BURMA AND INDIA, 
44 
Conference “that adequate attention should be paid to the question of 
immigration of Indian labour and that provision should be made for the 
regulation of the conditions of both the work and life of the immi- 
yrants ”. They added to this: “The sub-Committee also especially 
stress the importance of there being no discrimination as regards Indians 
entering Burma ”, and we believe that it would be unwise at present to 
impose restrictions which are not designed to benefit labour itself. 
We recommend that, as soon as a decision has been taken regarding the 
constitutional position of Burma, the question be examined by the 
Governments of Burma and India in consultation with all the interests 
soncerned. 
Statistics. 
In the meantime, further statistical information regarding 
immigrant labour is urgently 1equired. The main need here is to secure 
reasonably accurate figures bearing on the extent of employment 
available at different seasons and the movements of immigrant labour 
in search of work. This cannot be obtained by enquiries limited to 
Rangoon, or even to industry. It will be necessary to examine the 
position in respect of the demand for agricultural labour ; and we do not 
suggest that the material can be obtained without skill and patience. 
But, until it is possible to say how many immigiants Burma requires 
and can maintain on a 1easonable standard throughout the year, and 
not merely during months or days of employment, the basis for a sound 
immigration policy is lacking. 
Weakness of Labour. } 
Whatever steps are taken to regulate immigration, it is essential 
that satisfactory conditions of life and work should be maintained for the 
immigrant population. We are satisfied that, except where regular em- 
ployment is available, the present conditions are unsatisfactory in several 
respects. Indian labour suffers from all the disadvantages of being in a 
foreign country and serving there for a short term ; it is unskilled and 
leaderless and is divided into races that are not likely to combine among 
themselves, and still less likely to combine with Burmese labour. There 
is no Indian province where industrial workers are less organised than in 
Burma, and there appears little prospect, in the near future, of the effec- 
bive and permanent organisation of the mass of Indian labour. The 
workers are aware that their only alternative to accepting such conditions 
as are offered is a return to penurious circumstances in India, and even 
that return is not always possible. The employers are in a position to 
ensure that their claims and difficulties receive adequate consideration ; 
the workers, whose need of consideration is greater, are not vocal. In 
many cases, owing to the prevalence of the maistry system, they are not. 
able even to press their needs on the firms under which they are employed. 
The continuance of the present conditions in Rangoon involves not 
merely hardship for many immigrants but peril to the healthy develop- 
ment of Burma. The maintenance of a large mass of labour which is in- 
adequately protected, is bound to lower the general standard of life and