CH. II] AGRICULTURAL POLICY 203 



People in a tropical country naturally tend to look to the 

 Government for all help and progress. It is better to teach 

 them to help themselves, and to help them to do so, though it 

 must be admitted that at present there is little prospect of any 

 voluntary effort producing much result, and consequently for 

 many years to come the work of progress will fall to the 

 Government and to a small section of the agricultural com- 

 munity. 



We must now proceed to deal with some more concrete 

 points in the policy to be pursued, our aim being in every case 

 to pick out the essential point, and to direct attention mainly 

 to that. 



The ideal set before us being to obtain a fairly dense 

 population of all kinds, engaged in all the different forms of 

 agricultural enterprise, it is evident that for any rapid progress 

 in a thinly peopled country it is necessary to attract people 

 from abroad to engage in agriculture, and so far as possible to 

 persuade them to settle. To do this the country must be 

 made more attractive to them be they capitalists, peasants, 

 or labourers than the other countries with which it has to 

 compete. All should be equally welcome who are of good 

 stock and character and willing to take their part in building 

 up the country. Afterwards, when a rush has (perhaps) been 

 established, discrimination may be used if thought advisable, 

 and the less desirable races kept out. 



In the same way, all forms of agriculture, and those who 

 wish to engage in them, should be equally encouraged, except 

 those which are mere exploitation, such as cheria or ladang 

 cultivation, or tapioca without intermingling or rotation. If 

 any one form of agricultural enterprise is to be encouraged 

 more than another, it should be the capitalist or planting 

 industry. The capitalist, large or small, is not obliged to 

 make any given country the scene of his work ; he can choose 

 his country, and there are many in which planting has already 

 proved successful. He brings money into the country, opens 

 up large areas, creates work and trade. Two or three large 

 planting enterprises will do more to open up and enrich the 

 country than thousands of villagers can do. 



