Emigration from India. 45 



A Sub -Agent, say, wishes to be employed in a certain District, He 

 needs first to acquire a suitable Depot for the accommodation of coolies, 

 and to have it certified as meeting the requirements of the Act by the 

 Local Civil Surgeon. This done he must submit, accompanied by 

 Character Certificates the names of such persons as he proposes to employ 

 as recruiters. The Emigration Agent having obtained these and for- 

 warded them to him he is free to go ahead. 



In 1915 the number of Sub-Depots was 58, employing about 600 

 licensed recruiters. 



The commissions that Sub-Agents were paid for coolies supplied 

 varied according to the demand and supply, but of late vears these were 

 in the vicinity of Rs. 45/- (£3) for a man, and Rs. 75/- (£5) to Rs. 100/- 

 (£6.13.4) for a woman. 



The Sub-Agent is paid his commission on the number of emigrants 

 actually embarked. The rent of Sub-Depots, remuneration of recruiters, 

 the keep and clothing of emigrants in Sub-Depots and Rail fares to the 

 Port of embarkation are all borne by him out of this. In the case of 

 cooiies turning unwilling, or in connection with whose recruitment there 

 had been any irregularity, the expense in sending them back to the places 

 they were recruited at also fell on him. 



This system of " Commissions " has been condemned by the Govern- 

 ment of India, in favour of what is known as the Kangani system, by 

 which coolies in Southern India are obtained for the Straits Settlements. 



Safeguards Against Coolies Being Exploited. 

 Though Emigration to the Colonies has been in existence since 1838, 

 but a sprinkling of Europeans in India, and Natives, had never heard of 

 it until recent years, when the question was given prominence by Indian 

 Politicians. In conversations which the writer had in India with both/ 

 classes he found that the prevailing idea was that coolies were more or/ 

 less obtaiued by deception and despatched over-seas willy nilly — a species \ 

 of ignorance no doubt fostered by tales of kidnapping that probably did I 

 exist in the early days, in connection with inland emigration to the Tea 

 Plantations. As proof of the impossibility of mal-practices such as these l 

 occurring, or being possible of occurrence, let us follow the procedure 

 that has to be observed from the day a timid coolie " falls a 

 prey to the wiles of the rascally recruiter," to use language des- 

 criptive of the method generally employed by opponents of 

 Colonial Emigration. The man (or woman as the case may be) having 

 been " talked-over " accompanies the recruiter to his Sub-Depot. His 

 name is entered in the Depot Register and he waits a day or two until the 

 Agency's Travelling Native Doctor comes along. If he is medically unfit 

 he is told so and departs ; if he is fit however he is next taken before a 

 Registering Officer, an Indian Official, and questioned as to his willing- 

 ness to go overseas in accordance with the terms of his contract, which 



