INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE S T U D I E S AND REPORTS Series B (Economic Conditions) No. 26 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA GENEVA 1938 Published in the United Kingdom For the INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE (LEAGUE OF NATIONS) By P. S. KING & SON, Ltd. Orchard House, 14 Great Smith Street, Westminster, London, S.W. i PBINTED BY ALBERT KUNDIG GENEVA PREFACE The interest shown by the International Labour Organisation in the Asiatic countries has grown from year to year. As far back as 1919 the Washington Conference took account of the special situation from the point of view of international labour legislation of the countries in which—to quote the terms of Article 19 of the Constitution of the Organisation—" climatic conditions, the imperfect development of industrial organisation, or other special circumstances make the industrial conditions substantially different ". Two years later, in 1921, the idea was first suggested of a special enquiry into conditions of labour in those countries with a view to discovering what measures might be taken to set up an effective system for the protection of workers and the regulation of labour conditions in the countries in question. This idea took definite form at the 1925 Session of the Conference, which adopted a resolution requesting the Office, " in consultation with the Governments concerned, to undertake so far as is possible a documentary enquiry into the conditions of labour, more especially in China, India, Japan, Persia and Siam and in the colonies, protectorates and mandated territories in Asia". This was the starting-point for the research undertaken by the International Labour Office, and actively continued since that time, into conditions in the Asiatic countries. Indo-China is an ancient agricultural country, in which the introduction by French colonisation of modern methods of industrial organisation gave rise to particularly interesting problems which entitle it to an outstanding place in the " Asiatic enquiry ". The study of these problems was greatly facilitated by a mission undertaken by Mr. Jean Goudal, an official of the International Labour Office, under the auspices of the French Ministry of Colonies and the Government of French Indo-China. Between October 1934 and January 1935 Mr. Goudal travelled through Cochin-China, Cambodia, Annam and Tonking; in the course of his tour Mr. Goudal visited many plantations and the chief industrial undertakings and had the opportunity of conversing with representatives of the PREFACE Administration, the settlers and the inhabitants. Although his visit was a short one, it enabled Mr. Goudal to supplement by personal observation the documentary study that he had made for several years of the various aspects of the labour problem in Indo-China. The present volume contains the results of his research and of his first-hand experience.1 For reasons over which he had no control the author was unable to complete his work until 1937, two years after returning from his mission. But this delay has enabled him to refer in this volume to the important social movement that developed in Indo-China during the last months of 1936 and led to the promulgation of a complete labour code applying equally to the inhabitants and to Europeans. The author was thus able to bring his study of labour legislation in Indo-China down to its most recent and most important phase. 1 The various sources used are indicated throughout the text and sometimes at the beginning of the chapter. It was therefore thought unnecessary to provide a bibliography. CONTENTS Page Preface m Introduction § 1. The Background The Physical Background The Human Background Ethnical Groups Population Problems The Economic Background Natural Regions Production in Indo-China § 2. Stages in Economic Development and in the Growth of Labour Legislation in Indo-China Arrangement of the Subject Matter 1 1 1 3 3 6 8 8 9 14 22 PART I FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR Indo-China and the Forced Labour Convention § 1. Forced Labour in the Service of Private Persons . . . . § 2. Forced Labour in the Service of Indigenous Authorities . § 3. Forced Labour for Local Public Purposes § 4. Forced Labour for General Public Purposes 25 26 28 28 33 P A R T II WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT CHAPTER I: Contract Labour 45 § 1. Recruiting Historical Survey Regulations concerning Recruiting § 2. Conditions of Contract Labour The Contract of Employment Conditions of Employment Living Conditions Deferred Pay Supervision of the Workers and Punishment of Offences The Morale of the Workers. — Desertion Medical Protection Deaths Repatriation Settlement of Workers in the Areas of Employment . 46 46 59 65 65 69 72 75 78 83 85 91 92 94 § 3. Workers Proceeding to the South Pacific 98 VI Page CHAPTER I I : Non-Contract Labour 104 § 1. Agricultural Workers § 2. Industrial Workers Situation in the Mining Industry Other Industries The Regulations The Legal Status of the Workers The Protection of the Workers' Health The Regulation of Conditions of Non-Contract Labour Recent Developments in the Regulation of NonContract Labour ' CHAPTER I I I : Various Problems 105 108 108 113 114 114 121 123 128 141 § 1. Wages Components of Wages Wage Rates and Variations Wages and Cost of Living § 2. The Cals Cals Sub-Contractors Recruiting Cals Cals Foremen Cals Caterers § 3. Workmen's Compensation § 4. Labour Inspection § 5. Trade Unions 141 141 142 145 149 150 151 152 154 154 162 166 PART III INDEPENDENT WORKERS CHAPTER I: Handicraftsmen § 1. Rural Craftsmen § 2. Specialised Craftsmen § 3. Artistic Crafts 169 ' CHAPTER I I : The Peasants § 1. Situation of the Peasants § 2. Protection of the Peasants Improvement of Conditions of Land Tenure Developing the Productivity of the Soil The Campaign against Usury: Agricultural Credit . . CHAPTER I I I : Internal Settlement The Demographic Problem in Indo-China § 1. Measures Affecting Production § 2. Measures Affecting the Population Local Settlement Intercolonial Emigration 170 170 179 186 188 195 195 199 206 216 216 221 222 223 232 VII P A R T IV SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF WORKERS Page CHAPTER I: Asiatic Immigration § 1. § 2. The Chinese The Javanese CHAPTER I I : European Labour § § § § § § 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Workmen's Compensation Weekly Rest Cheap Housing Employment of Foreigners Unemployment and Employment Regulation of Employment of European and Assimilated Workers 243 243 249 251 251 254 255 255 256 257 CONCLUSIONS 261 APPENDICES: I. Statistical Tables II. Miscellaneous Documents 288 300 INDEX 327 INTRODUCTION §1. — The Background T H E PHYSICAL BACKGROUND Indo-China, which lies between the Gulf of Siam and the South China Sea, justifies its name b y its position in the region between China and India, the geographic, climatic and ethnographic characteristics of which great countries are shared by this region in varying degree. This region does not, however, possess a physical unity comparable to theirs, for it is divided up into distinct sections. The most populous and most active districts are along the coast in the low-lying deltas of the large rivers, the Irrawaddy and the Salween, the Menam, the Mekong and the Red River. These favoured regions, however, are entirely shut off from each other. Behind this prosperous foreground lies the interior of the country, which is split up by mountainous ranges and by rivers with many rapids which keep the different parts in comparative isolation. There is no Indo-Chinese race, no Indo-Chinese civilisation, no Indo-Chinese historical evolution. Each part has developed separately, often under external influences; in the Malay Peninsula the civilisation is Malayan; in the eastern part of Indo-China, Chinese influence has spread through the Annamites along the coast from north 1to south; in the west and south-west Indian influence can be traced. Indo-China presents a striking balance between lowlands and highlands, which form two contrasting groups. Practically the whole of Cochin-China, the centre of Cambodia, the coastal plains of the centre and north of Annam, and the whole of Lower Tonking are unrelievedly flat, never rising to more than a few metres above sea level. These low-lying districts represent the " good earth " in the full significance of that term: it is there that man has toiled, that the population has become dense and more civilised, and t h a t the soil has been tilled to the best advantage. The rest of the country, constituting the greater part of Indo-China, is wild and 1 Un empire colonial français : l'Indochine. Published under the supervision of Mr. Georges Maspero, Paris and Brussels, G. Van Oest, 1929, Vol. I, pp. 3-4. 2 INTRODUCTION forbidding in aspect. Rugged mountains rise behind the coastal plains: these mountains are the Cardamomes or Annam Range, which reach a height of 2,000 metres or more above the coast of Annam and spread westwards in the form of plateaux. Towards the north the country becomes still more rugged, and the Annam Range merges into a broad belt of mountains covering the whole of upper Laos, the north of Annam and most of Tonking. The waterways of Indo-China flow down both sides of the watershed of the Annam Range, but in both cases into the South China Sea. Of the eastern group the most important is the Red River with its tributaries. The Red River, which owes its name to the colour given by alluvial silt to its water, is about 1,200 kilometres in length, 670 kilometres being in Indo-Chinese territory. This river is subject to the influence of the summer monsoon; its normal level at Hanoï is 8 metres in winter and 2 metres in summer; every year it rises suddenly and spasmodically to a greater or lesser extent and for a shorter or longer period, constituting a grave danger in the delta. These sudden floods are the most striking feature of the river: the volume of water that rushes down is then from 30,000 to 35,000 cubic metres ; it almost reaches the top of the dikes and sometimes a catastrophe occurs and involves ruin for one or more provinces of the delta. The western river system consists mainly of the Mekong basin. This river is almost 4,400 kilometres in length, 2,600 being in Indo-China, and it differs entirely from the Red River. The number of its tributaries, the arrangement of its basin in successive reaches, and the existence of the Great Lake of Cambodia to act as a stabilising factor, all go to give this river a quiet and steady flow which provides a striking contrast to the destructive violence of the Red River. The Mekong is constituted by the accidental meeting of waterways which were formerly separate. In spite of the fact that