MINUTE BY SIR VICTOR SASSOON, 477
uncollated but nevertheless considerable volume of evidence which
tends to show that the press of population on the land is continually
increasing. In my view every facility should be given to enable the
surplus population to migrate with ease and settle down in the districts
where labour is required for industrial purposes.

There is a school of thought among employers which views
with sympathy the improvement of labour conditions to whatever
point is considered desirable by those interested in labour reform,
provided that the extra cost can be covered by the institution of bounties
or an increase in protective duties. I am not in agreement with the
above view in principle. I appreciate that the increasing pressure on
land makes it not only desirable but necessary that industry in India
should become sufficiently prosperous to absorb the growing percent-
age of those born on the land whom the land cannot support; even
the most ardent champion of rural industries must uphold any measures
of protection necessary to place Indian industry in a position to compete
successfully with foreign competition and maintain a steady develop-
ment : nor can anyone cavil at a policy whereby the standard of living
of the industrial worker is kept at a higher level than in agricultural
districts. But any policy which raises the cost of the article to the
consumer in order that the industrial worker may achieve a standard
of living disproportionately greater than that of his agricultural brother,
is justifiably open to criticism since it would involve the taxation of
approximately 340 million people for the benefit of about two million
industrial workers.

Some of the recommendations in the Report with which I am in
sympathy are put forward in rather stronger terms than I can subscribe
to ; nor must I be held to have accepted without reservation all the
arguments developed in the Report in favour of recommendations
with which I am in agreement. It will be noticed that in Chapter XX
my colleagues recommend that access should he available to the workers’
lines in the plantations of Assam and that Government should take the
necessary action to achieve this end : while I agree in principle that
such access should be established, this matter has been and is receiving
the attention of the Assam Government. I can visualise possible
difficulties to Government in times of political turmoil if such access is
uncontrolled in distant rural areas and would prefer to leave the question
to the sympathetic consideration of the Government concerned rather
than make a strong and definite recommendation. 1

Tt will further be noticed that the whole Report is studded
with aspirations to the effect that the recommendations will benefit
the employer as well as labour. In my opinion only an undue feeling of
optimism on the part of my colleagues can justify this view in
every case: I am by no means so certain that industry generally
will share it. No attempt has been made nor would it be possible to give
an estimate of what would be the cost of the various recommendations
which my colleagues desire to lay on industry and the community at
large, but that this cost would be no small item there can be no question.