RECRUITMENT FOR ASSAM. 379 to the workers and also the conditions under which an emigrant is entitled to repatriation, should be distributed freely in the recruiting areas and posted in all depdts from which emigrants are sent. For the benefit of the illiterate population, the leaflets might with advantage be supplemented by photographs illustrative of the life of the plantation workers. Attempts should also be made to encourage the emigrant to maintain touch with his own people. We were surprised to find how little correspondence exists at present between the worker and his relations (even his wife) in the home village. Illiteracy, the main obstacle, could to some extent be overcome by the employment on the gardens of a scribe, whose services should be made free of charge to the workers. We found that, on some of the estates in Ceylon, picture postcards, with space for writing, and with printed lines informing their relations at home of their arrival on the estate and of their postal address, are supplied free of charge to new recruits. We consider that a similar practicein the Assam tea gardens would help to destroy prejudices in the recruiting districts. The system might be adopted with advantage in other plantation areas. Difficulty of Return. So far as recruiting is concerned, we believe that the difficulty of returning from Assam acts as an even more serious handicap than any disabilities on the gardens. In spite of the improvements in communications which have taken place in recent years, Assam is still comparatively inaccessible. It isa long and expensive journey from the chief recruiting grounds to the gardens, and when the labourer has got to Assam, he is generally dependent on his employer for the means to return. In the old days comparatively few returned, and the belief was general that the man who went to Assam had no option but to remain there. More recently there has been increased contact with the recruiting districts. A comparatively new development has been the recruiting of workers for some gardens for fixed terms of a year or nine months or even six months, at the end of which they are repatriated by the employer at his expense. The transporting of immigrants for such short terms is a costly matter, and managers do not, as a rule, resort to short-term recruiting if regular labour is available. We do not recommend, therefore, any general adoption of the practice ; but, where it exists, it serves a useful purpose in improving contact with the recruiting areas. It embodies what we regard as essential to place recruiting on a healthy basis and to safeguard adequately the emigrant to Assam, namely, the right to repatriation. We believe that, if the worker went to Assam with a guarantee that he could return, if he so wished, after a reasonable period, many of the difficulties both of employers and workers would disappear. Right of Repatriation. Our main proposal is that every future assisted emigrant to an Assam tea garden, whether coming from an area of free or of controlled recruiting, should have the right, after the first three years, to be repatriated at his employer's expense. This right should be statutory, but as the volume of unassisted immigration to Assam is at present negligible,