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 w T as 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, w T hen 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. 
