Gentlemen: Before proceeding to the business of the 

 meeting for which we have met here to-day I suppose it is 

 my duty to say a few words. I shall firstly refer to His 

 Excellency the Governor's speech of yesterday which is 

 probably being read all over the world to-day. We, the 

 rubber planters of the Malay Peninsula, should feel very 

 gratified at such a large proportion of the speech being 

 devoted to rubber affairs. His Excellency has seen fit to 

 speak a little pessimistically about rubber. What he 

 wanted to say really was ' 'Don't get swollen heads." 

 Gentlemen, amongst the older members of the community 

 I do not think this is likely to happen. Most of us have 

 seen very bad times when we could barely scrape a living, 

 and even the greatest prosperity cannot efface the old scars. 

 In His Excellency's speech he talked to us about these awful 

 pests which threaten the rubber industry, and laid it down 

 that it was the duty of the planters to protect their interests 

 by engaging mycologists, chemists, etc., and while I think 

 the planters are fully alive to the fact that it is their duty 

 to contribute, His Excellency seems to have lost sight of 

 the fact that we in the F. M. S. pay an ad valorem duty of 

 2|% before our rubber leaves the ports, and it does not need 

 a calculating boy to tell us that the revenue thus derived 

 must shortly reach many millions of dollars. Therefore 

 the Government of the F. M. S. to-day is one of the biggest 

 investors in rubber. Naturally His Excellency cannot be 

 so well up in planting matters as we are ourselves, and I 

 should like to take him on a tour round the country to-day 

 to show him what a very large amount of money is being 

 expended by the planters in preventative measures to cope 

 with the various pests which are a certainty in all agri- 

 culture. It would seem to me that it is the duty of the 

 Government to found a proper agricultural department 

 with a properly equipped staff, and from what I hear in my 

 travels round the country the bulk of the planting com- 

 munity would be ready and willing to contribute towards 

 the expenses. I would refer His Excellency to what is being 

 done in other countries, especially Java and Sumatra. I 

 cannot leave this subject without referring to the very 

 excellent work done by two gentlemen, Messrs. Gallagher 

 and Pratt, and I feel sure you will all be with me when I 

 place on record a hearty vote of thanks to them for their 

 efforts. But of course it is impossible for them to cope 

 with the enormous amount of work involved. 



Gentlemen, there is one more subject I must touch on 

 to-day. That is the labour question which to us is of more 



