MADRAS 291 
But this should arouse sympathy, for it indicates 
rather the discontent of an unhappy people than a 
preference for evil ways. It is so easy to be good 
when in easy circumstances; but these men were 
oppressed by money-lenders, who made cash advances 
against payment in forest products, and, keeping no 
accounts that their clients could understand, were 
able to swindle with impunity. Moreover, a good 
crop of such products only occurs about once in three 
years, so that there was recurring distress which 
could not be alleviated by the scanty crops of maize, 
or even by working for timber contractors, who also 
had it in their power to underpay or even refuse 
payment. 
The British Government has one duty in India 
even greater than that of abstaining from oppres- 
sion, and that is, to intervene to prevent it; for 
Heaven help the helpless Hindustani when he comes 
under the power of a fellow-countryman who has 
not been converted to a belief in the disinterested 
justice of the West. In this instance intervention 
between the spoiler and the spoiled took the shape 
of asserting a pre-emptive right to forest produce in 
the Nallamallais, so that the Chenchus now trade 
direct with Government, and receive value for their 
work. Next came the question of providing suitable 
labour for the tribe, and this was found in plantation 
work near the permanent springs, where their chief 
villages are situated; and for this work they are 
given credit at Government shops, so as to prevent 
their wages being taken to the nearest grog-shop, a 
proceeding that formerly often resulted in wasting 
their earnings, and also in other trouble, for a drunken 
