CO129-377 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1911 [5] — Page 93

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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