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“That this Association approve that every locally recruited 
Tamil coolie shall be assessed at the rate of $20— and that the sum 
be irrecoverable from the cooly, and that the amount so obtained be 
used firstly, to pay for the proper administration of the scheme, and 
secondly to pay a bonus for every cooly imported from India, and 
that this Resolution be put before the Planters’ Association of Malaya 
at their next Meeting, and that a copy be sent to the other District 
Associations.” 
I enclose a copy of Mr. Mansergh’s speech with reference to 
same, and be much obliged if this could be read at the next Meeting 
of the Planters’ Association of Malaya. 
Yours faithfully, 
(Sd.) J. G. Hubback, 
Honorary Secretary. 
Seremban, 4th December, 1910. 
Gentlemen, 
You yourselves, no doubt, have fully recognized that the present 
position of the planter who recruit his own labour from India is fast 
becoming untenable. The recruiting planter who organizes his 
recruiters at the cost of a good deal of money and trouble, import his 
labour only to find that other planters, contractors and Government 
Departments, perhaps by raising pay or promises of shorter hours of 
work, are continually inducing coolies to give him notice. A planter 
who has a recruiting staff in India does not, I think, land his coolies 
in this country under $15 a head, and for this he may get one mon s 
work out of a coolie, anyhow very often only two or three. How is 
this to be stopped? There is of course a cumbersome way of lending- 
coolies money and making them sign a kind of indenture paper but 
anything to do with interfering with the personal freedom of a cooly 
is I think wrong and undiplomatic. Besides the fau t ts not wi e 
coolie but with the employer-left alone and not dazz ed by tales of 
better pay etc: I feel certain that most coolies would staj on the 
estates that imported them. I therefore suggest to you the flowing 
scheme as a remedy :-that every locally remitted ta.ml coolie be 
assessed at the sum of $20 and that this money be irrecoverable fro 
the coolie, that the money so obtained be used ( 1 st) to pay ° 
proper administration of the scheme, ( 2 nd) to pay a bonus ™ 
coobe imported from India. I will point out how this 
both planters and coolies. It will be seen that this scheme puts the lecrur 
tin® employers and the local recruiting man on the same footing hot 
now- stand the chance of a coolie giving them notice and leaving very 
soon after he has come to the estate, saddling the ’ “ tjftheother. 
assessment in one case and with the recruiting expe s , . no 
At present the local recruiter can afford to raise 
advance account and nothing to lose if the coo le o . - 
recruiting employer pays 35 cents the local recruiter can well afer^ 
to pay 40 cents, and so on but ii he has to pay $20 he be in a 
