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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 
done, 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. Carmopy (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 
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