it is one of the largest rivers in Asia, its importance for human purposes is comparatively slight. As has truly been said, " it has never formed the axis of an empire ". Various peoples live along its banks, including the Laotians and the Cambodians, who are separated from each other by natural barriers of waterfalls and rapids. The Mekong has never become an important commercial highway. Indo-China is a tropical country with a warm, moist climate, but its area is so large and the variety of altitudes so great that it has a wide range of temperatures. As a result of the absence of any easy means of communication INTRODUCTION 3 by river and the fact that the country is split up into natural divisions by its physical configuration, every part of Indo-China lives more or less its own life, and local interests are of much more importance than the general interest. This is an inevitable consequence of geographical conditions which cannot be overcome unless artificial means of communication are constructed, and that is a difficult and costly task. The Emperor Gia-Long made great efforts to build the Mandarin's Road between Hanoï and Saigon; similarly, Mr. Paul Doumer made the Trans-Indo-Chinese Railway the keystone of his extensive programme of public works. THE HUMAN BACKGROUND Ethnical Groups The population of Indo-China, which amounts to about 23 million inhabitants, is very varied: physical characteristics, language, religion, the degree of civilisation and the mode of life vary from district to district. This complexity may be attributed in the first place to successive waves of migration that have passed over the country and led to ethnical contacts and mixtures which have destroyed the purity of the original types. It is due in the second place to external influences (from India and China) which have given certain groups a higher degree of civilisation that enabled them to expand and secure temporary or permanent predominance.1 The purity of the primitive types has been so changed that one is no longer justified in speaking of races in modern Indo-China in the scientific sense of the term. It is possible, however, to make a clear distinction between different ethnical groups, each possessing certain more or less clearly defined somatic characteristics, as well as a common language, tradition and culture. These, groups include peoples at widely different stages of development: at the one end there are the Annamites and Cambodians, who have an ancient and refined civilisation ; at the other end are the Mois, who are unclothed and can count only on their fingers, and include some tribes that still live in fierce isolation in unadministered areas. The three main groups of the population are the Annamites, the Cambodians, and the Tai. The Annamites are much the largest group, amounting to about 16,500,000 persons. They occupy the plains of Tonking, Annam 1 Un empire colonial français : l'Indochine, p. 32. 4 INTRODUCTION and Cochin-China along the eastern seaboard; they are a race of conquerors and the most intelligent element of the population of the Indo-Chinese Union; they were moulded by the Chinese who occupied their territory for a thousand years and they retain the impress of Chinese civilisation, although they have not lost their ethnic characteristics or their language. The Annamite is brachicephalic and of short stature (1.58 metres on the average); he has slender limbs, sharp features, high cheek bones and slanting eyes; he is a man of the plains and in mountains, or even hilly country, he is ill at ease.1 The Annamites are essentially farmers, and it has been said that wherever there are Annamites there are rice fields ; they are skilful fishermen in their rivers and lakes as well as in the sea; they have many craftsmen of unequalled dexterity and patience in the villages and in the towns, who continue to produce traditional articles by methods that have remained unchanged through centuries and have been handed down from father to son; on the other hand, they are not good traders. The Annamite coolies, although of slight build, usually form excellent workers, skilful, docile and easy to control, but if good work is to be obtained from them they must be treated with fairness and sympathy ; their needs must be adequately supplied and due account must be taken of their customs and traditions, their attachment to the soil and their ritual ceremonies such as the Têt (New Year festival), as well as their habit of collective responsibility; they are passionate gamblers and frequently waste all their wages in this way. It is interesting to note that the Annamites have always had a profound admiration for learning; the humblest worker wishes to have his children trained so that they may become clerks or, if possible, mandarins; they tend to despise manual work and usually prefer posts as minor clerks to better positions involving manual work. The Cambodians, like the Annamites, are not a pure race. They are a product of Indian civilisation, their glorious ancestors being the Khmer, the builders of Angkor. They are to be found throughout the whole of modern Cambodia, as well as in Siam and the western province of Cochin-China. Strong and well-built (average 1.65 metres), they are brachicephalic and of darker skin than the 1 " If an Annamite hawker, urged by the desire for gain, travels into the valleys of the interior it is always with a certain open or secret apprehension ; he does not feel at home and rarely settles there; he refers scornfully to all the mountain people by a vague term similar to the term ' barbarian ' used by the Greeks." (L'Indochine, published by Mr. Sylvain Levi for the International Colonial Exhibition in Paris in 1931. Vol. I, page 15.) INTRODUCTION 5 Annamites. They are quiet, peaceable, hospitable, superstitious and very religious ; they are " not industrious, indifferent farmers with no idea of trading, incapable of initiative or tenacity and therefore liable to be submerged by more energetic and more enterprising peoples such as the Chinese and the Annamites who have already established extensive colonies in the country. France is trying to rouse the Khmer from their torpor and adapt them to the conditions of modern life." 1 The Cambodians number almost 2,500,000. The Taï are of Mongolian race. They came from China and formed various groups, including the Laotians (and the Siamese) and the predominant ethnical group in Upper Tonking. Their numbers are assessed at a million. They are of less than average height (1.59 metres). As a people they are very gay and hospitable. Like the Cambodians, the Laotians are Buddhists, but their religious sense goes hand in hand with very great moral freedom. They are indifferent farmers b u t engage frequently in fishing and hunting and are excellent boatmen. As traders they possess remarkable qualities. For a long time the Laotian was considered as an apathetic creature, hating all effort and anxious only to enjoy the present without worrying about the morrow or without trying to improve his moral well-being or his material existence by persevering labour. It cannot be denied that this people, whose country was repeatedly laid waste throughout the centuries by invasions from the north and the west, seemed at the time of our arrival in Indo-China to be doomed to decadence . . . At the present time the country has roads and tracks, and its doors are open to commercial and industrial undertakings which have already done much for the development of the land and its mineral wealth. The local authorities have no difliculty in securing the very active co-operation of the inhabitants in the construction of roads and tracks . . . The legend of the Laotian as an idle creature, exercising passive resistance to any attempt to make use of his intelligence or his physical labour, had disappeared. Far from taking no interest in public welfare as was long asserted, the Laotians on the contrary seem to take a lively interest in it, and in particular in the .progress of the development of the country and of the schools and medical institutions that are being established.2 1 2 Henri GOURDON: L'Indochine. Paris, Larousse, p. 60. Léon ARCHIMBAUD: Rapport au nom de la Commission desfinancessur le budget général des Colonies (1928), pp. 88-89. This point of view is confirmed by the following statement: " It has been repeatedly alleged that the Laotian abhors work and does only what is strictly necessary to provide for his own needs and for those of his family. He is said to have two serious defects: a very idle mind and a hatred of effort. This view is mistaken. It is certainly true that there is a certain fundamental apathy and indolence about the Laotian but this can be quite naturally explained by his background and the circumstances in which his material existence has so far been passed. " Times have now changed, the country is entirely pacified and war and piracy are merely a memory. . . . Exports of raw materials which were 6 INTRODUCTION The mountain peoples of Tonking and Upper Laos fall into four groups: the Man, the Meo, the Lolo, and the Muong. These peoples came from China, and are generally found living between the 300 and 900 metre levels. Their social organisation is extremely rudimentary; they are good farmers, although they are of the type " who till with fire and sow with the sword ". The highlanders of the Annam Range are a group of primitive peoples whose political organisation has not got beyond the clan stage. They are hunters and also engage in the cultivation of rice. Of Indonesian race, the most important tribes are the Rhades, the Djaraï and the Sedangs ; their numbers are estimated by different authors at from 400,000 to 600,000. Experiments, more particularly in the Darlac districts, have shown that they can be trained. In addition to the Indo-Chinese peoples in the strict sense, mention should be made of the Chinese element which is numerically small but plays an important part, particularly in commerce. The Chinese tend to monopolise retail trade, being the indispensable middlemen between the small indigenous producers and the European buyers ; they also have almost a monopoly of the export trade in rice.1 Population Problems 2 The total population of Indo-China on 1 July 1936 was 23,030,000, or rather more than half the population of France, spread over an area practically one-and-a-half times the size of France.3 The practically non-existent a mere 15 years ago are now increasing rapidly and this is clearly proof that the Laotian worker is not, as has been said, indifferent to gain, but that he can collaborate effectively with the settlers. " The whole question is one of making use of his services in a manner suited to his special mentality, customs, qualities and defects. It is essential to treat him fairly and kindly; his intelligence and his docility of character enable him to adapt himself gradually to modern working methods. The tin mines in the province of Cammon have for several years been employing Laotian workers who have proved completely satisfactory both for 'mining the ore and for its treatment. " Similarly, in connection with road making, in Upper and Lower Laos groups of workers have been used for cutting down trees and clearing away stumps and undergrowth in the heart of a mountainous country where conditions of work are difficult and resources are slight. Under the skilful direction of our administrators and engineers the use of Laotian labour has proved satisfactory in almost every case." (M. Bosc : Rapport d'ensemble sur le Laos. Conference on Native Communities held at the International Colonial Exhibition, Paris, 1931.) 