128 



Mr. dimming thought it a great pity. The Malacca Industry 

 was quite young and perhaps rather liable to be headstrong. He 

 thought they ought to place on record their regret. The Planters had 

 always done their best to be united, and he did not think that the step 

 was in their (the Malacca planters') interest. For instance at this very 

 moment, the P.A.M. had got what it had never had before— direct 

 communication with the highest authority in the country. 



11. CHINESE LABOUR. 



The Secretary placed on the table the following letter : 



Chinese Protectorate, 

 S.C.A. No. 9/1911. Singapore, 7th February, 191 1. 



Sir, 



I have the honour to forward for the information of the members 

 of your association a memorandum on the procedure that should be 

 followed by employers who wish to recruit free labour in China on 

 the ' Kangany system.' 



2. The Government and the planters alike look forward to-the 

 cessation of indentured labour. It is hoped that free labour recruited 

 on this system wiW supplant it : the free labourer will be genuinely 

 agricultural and it should be possible to put him on an estate at a 

 cost of $25. If an employer can arrange with an agent in Hong- 

 kong to pay expenses there and passage to Singapore, the cash 

 advances to the recruiter will be materially reduced. He will not 

 sign a contract, but will gradually repay the cost of bringing him 

 from China out of his wages. It has been found that free la- 

 bourers working on an estate at an adequate wage among their 

 relations, friends and neighbours and under a mandore who is also a 

 relation, friend or neighbour, have no wish to go elsewhere. 



I have, &c., 



C. J. Saunders, 



The Secretary, Secretary for Chinese Affairs. 



Malayan Planters' x'lssociation, 

 Kuala Lumpur. 



MEMORANDUM. 



I. While the Hongkong authorities are anxious to encourage 

 employers of labour (including labour-contractors) in the 

 Federated Malay States to recruit free labour in China for 

 their own Estates (or for the Estates on which they have a 

 labour-contract) through the medium of recruiters sent 

 back by them to China for the purpose, those authorities 

 are unable to help or even to countenance such recruiting, 

 if it is conducted in an underhand wa}^ i.e., if the labourers 

 recruited are smuggled through Hongkong as free emi- 

 grants although they are in fact assisted emigrants. 



