394 
Labour. — During the past year, the weighty question of estab- 
lishing a satisfactory system of recruiting free Tamil coolies from 
Southern India has very largely engaged the attention of the 
Government both in the Colony and the Federated Malay States, 
and of your Association. In the person of the Resident-General, 
Mr. Treacher, your Committee feel that they have had a deter- 
mined and always sympathetic official to deal with ; no detail has 
been too insignificant to merit his attention ; no mistake has been 
committed which has not been at once recognized and as far as 
possible rectified; your Association has always been granted a fair 
hearing when the efficiency of the kangany system has been im- 
peached by those who do not sympathize or agree that it is the best, 
and on more than one occasion, the Resident-General has paid us 
the compliment of consulting us upon points whereon he has judged 
our advice likely'’ to prove of service. Your Committee desire to 
place on record their emphatic opinion that having realized the 
important part that the Tamil Coolie is to play in the development 
of this Country, nothing could be more admirable than the sound, 
businesslike, and liberal manner in which the Government have 
faced the question, and endeavoured not only to master its theo- 
retical aspect, but also to make it abundantly clear that they are de- 
termined to render what promises in the near future to be a labour 
market of the greatest importance, easily accessible to the enormous 
surplus population of India, 
As instancing the strenuous efforts which the Government are 
making to bring about this desirable result, a few examples of what 
has been done during the past year will, your Committee feel sure, 
prove of special interest. 
(tf) Another agreement was entered into between the B. I. S. N. 
Co. and the Straits Government, by which the Company agreed to 
provide and maintain a fortnightly service of steamers between 
Madras, Negapatam, Penang and Singapore, connecting with the 
P & O Homeward and Outward Mails at Bombay, and to carry by 
these steamers up to 20,000 coolies in the year if "called upon to do 
so, the rate up to • 0,000 being eleven rupees per head between 
Negapatam and Penang, the Government guaranteeing to take 
10,000 tickets and further paying the Company an annual subsidy 
of $50,000. 
During 1901, your Committee regret to learn that 2,757^ tickets 
out of the 10,000 guaranteed were not issued, the F. M. S. share 
in this loss amounting to $18,584.24. It will be remembered that 
when the Government began to import coolies on their o-.vn account, 
a large number of poor wretches, of very indifferent physique, were 
sent over by. the professional recruiters. To prevent a recurrence 
of this in the future a compulsory medical examination of all ap- 
plicants was strictly enforced, the sole exceptions being coolies 
collected by the Government's own trusted agents and by the plan- 
ter's kanganies. As a result of this policy, large numbers of ap- 
plicants for tickets who in the past would have peured into this 
country to spread disease, and ruin the reputation of the Malay 
Peninsula as a desirable field for Indian labour, were rejected as 