1 A detailed study of Chinese immigration to Indo-China will be found in 2Part IV, Chapter I. Cf. Appendix I, Tables 1 and 2: Population of Indo-China in 1936, and Approximate Distribution of the Population by Ethnical Groups. 3 Indo-China: 740,000 square kilometres; France: 550,986 square kilometres. INTRODUCTION 7 average density of the population in Indo-China is thus 31 per square kilometre, which is less than half the figure for France, which is 75 to the square kilometre.1 From the point of view of density per square kilometre, IndoChina occupies a place by itself among the more important French Colonies.2 Among the other countries of the Far East it takes an average place, the density of its population being somewhat greater than that of Siam (28) and the Federated Malay States (24), about equal to that of the Netherlands Indies (32), but lower than that of the Philippine Islands (45), British India and the Indian States (75) and the Straits Settlements (278). The characteristic feature of the population of Indo-China is the great inequality of distribution. Tonking comes first with a density of 76 which is equal to that of France; it is followed by Cochin-China (71), Annam (38), Cambodia (17), and Laos (4). There are even more marked inequalities within each of these territories. The most densely populated regions are the deltas. In the Cochin-China delta the average density is 243.3 The delta of Tonking has an average density of 427 to the square kilometre, but in many places it exceeds 500. Thus it is one of the most densely populated districts in the world, to be compared with Java and Madura, which have an average density of 316 and where the greatest density is 679. These demographic conditions largely explain the difficulties of labour problems in Indo-China. The distribution of labour does not correspond to the areas of land settlement: the population is particularly dense in Tonking and Northern Annam, whereas European colonisation has developed more particularly in CochinChina and Southern Annam. The land of the Tonking delta, although it bears two harvests a year, can scarcely provide the rice required by the population, and on the other hand large areas of fertile land are lying uncultivated in the South because the necessary labour is not available. At first sight the remedy for this situation would seem obvious: the transfer of the surplus population from the north to the south. But there are three main objections to such a transfer. (1) Difficulties of communication: When the French arrived in Indo-China there was no railway in the country and not even a 1 2 The total population being 41,834,923 (1931 census). The density per square kilometre is 2.6 in French West Africa, 1.3 in West Equatorial Africa, and 5.3 in Madagascar. 3 1931 figure. 8 INTRODUCTION road worthy of the name. The Trans-Indo-Chinese railway, begun by the Governor-General Doumer in 1898, was not completed until October 1936'. It is true that Indo-China has a coastline of more than 2,000 kilometres, but the Annamite does not like venturing on the ocean; he is a landsman. (2) The variety of climate, race and customs. (3) The mentality of the Annamite, that is to say of threequarters of the population of Indo-China. The Annamite is much attached to his home village and the tombs of his ancestors, and it is difficult to persuade him to move; he rarely leaves save with the intention of returning.1 These considerations will be discussed in greater detail in the chapter on colonisation (Part III, Chapter III). The European population on 1 January 1929 numbered 40,193 (French, mixed-bloods and foreigners). This figure included 8,490 soldiers of the resident military forces—a larger proportion than that of the British in India. THE ECONOMIC BACKGROUND Natural Regions Mr. Henri Brenier's 2 classification of Indo-China into six natural regions may be adopted as being sufficiently accurate from the point of view of the types of crops and other products, as well as in regard to the problems of labour and means of communication. (1) The deltas. These are the deltas of the Mekong and the Red River (i.e. Cochin-China excluding the eastern part and southern Tonking) together with the deltas of the Son-Ma and the Song-Ca, and the delta of the Fai-Foo in Central Annam ; these are the ricegrowing centres and have a large population (even excessive in Tonking). (2) The district of the Beng (low-lying areas), comprising Cambodia with its great lake (Tonle-Sap) and its forests. The characteristic crops are those of valleys fertilised by alluvium (cotton, etc.). Fishing is also of importance. The district as a whole is not extensively cultivated (only 580,000 to 600,000 hectares out of a 1 Paul CHASSAING: " La naissance du prolétariat en Indochine " in Revue du Pacifique, 15 April 1933. 3 Un empire colonial français: l'Indochine, op. cit., pp. 138-141. INTRODUCTION 9 total of 1,700,000) and is sparsely populated (2,535,000 inhabitants in 1930). (3) The central part of the Mekong Valley comprising middle and lower Laos. The fertile land in this district could bear a much larger population (the population of the whole of Laos was about one million in 1936). As has been seen, the Mekong is of little use as a highway for reaching the interior. (4) The rugged mountainous district of Upper Laos and Upper Tonking. This part of Indo-China which is a confused network of very deep valleys and high mountains will never be of great economic importance; it is difficult of access and sparsely populated. (5) Middle Tonking lying on the left bank of the Red River and stretching from the Chinese frontier to the delta. Except on the borders of the Chinese Province of Yunnan it is a country of hills and low mountains; it is also a country of bush and of mines capable of economic development. The population is slight (a density of about 15 to the square kilometre). (6) The plateaux of the Annam range. These are large open spaces in which the cattle-rearing already practised by certain of the Mois tribes could be extended; in the districts with red soil agriculture on a large scale could be developed. At the present time the population is small: 400,000 Khas or Mois and perhaps a few thousand Thais or Annamites. Production in Indo-China The above classification gives some idea of the wealth and possibilities of production in Indo-China: the low-lying deltas are particularly suitable for the cultivation of cereals; the savanna country and the plateaux are suited for cattle-rearing and for the more profitable types of tropical agriculture; the mountains are covered with forests that could be developed; the rivers, lakes and coastal seas are well stocked with fish; the soil is rich in minerals. As in every tropical country, agriculture is the primary source of wealth. But Indo-China differs from other similar districts in that agricultural production is devoted not so much to what are known as colonial products as to cereals. This is due to the large areas of alluvial land and the system of natural irrigation provided by the deltas. 10 INTRODUCTION Rice is still the main factor in the economic prosperity of Indo-China. The area devoted to its cultivation is from 5 to 6 million hectares, the most important centres being Cochin-China, with 2% million hectares, and Tonking, with 1% millions, followed by Cambodia and Annam. Rice is a semi-aquatic plant and, with the exception of mountain rice or red rice, it grows in fields in the plains or on the slopes of hills. It is cultivated in two stages : after preliminary germination the seed is sown in seed-beds and the plants are subsequently planted out in the rice-fields. This latter process requires a large supply of labour. In the south, where the population is scarcely sufficient and where there is only one rainy season, there is only a single harvest, the date of which varies considerably from district to district. In the north, where there are winter rains and where labour is abundant, there are two harvests. The characteristic features of rice cultivation in Indo-China are the mediocre output 1 and the low market value of the production ; rice growing is almost entirely in the hands of the inhabitants who follow their age-old traditional methods with primitive equipment. Various steps would have to be taken to improve the output : seed selection, standardisation of the product, introduction of modern equipment, utilisation of natural or artificial fertilisers, etc. The low market value of the output reached its extreme limit in recent years when the market quotation for rice fell suddenly from 13.10 piastres per quintal (in April 1930) to 3.20 (in November 1933) and 2.16 piastres (in April 1936). The rice-growers are so heavily in debt that one-third of their income is required to pay off debts. Most of the rice was formerly exported to Hongkong and China, but in recent years an increasingly large proportion has been sent to Europe 2. Maize is the most important food crop apart from rice, and the amount produced has increased considerably in the last few years (the average annual output was 176,000 tons in 1932; in 1936, 471,000 tons were exported). The foodstuffs grown by the inhabitants themselves are extremely varied: sweet potatoes, taroes, yams, etc. In Tonking and Annam certain European vegetables such as potatoes, peas, beans and asparagus have been acclimatised. 1 The best output, which is obtained in the west of Cochin-China, does not exceed 23 quintals per hectare; the average is from 12 to 15 in the different provinces. In the Milan district it is from 35 to 40 quintals (in exceptional cases 65 quintals) and it is still higher in the district of Valencia in Spain (59 quintals per hectare on the average). Un empire colonial français: l'Indochine. Vol. II, p. 243. 