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 supple- 
mented 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 corres- 
pondence 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 communi- 
cations which have taken place in recent years, Assam is still compara- 
tively 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 dis- 
tricts. 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 cost- 
ly matter, and managers do not, as a rule, resort to short-term recruit- 
ing 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 safe- 
guard adequately the emigrant to Assam, namely, the right to repatria- 
tion. 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 repatriat- 
ed at his employer's expense. This right should be statutory, but as 
the volume of unassisted immigration to Assam is at present negligible,