459 
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Advice from Planters. 
Last year the planters were doing a little quarrelling among them- 
selves — only a family disagreement, — but now it seemed to have died 
out. Anyhow the newspapers had dropped it, and so he supposed it 
had ceased to the interesting. But he taught it was partly due to that 
incident that they had the formation of that useful body — the Planters’ 
Association of Malaya. The formation of the Association was not only 
of importance to the plantiug industry but also to the Government, and 
was, His Excellency thought, a step in the right direction. The 
Association not only served to focus the opinion of the planting 
community as to their wants, which everyone knew were numerous, 
but it also helped the Government by giving them a representative 
body to which they might look for advice and from which they might 
always expect criticism which was helpful. Since his arrival in Kuala 
Lumpor, he had heard from his colleague, the Resident-General, that, 
at a recent meeting, they had again been going for their old enemy, 
the Government, thinking, apparently, that has planting had been 
having a bad time, Government ought to have a bad time as well, and 
that the planters ought to have a iittle more of that attractive thing — 
the surplus. Well, when the Government embarked, a few years ago, 
on what many considered the hazardous policy of helping the resident 
planter, because they did not want to lose him, they said they would 
advance up to half a million dollars for the purpose of helping to clear 
off mortgages and to help them to weather bad times, which were 
certainly then much worse than now, and worse than at any time since 
he had been here. When that policy was started they thought there 
would be a rush for the half million dollars. Curiously enough, on 
the contrary it was a long time before people came forward. Perhaps 
they did not think the Government was in earnest when they said the 
money was there and they could have it on application, provided they 
gave good security. 
Government Liabilities. 
About the same time it was found that the British public was 
very eager to take a hand in planting, and very little call was made 
upon Government funds. When the British public had enough shares 
in the planting industry, the planters turned "again to Government, and 
the half million was soon gone. Then the planters came again to the 
Resident General, and he (the High Commissioner) agree to go another 
half million. That went very quickly, and then they offered a third. 
With that third half million the question arose whether Government 
was to go on and where it was to stop. The matter was considered an- 
xiously and carefully. Government had many duties, responsibilities 
and liabilities, of which the outside public knew little or nothing. Of 
these liabilities, some were prospective, some actually incurred ; some 
were liable to be increased and some were not yet settled. The 
Government had to bear in mind all these, for the Surplus was not so 
very large. He assured them that the Government could dispose of 
every dollar of it. However, that did not weigh so much with the 
Government as the fact that the loans were to a large extent going to 
those who could not be described as resident planters, the class they 
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