2 In 1936 Indo-China exported 1,162,000 tons to Europe and 618,000 tons to the countries of the Far East (whole rice, broken rice and flour). INTRODUCTION 11 There are numerous species of native fruits (the banana, pine-apple, mango, litchi, durian, etc.). Among the so-called colonial products mention may be made of sugar-cane, which is grown throughout the whole of Indo-China both for direct consumption and for the extraction of sugar. Tea has been grown from very remote times by the Annamites; it is mostly used in the country but some is exported to China and is used in the preparation of China tea (1,306 tons were exported in 1936). The few large tea plantations established on the red basalt land in Indo-China in the last few years have shown that the yield and the quality were as high as, if not higher than, those obtained in the best plantations of Java or Ceylon. On the other hand, the preparation of tea as an"industrial process, using the leaf from the native plantations on the lower slopes, proved a financial failure because of the low market price obtainable for such tea. Coffee was introduced to Indo-China by French planters and it would appear possible to acclimatise it throughout the whole country. The production is already considerable but is almost entirely consumed in the country (441 tons were exported in 1936). Cocoa could be grown in some parts of Cambodia but is not at present cultivated. Pepper is grown mainly by the Chinese in Cambodia and in Cochin-China (3,902 tons were exported in 1936). Pimento is grown in abundance. Vanilla has not so far attracted the planters in Indo-China. The main vegetable textiles cultivated in Indo-China are cotton, jute, ramie and hemp. Cambodian cotton has a very high reputation among spinners; the output is almost entirely used in the country, the women doing their own spinning and weaving, especially in the poorer districts (1,188 tons were exported in 1934 and 373 in 1936). Recent attempts to grow cotton on a large scale in the " red earth " areas of Cambodia proved unsuccessful. Jute is grown in Tonking and in Northern Annam, but only in small quantities. Other crops include ramie, hemp, hibiscus, kapok, etc. Silkworms are cultivated very extensively in Indo-China, most of the silk being used in the country for family weaving purposes or by European mills in Annam and Tonking. A great variety of edible fats and fats for industrial purposes exists and could be considerably developed, and copra is exported from Annam and Cochin-China (10,681 tons in 1936); during the War a large amount of castor oil was produced. The inhabitants also cultivate ground nuts and sesame. 12 INTRODUCTION The principal efforts of the French colonists in Indo-China have been devoted to the cultivation of the para rubber plant. 1 This plant was introduced in Indo-China about 1900 and has given as good results as in the Malay Peninsula or in Java ; in the " red earth " areas the yield has sometimes been greater. In 1934 the exports of rubber amounted to 20,453 tons (as against 212 tons in 1907). The rapid slump in prices seriously interfered with this industry and further difficulties were caused by the general depression and the manufacture of regenerated rubber. The planters have made a great effort to reduce costs by using new methods of cultivation, including seed selection and grafting, which have given an increased output per hectare. Financial support was given by the Government and enabled most of the plantations to survive the depression.2 Indo-China also exports guttapercha and, in even larger quantities, lac (1,933 tons exported in 1936). To complete the picture of agricultural production in the country mention should also be made of tobacco (most of the plantations being in the hands of the inhabitants), medicinal plants and perfumes. The area covered by forests in Indo-China has been estimated at 32 million hectares, but their density and the value of the wood vary very considerably. In many places, good forests have been seriously damaged by the practice of clearing by burning (for the purpose of making areas for cultivation) on the part of the mountain peoples, by bush fires and by unsystematic methods of development which the authorities did nothing to stop until about 1900. Moreover, there is a lack of uniformity in the stand of the forests in Indo-China and this makes them difficult and costly to develop. The inhabitants use most of the wood cut, their output being about 1 million cubic metres of wood for manufacturing purposes and 2 million cubic metres of firewood. The valuable varieties found in Indo-China include sandalwood, rosewood and eaglewood; heavy hardwood for cabinet-making purposes can also be found such as teak (of which 12,487 tons were exported in 1936), ebony and species similar to mahogany and violet wood such as " goy " 1 It cannot be said that any branch of cultivation in Indo-China is specifically indigenous or French; rice, tobacco, cotton and the cultivation of silkworms may however be said to be indigenous branches of agriculture because it is only under such conditions that they are economically worth while. On the other hand, in normal circumstances, rubber, coffee,-tea and sugar can be successfully grown by intensive methods by European undertakings. 2 The market quotation for rubber has recently improved considerably; it rose from 4.45 to 10.75 francs a kg. from the beginning to the end of 1936. The output of Indo-China will probably amount to 50,000 tons in 1937. INTRODUCTION 13 and " trac ". Bamboo is widely grown throughout Indo-China and is used for the building of houses and for making partitions, floors, etc. The main by-product of the forests is charcoal, which is burnt on a large scale. The upland plains and savannas of Indo-China are admirably suited for cattle-rearing, and it has been estimated that the colony could maintain much more livestock than at present; but even approximate figures of the existing livestock are very difficult to obtain.1 The Annamites eat little meat, especially in the north where the population is poor. The main centres for cattle-rearing are the middle district of Tonking, Laos, Central Annam and the Plain of Cambodia. Water buffaloes are used mainly for ploughing and harrowing the rice fields. There are very few sheep, although the authorities have tried to introduce them in the higher plateaux. Horses are reared throughout the whole of Indo-China. Pigs are of smaller size than the same species in Europe but are exported in large numbers to China and Singapore. Unfortunately the livestock of Indo-China are subject to frequent attacks of epizootic disease which the veterinary services are endeavouring to stamp out. Live animals are exported mainly to the plains and to south China. Dressed skins are also exported (47 tons in 1936). Fishing is an important activity among the inhabitants, fish being the basic item in their food. Fish are abundant along the seashore, where the sea is not deep: more than 1,000 different species have been identified along the coast of Indo-China. A great variety of appliances are used by the inhabitants for fishing. Fishing on a large scale is carried out in the lakes of Cambodia. The Tonle-Sap is one of the most productive fishing grounds in the world; when the floods come the water spreads over the forests round the lake, and when the waters subside about 100,000 tons of fish are caught.2 The fish not used in the colony is dried, smoked or salted and exported (almost entirely to China); the exports amounted to 25,795 tons in 1936. Along the coast of Annam and in the island of Fu-Kuok the inhabitants manufacture what is known as " Nuoc-Mam ": this preparation consists of fish 1 The following are the figures given by Mr. Yves Henry in his book Economie agricole de l'Indochine: number of draught animals in 1930: in Tonking, 143,525 oxen and 250,209 water buffaloes; Annam, 421,845 oxen and 200,073 water buffaloes ; Cochin-China, 139,952 oxen and 278,897 water buffaloes ; Cambodia, 826,919 oxen and 553,059 water buffaloes. 2 The lakes of Cambodia cover an area of only 10,000 square kilometres during the floods; the North Sea, with an area of 250,000,000 square kilometres, produces only ' 250,000,000 tons, or 1 ton per square kilometre as against 10 tons in the lakes of Cambodia. 14 INTRODUCTION pickled in brine with a very high protein content, and for the inhabitants it is an indispensable accompaniment to rice. IndoChina also exports certain by-products such as fat, oil and tortoise-shell. The production of salt exceeds 200,000 tons. A complete survey of production in Indo-China would have to give some account of local industries and handicrafts. On the first of these points the reader may be referred to the chapter on non-contract labour (Part II, Chapter II), which deals with all forms of industry. Handicrafts will be dealt with in a special chapter (Part III, Chapter I). The general features of production in Indo-China, a brief outline of which has been given above, may be summed up as follows: (1) Agricultural production represents approximately half the total production and the cultivation of rice makes up three-fifths of the total agricultural output. 1 (2) French colonists play a comparatively small part in this output, which is mostly in the hands of craftsmen and peasants. The two main crops, rice and maize, are cultivated almost entirely by the indigenous inhabitants. The French contribution from the point of view of production is of real importance only in the case of rubber and mining products. (3) The volume of production per head of the population is extremely low; in value it represented 58 piastres in Cochin-China in 1931 and less than 40 piastres in the other colonies.2 § 2. — Stages in Economic Development and in the Growth of Labour Legislation in Indo-China Before the French occupation (which dates only about 60 years back) there was no labour problem in Indo-China. The population lived almost entirely on agriculture. 3 1 These ratios are still higher if exports are considered and not the total output. The value of the exports of agricultural products represents twothirds of the value of total exports and rice accounts for six-sevenths of the value of agricultural exports (figures for the first half of 1935). 2 For purposes of comparison it may be mentioned that in the same year the annual income in France was 6,200 piastres per head and in the United States 12,500 piastres. 