142 How lo Pay for I he War 



of repatriating Chinese coolies, provided the indenture 

 enteretl into makes the importer, and not the employer, 

 liable for the cost thereof. See also the rather sharp con- 

 troversy now raging between South India and Ceylon, 

 because the latter persists in recruiting Indian labourers 

 from districts which the South of India planters maintain v, 

 not only require the men for themselves, but could well 

 do, in their turn, with an increased supply — " Lots of 

 lands were lying idle in the Tanjore district," we are told, 

 " because of coolies emigrating." On the other hand, Mr. 

 Couchman, I.C.S., Director of Agriculture, Madras, draws 

 attention, in his Report for 1909-10, to the present pros- 

 perity of the Madras cultivator, for which the high price 

 of cotton is largely responsible. It would seem, he adds, 

 that the labourers have not participated to a proportionate 

 extent in the increased prosperity of their employers, but 

 an advance of agricultural wages is necessary in the near 

 future. The Board of Revenue has little doubt that if 

 employers of agricultural labour would only allow their 

 landless employees to participate much more largely in 

 their increased profits due to the high prices of produce, 

 by raising the wages of labourers, and in other ways 

 ameliorating their condition, much difficulty connected with 

 labour would disappear (in India). 



The whole question of cheap labour for the Tropics 

 and the Colonies, to be dealt with properly, must be 

 handled, pending the arrival of the Imperial Parliament, 

 by an Imperial Labour Board or Bureau, and the sooner 

 such a body is called into being the better for everyone, 

 planters and labourers, shipowners and shippers, govern- 

 ments and governed. It should be arranged that, so far 

 as the labourers were concerned, the Board should see 

 that :— 



(i) The labourers are well received on landing. 



(2) That they receive a living wage, based on a daily 

 rate, and not by the "task." 



(3) That " task " labour be done away with, since it is 

 too often based on the endurance of the strongest, rather 

 than that of the weakest, units. 



(4) That the planters' responsibility to the colony or 

 the immigrant does' not cease, through the ill-health or 

 misconduct of the latter, or through estates being aban- 

 doned, causing the coolies to be thrown on their own 

 resources. 



There has been, in the past, a tendency with some men 

 to regard indentured labourers in the light of automatic 



