(Copy)
Extract from letter to His Excellency the Governor of Hong Kong from Mr. B.J.
Surridge, dated 23rd December, 1949.
Encl. 1
37 Ent.
I was interested to read Secretariat file Confidential No. 1/3151/47 in which the question of land tenure in the New Territories and the general economic condition of the farmers there are discussed. It is an essential preliminary to the establishment of cooperative societies that all possible facts about the life and work of the prospective members should be known not only to the cooperative department but also to the members themselves. For example, farmers are often unaware of the crushing burden of debt and its results on their condition. They do not appreciate
It is the significance of high interest rates. therefore very desirable that enquiries should be made on the lines of those recently carried out by Mr. Paul Tsui. I understand that there are some persons available, known to the Senior Agricultural Officer, who have specialised in agricultural economics and who have worked in the organization of cooperative societies in China, who would be capable of carrying out investigations and of submitting conclusions based on the information obtained. committee known as the New Territories Development Committee might be charged with the duty of preparing directions to the investigators, with the collation of the information obtained by them and with the preparation of a report. I believe that a survey of the economic conditions of the cocoa farmers in Nigeria is being carried out under the general directions of Professor Ashby of the Agricultural Economics Research Institute at Oxford and enquiries through the Colonial Office about the methods used in that survey may bring some information which may be useful to the committee. Professor Raymond Firth has recently carried out a survey of Malay Fishermen in Kelantan in Malaya and you may wish to write to Sir Henry Gurney about this."
The
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