and medical arrangements, tasks, wages, the administration of justice, restrictions imposed on labourers and relations generally with employers, repatriation, etc. The subjects which were to be specially considered were the excessive number of prosecutions, the terms of the indentured labourers' agreement, the position of free Indians, the question of indentured women, and suicides on the Estates. The report is voluminous, but as a whole is disappointing, as, although it contains a mass of information, it is far from being well arranged, or very pertinent to the larger issues raised by the indenture system. We can only here refer briefly to some of the chief points.

There seems little doubt that the number of prosecutions in most of the Colonies visited is greater than it should be. In Trinidad the Commissioners speak of" over-readiness to prosecute technically guilty persons," and there is a tendency to excessive severity in penalties inflicted by the Magistrates. It is not merely in the original sentence that the hardship is felt, but in the more remote punishment whereby "extensions of contract" are made in the interests of the planters. In Lord Sanderson's report of 1910 it was shown that in Trinidad these reached in one year the amazing total of over one million days. In British Guiana they repeat almost the same criticisms and state that "though Managers are very far indeed from being generally harsh towards their labourers, the majority have developed a wrong sense of proportion in this respect." In Jamaica justice is impartially administered, but the "penal clauses are antiquated and the maximum penalties severe.” The record in Fiji shows a considerable diminution in the ratio of convictions of the indentured population; it having fallen in the last five or six years from one in six to less than one in fourteen.

In more than one of the Colonies it is suggested that more provision should be made for complaints to be lodged by labourers in need of redress, and that there should be what is described as "a regular orderly room system" adopted on each estate for dealing with complaints. In British Guiana the Commissioners recommend that the Inspector should go more frequently into the field to listen to the labourers' casual representations.

We do not observe any recommendation that the Inspectors appointed should be able to speak the language of the coolie-a reform which is surely long overdue.

The arrangements for repatriation are generally reported upon as good. But until the passages are paid both from and to India by the employers, the Society cannot be satisfied.

In their general observations at the end of the report on the terms of agreement the authors state that the agreement which is signed by the emigrating labourers summarizes all the conditions of service with one

notable exception, viz. : the fact that refusal to work, unlawful absence, etc., are punishable by fine or imprisonment on conviction. "This liability," they write," should of course be clearly stated," for although the penal clauses of the Ordinance are in fact probably not so unexpected as they are sometimes represented to be, it is certain that the absence of any mention of them in the agreements is cherished as a grievance.

Of the other questions discussed the most important is probably that of indentured women, and we cannot but think that the recommendations on this matter are very inadequate. The system of restricting the service of indentured women to three years out of five is one which the writers pronounce to be "rather less than more advantageous."

"" 'The women who come out consist as to one-third of married women who accompany their husbands, the remainder being mostly widows and women who have run away from their husbands or been put away by them. A small percentage are ordinary prostitutes. Of the women who emigrate otherwise than with their husbands or parents the great majority are not, as they are frequently represented to be, shamelessly immoral. They are women who have got into trouble and apparently emigrate to escape from the life of promiscuous prostitution which seems to be the alternative to emigration."

It is proposed that the women recruited should include a larger percentage of married women. Strange to say, the authors do not appear to recommend the increase of the proportion of adult women to men, to, say, even 40 or 50 per cent., in order to reduce the disproportion between the sexes and they reject altogether the increase to 100 per cent., i.e. an equal number of each sex, which they say would be "anything but a gain to morality unless the women emigrated as wives."

Another very serious matter is the number of suicides amongst the indentured labourers. In Trinidad the rate of suicides amounts to four hundred per million, and the number in Jamaica is nearly as great. In British Guiana the average annual rate is only one hundred per million, and in Dutch Guiana it is less than that. In Fiji the number is far greater and reaches no less than 926 per million in the last five years.

The authors write

"When all allowances are made, the suicide rate in Fiji is very high, and it is impossible not to conclude that the conditions under which indentured labourers live conduce to a high suicide rate. Whether this consequence results solely or mainly from the fact that the labourers are under indenture must be left to the judgment of the individual.”

The writers seem unable to explain the high rate, though sexual jealousy and despondency arising from ill health are among the causes suggested, and they make no definite recommendation on the subject.

In regard to the question of immorality on the Estates the only direct

remedy is to increase the proportion of marriageable women and therefore the number of marriages.

The report closes with the writers' general conclusions on the system, which are to the effect that the advantages of indentured labour have far outweighed its disadvantages. They regard it as “a system of colonization under which poor, but industrious, Indians . . . are offered prospects much more favourable than they could hope to realize at home.”

They claim that their proposals, involving the recognition of further rights and the reduction of liabilities will justify the system as one of protected emigration; their acceptance may increase the cost of indentured Indian labourers to their employers and so lessen the demand, but may also raise the standard of capacity expected from employers.

The Indian Daily News, however, in commenting on this report, says―

"It cannot be contended for a minute that indenture is an ideal arrangement, and we notice that Mr. McNeill has laboured hard to make out a case for it, and we must say he has signally failed. . . . Labour troubles in several colonies have brought this matter to a head, and we feel that indentured labour must be mended or ended."

