The part played by the Government of Madras in the negotiations that took place early last month in respect of the question of Indian labour in Ceylon has not yet transpired despite the public protest made against the secrecy of the transaction. The report of the Committee appointed by the Ceylon Government has now been issued and the text of the draft ordinance which it has recommended should be published elsewhere. We are absolutely in the dark as to the extent to which the local Government have approved of the proposals made in the report and it is very regrettable that, at a time when His Excellency was publicly expressing his desire to establish an agency for interpreting the actions of Government to the people, the details of the important question should have been debated upon, and perhaps decided in secret conclave. The Ceylon Committee have proposed a few remedial measures of first rate importance; but all of them have proceeded from the point of the view of one who is anxious to be no more bothered by the difficulty of labour scarcity which would spell ruin to Ceylon agriculture. There is little or no thought bestowed on such questions as affect the person of the labourers, his freedom to move about and immunity from persecution for trivial offences. The main proposals may be thus summarized. The Ceylon Government are to assist immigration of Indian coolies and are to be responsible for control and supervision of recruitment in India, for their being taken over free to Ceylon, for their distribution in that colony to employers, and for securing proper house accommodation and medical relief to labourers. Labourers and employers are to be registered and recruitment except under license is to be forbidden. These duties will be discharged on behalf of the Government by an Indian Immigration Board consisting of four officials and five non-officials nominated by the Governor of Ceylon, Labourers are to be taken to Ceylon free and are to begin their work free from debt; the tundu system is to be abolished and the existing debts of Indian labourers are to be extinguished within a fixed number of years. The Committee thinks that its recommendations would prevent a recrudescence of indebtedness, while the establishment of a semi-Government department for the registration and inspection of Indian labourers ‘will be a new guarantee that their health, interests and general welfare are being properly cared for.’
