281 



taliate and it gave him great pleasure to support Mr. Hun- 

 tor's motion. 



Mr. Maefadyen though completely approving of the 

 object of the motion, feels found to oppose it, as the method 

 is wrong. It was not logical to argue that the Government 

 action was absurd, illogical and unjust, and then say that 

 similar action should be extended to the Kedai-Keepers. 

 The resolution was impracticable. How many coolies were 

 taken into a court of law by the Kedai-Keeper ? What 

 benefit was it to protect the cooly by limiting his credit to 

 a single person! If the request were granted, they would 

 fail to get the coolies out of debt. What were the changes 

 of the Government listening to such a proposal? Absolute- 

 ly nil. He felt the Association was wasting its ammunition. 

 As a result of asking continually for so much, they did 

 themselves damage when they really wanted someting. 



Mr. Hunter belieA^es that Mr. Macf adyen is merely quib- 

 bling. He was not speaking as to the present state of 

 affairs, but of the future, and how bad that could be, he and 

 all those knew, who had experience of the Ceylon system. 



Mr. Duncan says in Perak they had all Kedai-Keepers 

 on their Estates and thus entirely under their control. 



Mr. Skinner is also in sympathy with any step cal- 

 culated to check the coolies' indebtedness, but considers the 

 proposed method quite useless. 



Mr. Hunter's proposition is then put to the Meeting 

 and declared carried by 11 votes to 5, there being 5 absten- 

 tions. 



XV. Meetings. The Chairman and Secretary are 

 authorized to convene Meetings at their discretion and for 

 their guidance the following schedule is adopted: 



XVI. The Secretary reports the formation of the 

 '•Association des Planteurs de Caoutchouc" at Antwerp. 



XVII. A letter from Messrs. W. Mansfield & Co. Ld. 

 re Javanese labour and the third Annual Report of the 

 Kapar I). PI. Ass. are laid on the Table. 



XVIII. Mi*. Alma Baker suggests that particulars be 

 obtained from Government regarding the total amount of 



1909 June 27th 



Kuala Lumpur 

 Penang 



August 29th 

 October 31st 

 December 26th 



Kuala Lumpur 

 Seremban 



1910 February 27th 

 April 24th 



Ipoh 



Kuala Lumpur 



