WORKMEN’® COMPENSATION, 30% 
as the great majority of Indian seamen serve on British ships. 
We recommend that the possibilities of giving Indian seamen the right 
to compensation, while serving on ships registered outside India, should 
be further explored by the Government of India and the Home Office. 
Special attention should be given to the possibility of extending the 
Indian Act to Indian seamen while serving on all ships within India’s 
territorial waters and on British ships engaged in the coastal trade of 
India. The endorsement by the recent Imperial Conference of certain 
recommendations made in 1929 by the Conference on the Operation of 
Dominion Legislation and Merchant Shipping Legislation gives some 
reason for hoping that an advance will be possible in this direction. 
We also recommend the reduction of the limit of tonnage for 
sea-going and coasting ships to 50 tons. We consider that the time 
is now ripe for the inclusion of more persons employed on inland vessels. 
The Act might safely be extended to cover those employed on all 
inland vessels propelled by steam or motor engines and also to the 
more important public ferry-boats not so propelled. 
Fresh Classes. 
Passing to occupations which are not mentioned in the Act, the 
largest class whose inclusion we recommend consists of workers in organis- 
ad plantations. The limit should be set at plantations employing not 
less than 50 persons on any one day, and our recommendation is limited 
to workers in tea, coffee and rubber plantations and plantations run by 
Government. We have not sufficient knowledge to judge of the extent to 
which it is desirable to include the employees of the larger agricultural 
employers and those employed in reserved forests, and inany case a dis- 
cussion of this question would tend to take us outside our terms of refer- 
ence : but the point deserves examination. 
The development of motor transport on an organised scale has 
given rise to another class of workers whose inclusion is necessary. We 
recommend the inclusion of all persons engaged in the operation and 
maintenance of mechanically propelled vehicles which are maintained for 
the transport of passengers or for commercial purposes. 
We have already referred to outdoor constructional work. Here 
a further immediate extension is desirable, and we recommend the in- 
clusion of workmen engaged in the construction, maintenance or demoli- 
tion of canals, sewers, public roads, tunnels and aerial ropeways and 
pipe lines for the supply of gas, water or oil. Workers similarly em- 
ployed in connection with dams, embankments or excavations should 
also be included : we suggest that at present a height (or depth) of 20 
feet might be a suitable limit. Finally we recommend the inclusion 
of persons employed in connection with the generation and distribution 
of electrical energy. 
Numbers Involved. 
The inclusion of the classes which we have indicated, rather than 
lefined, in the preceding paragraphs will have the effect of adding