The editor of The Indian Emigrant of Madras expresses the opinion that it is not expedient to stop emigration from India altogether, but that in every colony a protector of Indian coolies should be appointed who should be paid by the Government of India. This, it will be remembered, was the proposal made by the Friends' Association of British Columbia last year and supported by our Society when bringing the disabilities of the Indians in that colony before the Colonial Office.

In reference to a question put in the House of Commons on December 8 last as to whether the deputation to Fiji of Messrs. Andrews and Pearson had been ordered by the Government of India, and Mr. Chamberlain's reply that Mr. Andrews' visit was a private one, we notice the following paragraph in the March number of the London Missionary Society's Chronicle:

THE INDIAN PROBLEM IN FIJI.

Mr. C. F. Andrews and Mr. W. Winstanley Pearson, the colleagues of Mr. Rabindranath Tagore in his school in Bengal, have left India for Fiji, where they are tackling the indentured labour of Indians. This labour Mr. Andrews describes as little better than slavery. Mr. Andrews and Mr. Pearson faced the same problem some three years ago in South Africa, with conspicuous success. The indentured labour of Indians has notoriously been a cause of seditious unrest. Mr. Andrews, who is the author of The Renaissance in India, went out some years ago, under the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to Delhi, and Mr. Pearson went out under the London Missionary Society.

Parliamentary.

HOUSE of COMMONS,

INDIA (INDENTURED LABOUR).

December 20, 1915.

SIR J. D. REES asked the Secretary of State for India whether the Government of India has recommended the abolition of the indentured labour system; and, if so, whether the Secretary of State has disposed of such recommendation?

MR. C. ROBERTS (Comptroller of the Household): My right hon. friend has asked me to reply to this question. He has recently received a communication from the Government of India dealing with the objections entertained to the present system under which labour goes from India to the Colonies, and with its disadvantages, and outlining suggestions for a possible solution of these difficulties. The question is still in a preliminary stage and requires further consultation of the Government of India, as well as of other authorities interested in the matter. My right hon. friend will not, therefore, be able to make any definite statement regarding it for some time.

SIR J. D. REES: Can the hon. gentleman say whether the solution. indicated was the abolition of the system?

MR. ROBERTS: The Secretary of State says that he cannot make any further statement than he has already made in the answer for some time.

Immigrant Labour in Assam.

A RESOLUTION has been issued by the Chief Commissioner of Assam on immigrant labour in that province for 1914-15. A noteworthy feature of the year was an enactment under which the system of recruiting by contractors was abolished, and a Labour Board for the supervision of local agents, and of the recruiting, engagement and emigration to labour districts of natives of India was constituted.

At the end of the year the total labour force was 879,330, showing an increase of 32,761 over the last year's figures. Free labour appears to be rapidly displacing indentured labour, for at the end of the year the number of labourers under Act VI. contracts was only 8,181, representing but 1.5 per cent. of the total number of adult labourers. The Chief Commissioner notes with satisfaction that the number of charges of fraudulent and irregular recruitment fell from 101 in 1913-14 to 81 in the following year, and that of these only 29 were found on investigation to be well founded.

Mortality during transit, though higher than in the previous year (42) against 32), was still low, and the health of the coolies in transit was good.

HOOVER WAR
COLLECTION

The birth-rate among the coolie population has slightly increased, and the death-rate has gone slightly down.

The relations between employers and employed are reported, generally speaking, to have been excellent. Three complaints of ill-treatment were made by coolies against their employers during the year, two of which were dismissed. Of 1311 cases instituted by managers, 904 were dismissed and 324 decided in favour of the complainants; 90 coolies were sent to prison.

At the end of the year 213,850 acres of Government land were settled with time-expired coolies as against 197,437 in the previous year.

Native Medical Service in West Africa.

WE are glad to see that an official notice was issued early in this year to the effect that the Colonial Secretary has agreed to the creation of six posts in the Gold Coast medical service for natives of West Africa possessing suitable qualifications. We have often referred to this subject and have pointed out that no doctor on the Gold Coast was engaged in the public medical service, but that the attitude of the Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford, was favourable to the proposal when it was brought up in the Legislative Council of that Colony last year. Sir Hugh Clifford stated that he had formed a definite opinion on the subject, and that Mr. Harcourt was sympathetic. The Gold Coast Leader commenting on this announcement observes that the "door has at last been opened as a result of incessant and constant knocking favoured by circumstances of world-wide influence." The editorial continues:

We

"Now is the chance for the African doctor to go in and take these appointments and show that he is worthy of them and retain them. have bright specimens already in the West African Medical Services. . . But we should like our African medical friends, who enter the service, to remember one thing, namely, this, that they owe it to posterity to be careful to fill their posts with credit and honour, to their race. They must guard against impatience and over-sensitiveness."

The Society will continue its efforts to secure a larger proportion of these posts for West African doctors more particularly in the neighbouring Colonies and Protectorates of Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The war has doubtless led to some variation in the proportion, but even with this welcome increase in the Gold Coast there cannot be more than twenty Europeantrained natives in a total medical service of something over 250 appointments, a disproportion which cannot fail to cause irritation and at the same time discourage that study of medical science which is of paramount importance in tropical colonies.