3 " In a country in which wars with foreign peoples never ceased except to give place to civil war there could be no large agricultural holdings. There were only domestic industries and there was no trade in the real sense of the term. The few craftsmen and the small landowners employed very few INTRODUCTION 15 During the early period of French occupation the growth of the population provided an adequate labour supply and the demand for labour in any case remained comparatively small. Consequently the earliest labour legislation promulgated (from 1871 to 1886) was intended to organise the domestic relationships between masters and servants rather than to deal with labour questions proper. It was only about 1900 that the development of the rich rice-bearing land in western Cochin-China began to spread rapidly. The rapid rise of French colonisation in eastern Cochin-China dates from the introduction of rubber cultivation about 1907. The European colonists took little interest in rice growing; their purpose was to overcome the disadvantages of depending on a single crop by introducing other crops such as para rubber, coffee, tea, and oil palms. The monotonously flat land of western Cochin-China, which is subject to frequent floods, was not suitable for these new crops and therefore the Europeans settled in the slightly higher land to the East, which had the further advantage of being almost uninhabited and therefore of presenting no difficulties regarding the eviction of the occupants. The thick virgin forest had, however, to be cleared and the new plantations demanded considerable labour; as the district was almost uninhabited a large supply of labour had to be introduced from elsewhere. The desire to facilitate the recruiting of indigenous labour by the French is therefore the outstanding characteristic of the second stage in the development of labour legislation, which may be said to date from about 1896 to 1910. In order to guarantee faithful compliance with the provisions of the contract of employment the authorities felt it necessary first of all to provide for the iden- • tification of the worker and to grant him certain fiscal and administrative privileges. This was the purpose, for example, of the Orders of 17 August 1896 and 20 August 1898 which introduced a system of work-books in Tonking and Cambodia. The latter Order, which applied only to indigenous and Chinese labour employed by French planters and stock-breeders in Cambodia, exonerated the workers from the payment of the poll tax, the personal tax and all labour dues and corvées, replacing them by a payment of workers, and the position of the latter was rather that of domestic servants attached to the person of the employer than workers in the strict sense. The dan or agricultural labourer received food and accommodation in addition to a very low wage; he was considered more or less as a member of the employer's family, being a dependant of the employer by the debts he contracted ; according to Annamite law this created a bond between them. " (Paul CHASSAING: La naissance du prolétariat en Indochine, op. cit.) 16 INTRODUCTION 2 piastres per worker to be made by the French settler. From the point of view of the legislator of that period this was clearly the essential purpose of the Order; the obligation placed on the employer to deposit a copy of the contract with the Resident, to be reproduced in a register, was presumably considered as a subsidiary matter. The Order of 26 August 1899, which applied only to Tonking, represented a preliminary attempt to regulate working conditions. The length of the contract of employment was restricted to one year and breach of contract or failure to comply with its terms involved penalties of from 1 to 5 days' imprisonment, with fines of from 1 to 15 francs. This Order was extended to Annam, Cochin-China and Cambodia on 5 February 1902 and to Laos on 31 December 1911. Up to 1910 it remained the labour charter of Indo-China. In 1909 the establishment of tobacco and match factories led the Governor-General to lay down regulations concerning hours of work in these establishments, and it therefore seemed as if a labour code would shortly be adopted. The Order of 13 April 1909, however, regulating the conditions of indigenous labour in agricultural holdings in Cochin-China, merely stated that French agricultural holdings of not less than 400 hectares employing 80 or more workers should be considered as constituting independent villages. The purpose of this measure was to remove the workers and the European agricultural holdings from the jurisdiction of the Annamite authorities and thus eliminate one cause of dispute and possible dissension. At that time Indo-China was the scene of important economic developments, the main features of which must be described in order to make clear the consequent change in the trend of labour legislation. The first important fact was the rise of an industrial proletariat, the numbers of which began to be considerable after about 1910-1912. The discovery of extensive mining deposits in Tonking (gold, zinc, tin and wolfram) had led to the establishment of very large undertakings, the most important being the Hongay coal mines.1 As it was now possible to obtain fuel at a relatively low price other industries were established and developed rapidly: paper works, glass works, cement factories and cotton spinning mills. At the same time the economic development of the country under the influence of a system of education based on Western 1 The number of mining workers increased from 4,000 in 1904 to 9,000 in 1908 and 12,000 in 1912. INTRODUCTION 17 ideas had brought into existence an Annamite " middle class " which was mainly agricultural in Cochin-China and mainly industrial and commercial in Tonking. The number of workers employed by this middle class and b y the French settlers, industrialists and traders, who became more and more numerous as a result of the growing prosperity of the colony, increased very rapidly and the wage-earning class came into existence. 1 The trend taken by the economic development of the country largely accounts for the general purport of social legislation adopted from 1910 onwards, which was to protect the nascent working class, while continuing to encourage settlement schemes. The Order of 8 March 1910 for the regulation of labour employed in agricultural or mining undertakings throughout Indo-China was in fact a sort of labour code in 49 articles. For the first time in the history of the country the recruiting of labour was brought under the control of the local administrative authorities, while a supervising and inspection service was set up and contracts of employment had to be registered at Saigon and forwarded to the 1 " At the outset there were few difficulties between employers and workers. There were no very large concentrations of workers, and the employers, who were few in number, were all experienced men with a thorough knowledge of the country and its inhabitants. They had at their disposal an abundant labour supply with very few needs and therefore not exacting in the way of remuneration. These workers were all imbued with a traditional code of conduct which prescribed respect and obedience to superiors, educated persons and mandarins. As agriculture, commerce and industry spread, and with them a system of education based on Western ideas and unsuited to the customs and traditions of the country, the situation changed. The establishment of large estates (latifundia) and large industrial undertakings destroyed the close touch that had existed between employers and employed and many of the owners became absentees, settling in Europe and leaving their undertakings in the hands of managers or agents who had less knowledge of the country and people and were often anxious only to make their fortunes and return to Europe as quickly as possible. " At the same time as touch was thus lost a change took place in the mentality of the workers. They were more in demand and therefore their demands became greater. . . . Instigated often by vernacular newspapers, the publication of which had been authorised in a rather too hasty and too liberal spirit—newspapers which at the beginning were almost entirely left-wing publications edited by " young Annamites " who had not always fully assimilated Western culture—workers became anxious to improve their position and to earn more—an entirely legitimate desire provided that they did not go too quickly. They met with resistance on the part of certain heads of large undertakings, mostly resident in France, and therefore not always in close touch with the changes that had taken place more especially in the state of mind and the needs of the workers. The fact that large numbers of Indo-Chinese workers came to France during the War hastened on this trend and was largely responsible for the first labour disputes. . . . These workers had learned to seek the maximum of satisfaction with the minimum of effort. Those who had been in France obviously could not satisfy the new needs they had acquired with the low wages they had formerly earned." (Paul CHASSAING, op. cit.) 2 18 INTRODUCTION Resident of the Province in which the worker was to be employed. Special provisions were included in the Order to regulate women's work, employment before and after childbirth, repatriation, etc. This Order remained in force until the end of the War and it was used as a model for the Order issued on 20 May 1913 to regulate the employment of Javanese labour. The Great War had a characteristic influence on the development of Indo-China; the whole energy of France being absorbed by war work, the colony was forced to take steps to satisfy its needs from indigenous industries and to become self-supporting. In addition to this, Indo-China was called upon to help France in two equally important respects: it was asked, in the first place, to supply France with rubber and coal,1 and this naturally accelerated industrial development and the growth of the working-class population; the colony had also to supply indigenous labour for French munition works.2 This exodus of Annamites to France had a twofold result : on their return to Indo-China those who had acquired skilled training abroad formed a nucleus of foremen and small employers, while one and all were imbued with working-class ideas of a distinctly western character as a result of their contact with Europeans. The return to Indo-China of these workers and ex-soldiers from France naturally led to the adoption of more comprehensive legislation in keeping with the evolution which was then taking place. On 11 November 1918—Armistice Day itself—Mr. Sarraut signed an Order containing 71 sections, some of which are still in force to-day. This Order stipulated that contracts of employment were to be drawn up in triplicate and copies sent to the Identity Service of Cochin-China and to the Immigration Department, which were required to keep a complete list of all labourers engaged. The maximum length of contracts of employment was fixed at three years. The worker became entitled to living quarters and medical attendance, while it was forbidden to separate members of the same family or to employ workers more than 10 hours a day. The Resident was empowered to visit and inspect plantations and a quarterly statement of the workers' accounts had to be supplied to Saigon. Desertion, defined as absence of at least 48 hours, could be punished by imprisonment of 6 to 60 days and a fine of 16 1 The total mining output increased from 509,000 in 1913 to 637,000 tons in 1918, while the number of working miners rose from 12,000 in 1913 to 16,000 in 1918. 