459 



Advice from Planters. 



Last year the planters were doing a little quarrelling among them- 

 selves — only a family disagreement, — but now it seemed to have died 

 out. Anyhow the newspapers had dropped it, and so he supposed it 

 had ceased to the interesting. But he taught it was partly due to that 

 incident that they had the formation of that useful body — the Planters' 

 Association of Malaya. The formation of the Association was not only 

 of importance to the planting industry but also to the Government, and 

 was, His Excellency thought, a step in the right direction. The 

 Association not only served to focus the opinion of the planting 

 community as to their wants, which everyone knew were numerous, 

 but it also helped the Government by giving them a representative 

 body to which they might look for advice and from which they might 

 always expect criticism which was helpful. Since his arrival in Kuala 

 Lumpor, he had heard from his colleague, the Eesident-General, that, 

 at a recent meeting, they had again been going for their old enemy, 

 the Government, thinking, apparently, that has planting had been 

 having a bad time, Government ought to have a bad time as well, and 

 that the planters ought to have a little more of that attractive thing — 

 the surplus. Well, when the Government embarked, a few years ago, 

 on what many considered the hazardous policy of helping the resident 

 planter, because they did not want to lose him, they said they would 

 advance up to half a million dollars for the purpose of helping to clear 

 off mortgages and to help them to weather bad times, which were 

 certainly then much worse than now, and worse than at any time since 

 he had been here. When that policy was started they thought there 

 would be a rush for the half million dollars. Curiously enough, on 

 the contrary it was a long time before people came forward. Perhaps 

 they did not think the Government was in earnest when they said the 

 money was there and they could have it on application, provided they 

 gave good security. 



Government Liabilities. 



About the same time it was found that the British public was 

 very eager to take a hand in planting, and very little call was made 

 upon Government funds. When the British public had enough shares 

 in the planting industry, the planters turned again to Government, and 

 the half million was soon gone. Then the planters came again to the 

 Eesident General, and he (the High Commissioner) agree to go another 

 half million. That went very quickly, and then they offered a third. 

 With that third half million the question arose whether Government 

 was to go on and where it was to stop. The matter was considered an- 

 xiously and carefully. Government had many duties, responsibilities 

 and liabilities, of which the outside public knew little or nothing. Of 

 these liabilities, some were prospective, some actually incurred ; some 

 were liable to be increased and some were not yet settled. The 

 Government had to bear in mind all these, for the surplus was not so 

 very large. He assured them that the Government could dispose of 

 every dollar of it. However, that did not weigh so much with the 

 Government as the fact that the loans were to a large extent going to 

 those who could not be described as resident planters, the class they 



