BURMA AND INDIA. 
433 
strike there was more labour available at the docks than would suffice 
for the work, and, although the daily wage was increased, the result of the 
settlement was to leave this labour worse off than before. 
Decasualisation. 
The question of dock labour in the major ports, including 
Rangoon, is discussed elsewhere; what needs emphasis here is the urgent 
need of a policy of decasualisation. There is no port in India where 
the wage rates would seem to be so high; but these bear little 
relation to average earnings. The employer is apparently paying nearly 
Rs. 50 for each 28 days of work, but it is doubtful if the average Indian 
Jock worker is earning half this sum. We believe that there is a great 
opportunity for improving the standard of earnings, without any 
addition to labour costs. Indeed, many workers would be benefited if 
they received regular work at a lower daily rate than that now current 
for casual labour. We have not overlooked the fact that, owing to the 
variations in trade, there must be substantially less work at some seasons 
than ab others ; but the numbers now seeking employment and obtaining 
it intermittently exceed the numbers necessary at the busiest times. 
The registration of definite gangs and their employment on some regular 
system would seem to be the first step in a very necessary reform. 
Health Conditions. 
We now turn to the problems associated with the health of the 
immigrant. In spite of the large volume of emigration, there appears 
to be no medical inspection, either on leaving India or on arriving 
in Burma. In our opinion there should be a medical inspection 
of emigrant labour in India, so that the weaklings ‘and the unfit, 
beggars and lepers may be prevented from embarking. Vaccination 
against small-pox and inoculation against cholera would reduce the 
danger of introducing these diseases from India. Recently the Port 
Health staff has taken steps to vaccinate on arrival such immigrants 
as it deems to be unprotected, but the system in force is unlikely to have 
much effect in protecting the community from small-pox brought from 
outside. No other form of health control is in force, ,and the poor 
physique and low standard of health of the average Immigrant are 
such as readily to lay him open to attack from disease, especially under 
the conditions facing him on arrival. That health conditions are 
unsatisfactory is evidenced by the mortality figures for Rangoon. In 
1929 the death rate was 32 per 1,000, while the figure for infantile mor- 
tality was 321 per 1,000 births. The corresponding figures for the pre- 
vious five years averaged 34 and 340 respectively. In a town in which 
more than half the total population consists of males between the ages 
of 15 and 50 years, the age distribution is particularly favourable to a low 
death rate, and, as no correction factor in this connection has been 
applied to the published figures, the death rate must be regarded as 
high. The death rate for 1929 among Hindu males in Rangoon is given 
as 25-9 per 1,000, a very high figure when it is remembered that probably 
over four-fifths of this population is between the ages of 15 and 50 years. 
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