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this co-operative credit movement has come as a great boon 

 to these people, and something has been done of late years 

 in our island with regard to this. An Ordinance has been 

 passed on the lines of that of India, and we have followed 

 very much the Indian methods. State aid is given under 

 certain circumstances. That question, as in all other countries, 

 has proved to be a very difficult one, and that is one of the 

 points on which I have had much enlightenment from the paper 

 read by Sir James Douie, and from the remarks of subsequent 

 speakers. Lately a Committee has been appointed by the 

 Government to go into this question of the conditions under 

 which State aid should be given to cultivators, and that is 

 really the most important question which touches this matter 

 in our island. You must remember that the people are very 

 poor, and they cannot contribute very much, but all the same 

 it is very necessary that such State aid as is given should be 

 controlled, and given under strict conditions. If that is 

 dome, and if the people are taught gradually to put in their own 

 money, and to work on a co-operative basis, I am sure there 

 is a great future for our peasantry. As was pointed out by a 

 previous speaker, what is wanted is not the joint-stock method, 

 but the co-operative method. But the latter is a method which 

 cannot be introduced at once people have to be educated into 

 it and I am glad to see that Sir James Douie in his paper 

 drew attention to the necessity for education, and to the work 

 that civil servants and others could do in furthering the co- 

 operative movement, and in educating the people to utilize it 

 to its greatest extent. I must say that our Director of 

 Agriculture has done a great deal to educate the people in 

 this way. A secretary has been appointed, who assists the 

 villagers in starting agricultural societies, and this secretary 

 goes round to all the villages and lectures on co-operation. 

 In this way much has been done, and I have no doubt that 

 with the assistance and sympathy of the civil service and 

 members of the agricultural department we shall be able to 

 extend the co-operative system to the general benefit of the 

 peasantry of Ceylon. 



Professor P. CARMODY (Director of Agriculture, Trinidad) : 

 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen Co-operative credit is at the 

 present moment one of the questions coming into considerable 

 prominence in Trinidad. The example has been set us by St. 

 Vincent, where they have already started co-operative banks, 

 and we intend to follow somewhat on the same lines. I might 

 mention that one of the greatest obstacles to success in the 

 co-operative movement among the people we have to deal 

 with is the making of a false step. One has to proceed very 