2 The number of Indo-Chinese workers disembarked in France was: 1916: 26,908; 1917: 11,719; 1918: 5,806. INTRODUCTION 19 to 20 francs. Comprehensive as it was, this Order did not cover a certain number of points which were brought to light by the intensive use made of contract labour during the following years. From 1920 onward, the country continued to develop still more rapidly. Between 1920 and 1925 the first serious disputes occurred between employers and workers. The rise in the price of colonial products which took place in 1925, and the current of opinion which turned the attention of French financiers towards colonial development, led to a great increase in the number of persons settling in the south of Indo-China with a view to opening new plantations, mainly for the growing of rubber.1 Most of the existing companies undertook large development schemes, while the newlyestablished companies set a number of hastily-recruited coolies to work on the virgin forest land, even before receiving a concession for the land ; their only thought was to get to work at once and to plant the largest possible areas in the shortest possible time.2 The inadequacy of the regulations of 1918 then began to be apparent. Draft legislation for the protection of indigenous and alien Asiatic labour employed in agricultural, industrial and mining undertakings in Indo-China was introduced in the Government Council of Indo-China in October 1927 and adopted after some amendment. This included the three Orders of 25 October 1927 which marked the real beginning in Indo-China of the introduction of labour legislation of modern conception. 1 On 1 June 1927 the area of land recently conceded in Cochin-China for the cultivation of para rubber was over 200,000 hectares, including 54,000 hectares already planted, while applications had been received for another 90,000 hectares. The progressive construction of a network of canals in the Lower Mekong Delta continued to o"pen up large tracts of land for rice growing. The area of cultivated rice fields in Cochin-China alone rose from 1,939,000 hectares in 1920 to 2,443,000 hectares in 1930, a total increase of 504,000 hectares. 2 " As is inevitable, abuses are committed by the recruiting agents in Tonking and Annam and on the plantations themselves. Unable to keep pace with the planters' requirements, the recruiting agents apply for workers to the indigenous authorities who do not hesitate to send them, sometimes by force, all the undesirables, vagabonds and outcasts with whom the Lower Delta swarms. Whole shiploads of coolies are sent from Haiphong without any medical examination and disembarked at Saigon from where they are immediately despatched to the plantations. There the coolies, most of whom are in poor physical condition, are called upon to perform work which the climate and the defective living conditions make extremely arduous, with the result that they soon fall victims to malaria and intestinal troubles. Reduced to despair by these conditions, numbers of them desert in the hope of finding less arduous work or of getting back to Tonking" (Fernand DE MONTAIGUT: La Colonisation française dans l'est de la Cochinchine, 1929, pp. 40-41.) 20 INTRODUCTION The main effect of this legislation was to organise the supervision of recruitment and engagement (the maximum length of contract was fixed at 5 years for foreign employment and 3 years for IndoChina), to limit hours of work to 10 in the day, to lay down conditions as to food and supplies, to establish minimum rations, to introduce measures for the protection of the coolies' health and to establish a system of individual deferred pay accounts for them. The same year witnessed the appointment of the General Labour Inspectorate, which was set up to secure the application of all legislation relating to. labour, savings institutions and social welfare in Indo-China, to supervise the movement of labour and carry out the necessary local enquiries. The Inspectorate was completed by the Order of 5 January 1928 which provided for the formation of a corps of labour supervisors and by the Decree of 30 January 1929, which invested the labour supervisors with ordinary police powers to deal with certain breaches of the regulations. The need for this general plan of labour protection became still more apparent when the economic policy of the colony was seen more and more definitely to aim at the development of its resources and industrial possibilities. Its remoteness and climate, both of which were against European settlement, the relative smallness of the white population (40,000 Whites in the midst of 20,000,000 Asiatics), the concentration of capital resulting from the grant of concessions to large companies and the wholesale financing of undertakings by the banks, were all factors which led France to treat Indo-China, not as a mere customer offering markets for its national industries, but as a powerful source of production organised on capitalist lines. And, indeed, the capitalist structure of Indo-Chinese industry has become more and more clearly defined in the course of recent years. On the other hand, the increasingly complex nature of the undertakings (cotton mills, chemical factories, etc.) entailed the rapid specialisation of labour, and the coolie gave way to the skilled workman. Mechanisation became more and more general and the mining undertakings brought in electrical plant and built and equipped their own harbours. 1 Finally, the concentration of capital became more and more marked. 2 1 The number of steam apparatus increased from 1,266 in 1921 to 2,103 in 1929 and to 2,453 in 1932. 2 In 1929, nine-tenths of the total value of the output of the mining industry came from six companies only; in the fuel extraction industry, one company, " The Tonking Coalfields ", produced 55 per cent, of the total output of the colony. A similar concentration took place in the textile industry. INTRODUCTION 21 This evolution, which took Indo-China further and further away from pre-capitalist conditions and converted it into a typically capitalist country, had important results in the social field. It led, as it was bound to do, to the classical split between labour and capital, the formation of an industrial and agricultural proletariat 1 and the progressive specialisation of the workers. In short, labour in Indo-China gradually lost its family character and took on a western type. This fundamental transformation naturally raised a number of problems for the recently-created bodies responsible for the protection of labour. With the help and initiative of the Labour Inspectorate, the administrative authorities were able until 1931 to adapt the regulation of labour to economic development. The main features of this adaptation were: the appointment of conciliation boards to facilitate the settlement of individual disputes between employers and workers arising out of the contract of employment (Decree of 29 April 1930); regulation of professional labour recruiting (Order of 16 July 1930); regulation of compulsory labour (Orders of 5 and 6 February 1932). The world economic depression, which was severely felt in IndoChina from 1930 onwards, seems to have slowed down, if not interrupted, the adaptation of labour legislation to the economic development. An Order of 4 August 1932, by which the General Labour Inspectorate was amalgamated with the Department of Economic and Administrative Affairs, deprived the former body of much of that independence which made many of its most interesting achievements possible. At the same time the administrative authorities abandoned the creation of a special corps of labour supervisors. In the end, the economic depression, and the opposition of IndoChinese employers to new social obligations in such circumstances, had the result of postponing for several years the introduction of regulations for non-contract labour.2 1 The number of Indo-Chinese wage earners, which was only 55,000 in 1906, was 221,052 in 1931. One of the most characteristic features of the working class is that it is largely rural, as more than one-third (36.8 per cent.) of the workers are employed by agricultural undertakings, while industrial and commercial concerns and mining companies employ respectively 39.2 per cent. and 24 per cent. 2 The formation of a Popular Front Government in France in May 1936 led to a large number of social reforms in Indo-China, particularly in the field of social legislation. Details of this movement will be found at the end of the chapter dealing with non-contract labour (Part II, Chapter II, § 2, pp. 108 et seq.). 22 INTRODUCTION ARRANGEMENT OF THE SUBJECT MATTER The plan adopted for the following chapters, which is a logical outcome of the historical considerations discussed above, will be more readily understood if the following details are borne in mind. The supply of labour existing in Indo-China is composed entirely of the following three types: (i) indigenous workers, i.e. workers drawn from the native population (Annamites, Cambodians, Laotians); (ii) (iii) immigrant Asiatic workers (Chinese, Javanese, etc.); European workers of French and alien origin. Indigenous workers form the largest group, and will be dealt with under three headings describing the type of labour: (a) forced or compulsory labour; (b) wage-paid labour; (c) independent labour. (a) Forced or compulsory labour includes all work which is not based on the hire of services freely agreed to by the worker, but is imposed on the latter either for the benefit of a private employer or for public purposes. The principal forms of. this labour still permitted in Indo-China, apart from cases of force majeure, include compulsory village work and labour dues, porterage, and levies for important public works. These services are regulated minutely by regulations which will be analysed in Part I. (b) Wage-paid labour includes all the various forms of employment which presuppose the existence of an employer and a worker, the latter being employed by the former under a written contract or a verbal agreement. All employment of indigenous workers, other than forced or compulsory labour, is theoretically free, and this freedom is recognised by legislation; this does not, however, mean t h a t the work in question cannot be regulated nor t h a t the recruiting of workers cannot be forbidden, but only t h a t the work may never be imposed on the workers. It therefore follows t h a t when any methods of recruiting restrictive of the freedom of the workers have been employed it has in every case been in contravention of the laws and regulations. The usual way of engaging wage earners in Indo-China is by verbal contract, such agreements being covered by the common law and regulated by local custom. 