4 
CHAPTER I. 
of our enquiry we held in all 128 public sittings for the examination of 
witnesses and 71 private sessions. 
Assistant Commissioners, 
In each province we were aided in our enquiries by Assistant 
Commissioners, who were selected with the help of provincial Govern- 
ments as representatives of employing and labouring interests. We 
had the co-operation of a special body of Assistant Commissioners in 
respect of railway questions, In addition, we had associated with us 
in most areas one or more ladies with local knowledge and experience, 
A list of all those who served in these capacities is appended to the Report. 
We thus had the advantage of being associated with a body of men and 
women who, though they took no part in the framing of our Report, 
brought to our sessions a wealth of wide experience, intimate local know- 
ledge, and wise counsel, 
Procedure. 
In all the centres visited we invited a selection of those witnesses 
who had forwarded memoranda to appear before us for ora] examination, 
and we were thus enabled to examine representatives of all the Govern- 
ments, all the leading associations of employers, nearly all the leading 
labour associations and a large number of individual witnesses, both 
official and non-official. We also visited as many industrial undertakings 
and plantations as we could in order to familiarise ourselves with the 
nature of the work, to come into closer contact with managements and 
workers, and to enable us to form a true judgment of the conditions. 
We made 180 such visits. In addition, in all the more important 
centres, we made inspections of housing conditions in the areas where the 
workers live and of hospitals and other institutions which concerned our 
enquiry. As our tour progressed we found it increasingly useful to 
examine workers selected by ourselves at the scene of their work or near 
their own homes. We were thug able, in many cases, to secure evidence 
of a character which could not have been obtained by summoning the 
witnesses in question to more formal surroundings. After we had 
completed the greater part of our first tour, the importance of covering 
a wide field in the time available made jt necessary for us at times to sit 
in two panels. When these met in the same centre, one panel dealt 
with railway witnesses. In the Madras Presidency the panel system 
was employed to enable us to visit more areas than would otherwise have 
been possible. 
The Evidence. 
Our request for written memoranda met with a liberal response, 
In all 490 such memoranda were submitted. These represent an immense 
amount of thought and labour on the part of all concerned and in many 
cases a large amount of expense, generously borne. Governments, asso- 
ciations of employers and employed, officials and other experts and pri- 
vate individuals have all endeavoured to furnish for our assistance the 
results of their experience in the best form available. The oral 
evidence, to which 837 persons contributed by appearing before us. has