CONVICT LABOUR 93 



which it would be impossible to make soldiers, they 

 are soft and unathletic and of a curiously feminine 

 form of body, as a glance at a group of bathing 

 Javanese will show. 



The Javanese convicts were the same sort of material, 

 but their case was not quite the same as that of the 

 soldiers, for they had not voluntarily entered a pro- 

 fession (if the condition of convict can be called a 

 profession) that involved service in foreign lands. The 

 justice of the Dutch practice of employing convicts 

 as coolies in military and exploring expeditions is very 

 much open to question, but it need not be discussed 

 at length here. The transport for the military opera- 

 tions in Atjeh is carried out almost entirely by convict 

 labour, and all the Dutch exploring parties in New 

 Guinea have made use of convict coohes, assisted in 

 two instances by paid Dayaks. It is intended officially 

 that only long-sentence men shall go on expeditions, 

 so that by good behaviour they may earn some sub- 

 stantial remission of their sentences, but that is not 

 invariably the case, for several young men left our 

 expedition because their terms had expired. It is also 

 supposed that only men shall be sent on expeditions 

 who volunteer to go ; but the supply of convict volun- 

 teers is not inexhaustible, and there were men with 

 us whose last wish would have been to come to New 

 Guinea. 



But even if they were all volunteers and all long- 

 service men, it is doubtful whether it is justifiable to 

 send any but free men to work in a country so full of 

 risks as New Guinea. The native of Java is a poor 



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