1 Labour employed under this 1 No sections of the French Code of labour and social welfare have been made applicable to Indo-China. Contractual relations between employers and workers are regulated by the Civil Code and by agreements between the parties. INTRODUCTION 23 system will henceforth be designated in these pages as " noncontract labour " so as to distinguish it from that employed under a special system of long-term engagement which is governed by special regulations and is known as " contract labour ". Contract labour was found to be necessary in order to enable the European plantations situated on the " red earth " areas to counteract the shortage of indigenous labour by procuring workers imported in the main from the over-populated districts of Tonking and Northern Annam. It is also used to provide workers for French undertakings in the Southern Pacific. The outstanding features of this system are (i) a written contract; (ii) a long period of engagement (three years in undertakings in Southern Indo-China and five years for employment outside Indo-China); (iii) the application of a very complete set of regulations fixing the respective rights of both parties and penalising infringements of such rights and obligations. The system in question is apparently of an exceptional nature 1 and bears some resemblance to " controlled immigration ". This form of labour, which in Indo-China has given rise to the most comprehensive regulations, will be studied in Chapter I of Part II. Chapter II of Part II will be devoted to the system of noncontract labour, which, as indicated above, is the usual way of employing wage earners. It is used at present in industry, commerce, and the transport services, and applies to a large proportion of the workers employed on the land.2 A certain number of problems also arise in connection with the various forms of wage-paid labour, as for example those connected with wages, the " caïs " (indigenous supervisors), industrial accidents, labour inspection and workers' organisations. These problems are discussed in Chapter III of Part II. A study of labour problems in Indo-China would be incomplete if it failed to cover the various forms of more or less independent work which does not necessarily presuppose the existence of a contract between the worker and his employer. Chapters I and II of Part III therefore deal with the work of indigenous craftsmen and various aspects of peasant labour. Connected with this latter question is the important problem of internal settlement in IndoChina, which in turn is discussed in Chapter III of Part III. 1 The number of contract workers does not seem to have exceeded 40,000 (it 2was 37,000 on 1 July 1930). These various groups formed a total of approximately 180,000 persons in 1919 and 221,052 in 1931. 24 INTRODUCTION The other main categories of workers, i.e. immigrant Asiatic labour and European labour, form the subject of Chapters I and II of Part IV. Finally, a number of general conclusions are put forward for the consideration of the reader. PART I FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR INDO-CHINA AND THE FORCED LABOUR CONVENTION It may be remembered that the question of forced labour was discussed at the International Labour Conference in 1929 and 1930 and that the outcome was the adoption of an International Convention on the subject. As France ratified the Convention by a Decree issued on 12 August 1937, the present part of this study will keep to the classification of the different forms of forced or compulsory labour adopted in Geneva, and in this way the position of Indo-China with regard to the international regulations will stand out more clearly. Forced labour, as defined by the Convention, covers " all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily ". This definition does not cover any work or service exacted in virtue of compulsory military service laws for work of a purely military character, or any work or service which forms part of the normal civic obligations of the citizens of a fully selfgoverning country, or any work or service exacted as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law unless the convicted person is hired to or placed at the disposal of private persons, or any work or service exacted in cases of emergency, or minor communal services. The international regulations subsequently distinguish between: (1) forced labour in the service of private persons; (2) forced labour in the service of indigenous authorities ; (3) forced labour for local public purposes ; (4) forced labour for general public purposes. Before going on to study how these various forms of labour are regulated in Indo-China, some details must be given of the obligation to work, sometimes fairly onerous, which the physical conditions of the country impose on the inhabitants in connection with the protection of the dikes 1 when the rivers are in spate. 1 " The dikes, made of ordinary earth, protect an area of over 700,000 hectares, populated by about 4 million inhabitants—an average density of 26 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Floods and threatened floods are moreover specifically mentioned in the Geneva Convention among the cases of emergency which are not covered by the definition of the term " forced or compulsory labour ". The protection of the dike system is of capital importance throughout the whole of Annam and Cambodia and especially in Tonking, where the height of the Red River between banks is often higher than the level of the land (it is often as high as 7 metres during heavy spates). Both the indigenous Governments and the French administrative authorities issue very strict laws for the protection of the dikes, as the slightest negligence may lead to vast floods which bring destruction and ruin to immense districts. When dike protection work assumes certain proportions it is remunerated through the Public Works Service. §1. — Forced Labour in the Service of Private Persons This form of labour, which is not admitted in French colonial practice, seems to exist in Indo-China only in a few rather rare cases surviving from former times. Reference is made to one case in the 570 inhabitants to the square kilometre, a figure very much higher than that of any European country. . . . " It is many centuries, perhaps a thousand years, since the natives of the • delta region first began to build dikes along the water-courses. In the course of time these dikes, which were gradually strengthened and raised, formed the network found at the time of the French occupation and which remained very much as it was found until early in the present century. This system of dikes formed very inadequate protection against heavy spates, and was frequently broken down or submerged in places by the force of the waters. . . . " An initial general plan for strengthening the dikes was drawn up in 1917 and completed between 1917 and 1924. As the result of knowledge acquired about the power of resistance of dikes and the eccentricities of the Red River, a second and much wider plan was adopted in 1924, amended in 1926 and completed in 1929. . . . " The new works were well tested in 1928 and 1929 when the waters rose to a height that would have been catastrophic fifteen years earlier, without the dikes showing the slightest sign of weakness. . . . " These works entailed the moving of vast quantities of earth (12 million cubic metres between 1915 and 1924 and 28 million cubic metres between 1925 and 1930—a total of 40 million cubic metres) while the aggregate cost up to 1 January 1931 was about 12 million piastres, exclusive of all labour dues provided by the inhabitants before 1924. . . . " However much the dikes are strengthened it must not be imagined that they can resist a spate and especially prolonged and heavy flooding without incessant supervision requiring a real mobilisation of the riverside population for a distance of 500 kilometres. Long experience has shown that a dike which is not strengthened in time of spate is a threatened dike and that even a weak dike if well protected against infiltration or submersion is a dike saved." (Congrès de l'outillage économique colonial et des communications (July 1931), Reports, pp. 417-419.) FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR 27 reply of the Central Government of Indo-China to the questionnaire of the Ministry of the Colonies concerning the Forced Labour Convention. This was in connection with the Saigon Navigation and Transport Company which holds a concession for Government and postal traffic on the Mekong river under a contract signed on 6 July 1927 for a period of ten years between the Government and the Company. Clause X X I X § (/) of this agreement is worded as follows : Labour: The administrative authorities shall help the Company to recruit the indigenous volunteers required to man canoes and for other services. Labour shall be engaged locally and paid in accordance with the custom of the country. When there is a local shortage of labour the necessary supply shall be obtained from neighbouring districts. In this case the workers shall be entitled to extra remuneration corresponding to the length of the return journey from their village to the work place or vice versa. Arrangements for their transport shall be made by the Company at times when inland waterways can be used for such purposes. The reply of the Central Government of Indo-China added that, in order to reduce the number of labour requisitions as far as possible, negotiations had been opened by the Senior Resident in Laos with the company concerned with a view to the formation of a permanent corps of Chinese and Annamite dockers. This corps of voluntary workers would only be strengthened by a contingent of requisitioned Laotian coolies during the busy season. Moreover, on the expiry of the contract and in the event of its renewal, the administrative authorities intended to cancel the stipulations of the article in question. The Government hoped that by t h a t time the economic situation of Laos would enable the Company to recruit the labour it required without any special difficulty. As to the labour dues mentioned later, it would seem t h a t in certain cases they have been used for the benefit of private persons. 