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89
of the Kowloon-Canton Railway had to be abandoned owing to the
heavy mortality and this experience only confirms former local
experience that Northern Chinese suffer as severely (if not
more severely) from tropical complaints as Europeans.
2.
Apart from the question of health (and
the failure of any new experiment in emigration conducted on
such a large scale as is contemplated by the Eastern Trading
Company, would reflect most disastrously on the established
emigration which is now tolerated by the Chinese Government)
the mere fact of coolies going as entirely free labourers
"without any contract whatsoever" by no means disposes of the
difficulties surrounding Chinese emigration. Assuming that the
Planters formed an Association to import from Shanghai 10,000
labourers to Singapore and to leave them absolute freedom to
accept what work they liked on their own terms on arrival, the
labourers would find their freedom of choice singularly
restricted by the necessity of getting food without a day's
delay to save themselves from starvation. Emigration under a
contract approved by a competent authority would be better than
emigration of such a nature though it might be described as
technically free. It is more than probable however that the
Company does not propose to carry 10,000 labourers to Singapore
without