460 



wished to attract and keep in the country, but to the man who took 

 up planting as a speculation, and wanted a loan to save the speculation 

 until he was able to place it on the market at a profit. 



Speculation. 



It was no function of the Government to assist speculation of 

 that sort, and they came to the conclusion that the time had come to 

 restrict loans exclusively to those for whom they were originally intend- 

 ed, the resident planters, the men they wished to come into the country 

 to form a strong planting community with their interests here. There 

 were also instances of estates which in the hope of the Government 

 purse proving bottomless had been started with insufficient capital, and 

 there was some likelihood, if they stopped, that the estates would be 

 closed down. There could be no hard and fast rule, but they decided 

 after consideration to make further advances strictly for maintenance. 

 They did not want land under cultivation to fall back or to be abandon- 

 ed, and thus be a reproach to the F.M.S. and perhaps become an 

 injury to the industry. Therefore, for the present, no more loans 

 would be granted, except for the purpose of maintaining existing plan- 

 tations. While that might disappoint some, he was satisfied it was 

 best in the interest of the country, and those who came out on specu- 

 lation, with no intention of becoming resident planters had better clear 

 out of their speculations as soon as possible. The man who went into 

 a concern merely with the intention of making a little money out of it 

 as an incidental speculation was not as likely to contribute materially 

 to the advancement of the industry as he who went into planting and 

 lived and worked himself on his land. He was the man they wanted 

 to encourage, and to him they had to look for the real development of 

 the industries of the Malay Peninsula. 



Labour. 



One other matter of interest to the planting community — the 

 labour question. It was gratifying to know that labour had been 

 coming in freely. In the last year just over 60,000 labourers had 

 come, and in the first half of this year 30,000, very nearly. With 

 these numbers he thought there should be no more complaints of the 

 shortage of labour. The means taken to increase the supply had been 

 subjected to a good deal of criticism. He could not say that he thought 

 the Tamil tax an unfair one. At any rate, they must continue it for 

 some few years. Possibly, by and by, when the country was well- 

 known and the demands for fresh labour diminished, it might be 

 possible to remove it, but he was afraid that, so far as they could see 

 at present, it had come to stay. When the proposal for levying a tax 

 was under discussion in Singapore, he had stated on behalf of Govern- 

 ment that there were certain considerations which Government would 

 have to look to later, when it was seen how the money went. The 

 other day, an amending Bill had been introduced to deal with some of 

 the considerations that had been pressed on Government, mainly by the 

 older-established estates. The Government, naturally, did not wish 

 to press unfairly upon them, and the amendments they had introduced 

 — and which would be submitted to the Planters' Associations so 

 that Government might have the benefit of their criticism — were two. 



