( 12 ) 
at the close of the year, while the situation was 
not bettered for the last 9 months of 1922. The 
cause of the trouble was obvious — over-production 
relative to the purchasing power of an impoverished 
world ; but the equally obvious remedy, restriction of 
output, proved impossible of attainment by private 
action. There were many reasons for this, but 
the primary one was lack of reserve funds which 
necessitated the highest possible production to cut 
overhead charges to the lowest point per lb., and 
to enable Companies to maintain a hand-to-mouth 
existence. 
At first little was done, those interested trusting 
either that the market would soon recover, and 
consumption overtake production, or that “ survival 
of the fittest ” would operate and the financially or 
agriculturally weaker properties go out, leaving 
larger profits for the survivors in the future. It 
was however soon realised that the same hardiness 
which makes para rubber so safe an investment 
agriculturally in Malaya, precluded the success of 
such a policy. Once established, it is almost im- 
possible to kill or seriously injure rubber by neglect, 
and abandoned rubber can be cleared and brought 
back into tapping as soon as the price rises to 
remunerative levels. When it was fully realised 
that the slump was bound to be prolonged, a strong 
demand arose for restriction of output and many 
schemes of voluntary restriction were put forward. 
None however won sufficient adherents to produce 
the desired effects, and in November, 1922, a 
Government scheme of restriction was introduced in 
Malaya and Ceylon. This scheme permits the ex- 
port of a fixed proportion of “ standard production/' 
varying with the price ruling for the previous 
