PROVISION oi' BORROWING FACILITIES. 419 



be impossible to exclude undesirables. MR. WHEELER (Bengal) agreed 

 as to the importance of having 1 power to exclude undesirables. MR. 

 BUCHAN (Bengal) did not agree. If non-members were excluded, 

 the operations of the store would inevitably remain on a very limited 

 scale, and members would not be attracted. The dealings would be 

 in cash, and therefore in his view the moral character of the purchaser 

 did not matter very much. It would be easy to exclude undesirables 

 from any share in the management which was the really important 

 point. He agreed with MR. GOURLAY that rebates in cash to pur- 

 chasers who were not members should not be allowed. The 

 rebates should be devoted to the acquisition of shares. MR. PATEL 

 (Baroda) said that the question had been exhaustively discussed 

 by the International Co-operative Union at their Congress at 

 Buda Pesth in 1904, and that the opinion of the majority 

 of the Conference was that there was no objection to dealings with 

 non-members. Other Registrars had not had sufficient experience 

 of Co-operative Stores to express an opinion on the point, and it 

 was decided that until further experience had been gained it would 

 be unwise for the Conference to record a Resolution on the subject. 



MR. FREMANTLE (United Provinces) said that experience in the 

 United Provinces had shown that it was not an easy matter to start 

 Co-operative Stores and to supervise their working when they had 

 been started. He suggested that it was advisable that such stores 

 should be started in the first instance on a small scale 

 and only gradually enlarged. MR. BUCHAN (Bengal) entirely agreed. 



MR. BUCHAN (Bengal) suggested that it might be considered 

 whether the subject of the co-operative insurance of cattle should not 

 be taken up in addition to other forms of co-operation. The death of 



cattle was an important cause of indebtedness in some provinces, and 



* 



perhaps the attention of Registrars might be directed with advantage 

 to the question of devising a practical mitigation of the evil on the 

 lines f co-operative insurance of cattle. MR. GOURLAT (Bengal) said 

 that he understood that the question had been raised by MR. ENGLISH 

 and that MR. ENGLISH was of opinion that a practical scheme could be 

 devisqfl in Burma. MR. FREMANTLE (United Provinces) doubted 

 whether in India Proper any useful results would be attained. Any 

 such insurance scheme, if it was to be a success, would have to extend 

 over an immense area of country. The disease from which they had 

 most to fear in his province was rinderpest, and the most practical 



