURG’, 26mm double circle datestamp is set at ‘ll.AUG. 1906’. Grocott & Sherry were well known book publishers of Grahamstown (with one book published in Port Alfred). They published an array of books specialising in Grahamstown and the Eastern Cape. Maps from at least 1897 and of interest to philatelists is their publication of Troy`s New Maps of the Transvaal Colony, compiled from farm and geological surveys, by Capt. L.M. Beddam, geological features revised and edited by G.A. Troye, M.E. (Railway and postal Map of the Transvaal Colony.) Scale: 16 English miles = 1 inch and 4.69 English miles = 1 inch [1906] P.O. Box 2404, Johannesburg.1
According to ‘SAPRG’, Grocott published a newspaper in Grahamstown from 18702 and Grocott & Sherry continued to do so. Their picture postcards were published in Grahamstown, East London and Johannesburg; sometimes with an imprint of “St. & Co/B”. Like the other cartoon picture postcards, relating to the Chinese Labour Experiment on the Witwatersrand, illustrated here and in a journal,3 this one was on sale in 1906 when the debate on Chinese Indentured labour was at its most intense.4 However, unlike the other cartoon picture postcards, the one illustrated here cannot be described as symbolic, as it was obviously intended to amuse.
Lord Selborne reported on the food given to Chinese miners on the Witwatersrand gold mines, “their food can only be described as excellent” and James Percy Fitzpatrick noted that when the Chinese first arrived, "they eat a great deal", however, after a few weeks they "settled down to a normal amount".
Note
This article was first published in The Transvaal Philatelist in the November 2016, as: 'Propaganda cartoon picture postcards relating to the Chinese Labour Experiment in the Transvaal – a menu to die for!', p.123.
References
1. Copac (academic and specialist libraries catalogue for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland).
2.Publishers of picture postcards of southern Africa and Boer War and Boer War related postcards, (1991), Compiled by the Southern Africa Postcard Research Group, Isle Man, p.5a.
3. The Transvaal Philatelist issue/page number(s): 170/38-39, 178/27, 185/38, 186/65, 193/43.
4.Woolgar, J., (2010), Chinese Indentured Labour on the Witwatersrand Gold Fields illustrated by Picture Postcards Published between 1904 and 1910, including an analysis of postcards and covers, Gravesend, p.26. (Woolgar quotes from Command Paper, British Parliamentary Papers, HMSO, London, Cd.2786.)