1 Such practices are, however, illegal and should be made impossible by close administrative supervision. 1 According to the records of the Indigenous Advisory Assembly of Laos held on 16 and 17 November 1927, a delegate is alleged to have made the following statement: " A s a rule, contractors are required to find their own labour. But in the kingdom of Luang-Prabang, the indigenous authorities are obliged to requisition labour for contractors who are working in their own interests . . . and this is a grave injustice. The contractors should recruit their workers themselves just as the traders have to do." (Bulletin administratif du Laos, December 1927.) 28 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA § 2. — Forced Labour in the Service of Indigenous Authorities The only survival of this form of forced labour is found in certain primitive tribes inhabiting remote districts, and more especially among the Muongs who occupy a vast district on the borders of Annam, Tonking and Laos. Among these people, custom permits the " Tho-ti ", the traditional and hereditary chieftains, to require families living in the territories under their jurisdiction to supply a certain amount of labour for the cultivation of their land and the building and repair of their houses. The labour thus furnished to the " Tho-ti " is remunerated by copious supplies of food. Moreover, the " Tho-ti ", whose purely traditional authority is not recognised by the Government authorities, maintain their privileges only by the scrupulous observance of the obligations devolving on them by long-established custom. These chieftains must in time of famine feed their clansmen and provide them with seed for the following sowing season, pay their taxes when the people are too poor to do so themselves, and lend them buffaloes to cultivate their rice fields. In the reply to the questionnaire concerning the Forced Labour Convention the Government stated " that it was impossible for the authorities, by the mere issue of an Order, to abolish a custom which dated back to the very earliest days of the Muong tribes. Only time and more frequent contact with neighbouring districts could change such customs and any interference in such matters would be a crass blunder and might well lead to serious disorder." §3. — Forced Labour for Local Public Purposes Under this heading comes, first of all, the so-called communal work which the administrative authorities, following international custom, do not include in the definition of forced labour. Actually, life in a native village entails for every person in the community duties and obligations based on long-established custom, such as night watchmen's service for the protection of the village and crops, and work in connection with the upkeep of wells, fish-ponds, communal roads, communal buildings, places of worship, etc. A number of villages which have moved with the times have set up village funds in accordance with the instructions of the local authorities. With these funds they pay a special staff to carry out all communal work, the cost being covered by the fees charged FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR 29 for the commutation of communal labour dues. The rates of the commutation fees are fixed by the Council of Notables with the approval of the administrative authorities. The other form of forced labour for local public purposes is found in the labour dues which the Indo-Chinese authorities, as in the case of communal services, prefer not to include in the definition of forced labour. As a matter of fact they consider these dues as a sort of taxation justified by the poverty or primitive state of the population and the general want of organisation in the country districts. This view, however, is somewhat at variance with historical facts which show t h a t in Indo-China the labour dues are a direct outcome of the former corvée system. It is therefore not without interest to give a brief description of this evolution in the various countries of the Indo-Chinese Union. Cochin-China. — The former corvée system, described below in t h e section dealing with forced labour for general public purposes, was abolished in Cochin-China by a Decree of 10 May 1881. The obligation for every person to provide five days' work was introduced in its place. An Order of 4 March 1884 fixed at 55 years the age beyond which taxpayers were to be exempted from labour dues. A Circular issued on 20 June 1891 confirmed the main principles of the new system and stated that of the five days given over to labour dues three were to be devoted to work on main roads and water-courses, while the other two were to be placed at the disposal of the villages for local work. A Circular of 25 August 1898 subsequently stipulated t h a t these two days were to be covered by the district budgets. Since that time little change has been made in the system: labour dues still amount to five days for all persons between 18 and 55 years of age, their commutation is compulsory, and the commutation fee is included in the personal tax. Nevertheless, a somewhat special system has had to be organised in the forest lands in the east and north-east of Cochin-China, which are inhabited by the still primitive Moï tribes, and where the inhabitants are exempt from all direct taxes. Here the labour dues have been retained in the following form: An Order of 16 May 1933 fixed at 15 the number of days on which labour may be exacted from all able-bodied men between 18 and 55 years of age. As a rule these dues take the form of work, the worker being entitled to rations. They may, however, be commuted in part in accordance with rates fixed by the provincial councils concerned. Members of the Moï tribes who own carts, buffaloes, oxen or horses are 30 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA also required to provide a vehicle or animal on five days a year for the transport of materials necessary for the various works undertaken in their district. Tonking. — As in Cochin-China, the system of labour dues in Tonking is a survival of the corvée system. An Order issued on 18 October 1886 fixed at 48 days per head the number of corvées which could be exacted from villages for work carried out in the interest of the public services. A Circular of 7 August 1888 decided t h a t of these 48 days four or five should be placed at the disposal of the villages for purposes of local work. Subsequently the Order of 30 June 1889 reduced the 48 days to 30, including 10 noncommutable days reserved for work of communal interest and 20 days which had to be wholly or partly commuted at the rate of 0.10 piastre a day. The labour dues were ultimately included in the personal tax by section 3 of an Order issued b y the Senior Resident on 25 August 1920. In Tonking also a special system has had to be established for the mountain population, whose primitive social organisation did not permit the application of a head tax. In the Muong country and in certain remote districts of Upper Tonking, labour dues are still regulated by Orders issued by the Senior Resident on 4 December 1901 and 9 December 1908 which fixed them at ten days' work, of which five must be commuted and five actually worked. In these districts, however, the system of labour dues also shows a tendency to disappear, and a Circular issued on 10 June 1928 recommended the Residents of the provinces concerned to arrange for the progressive and total suppression of such levies and introduced the principle that all work must be remunerated. Annam. — The system formerly in force in Tonking (48 compulsory working days including four days reserved for communal work) was extended to Annam by an Order issued on 23 February 1889. An Order of 30 October 1897 reduced the number of days due to 30, of which ten had to be commuted, ten could be commuted, while the last ten were reserved for communal work. A Royal Order of 14 August 1898 required the compulsory commutation of the 20 days of general labour by a payment of two piastres, but maintained the ten days of communal work. A Royal Order of 8 January 1904 stipulated that six of these days, which could be commuted, were to be given to the State for work of local public importance, while the other four were to be reserved for communal work. An- Order issued by the Governor-General on 31 December 1907 raised to eight the number of days which had to be given to the State for public works in the Province, so t h a t only two days FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR 31 remained for communal services. The communal authorities were dissatisfied with this arrangement, so the Governor-General, by an Order of 31 December 1908, restored the villages' right to five days' dues, of which two had to be commuted while the other three could be commuted at the rate of 0.20 piastre a day. The same Order specified t h a t the other five days were to be reserved solely for district "work. An end to these changes was put by the Order of 30 October 1918, which included the compulsory labour tax in the personal tax. As in Cochin-China and Tonking, the mountain population of Annam is subject to a special system which has been consolidated by a " Du " of 25 April 1935. All members of the Moï tribe between 18 and 60 years, with the exception of women, elderly and infirm males, chiefs and officials of the indigenous administrative services, are required to provide ten days' dues, which may be commuted, in addition to the five days of requisitioned labour, which may not be commuted. The five days of requisitioned labour are at the disposal of the villages and used for work of communal interest. Cambodia. — All persons liable to the personal tax (i.e. persons between 18 to 60 years of age) pay an annual labour tax of 3 piastres which is collected in the same conditions and at the same time as the personal t a x . 1 Annamites and alien Asiatic and assimilated workers living in Cambodia are also required to provide ten days of labour, the commutation rate being fixed at 0.40 piastre a day for the former and at 0.80 piastre for the latter. Annamites and Asiatics commute the whole of their dues, the commutation fee being included in the personal tax. 2 A Royal Order of 23 June 1913 introduced a special system of labour dues for the " Khas ", a primitive people living in the Stung-Treng Province (North Cambodia). These people are required, between 21 and 60 years of age, to provide 15 days' dues in kind which exempt them from the payment of the personal and labour taxes. The stipulation is made that the requisitioned " Khas " must be employed in the district in which they live and whenever possible in the near vicinity of their villages, and that their services are to be used for the construction of roads and other works approved by the Council of Ministers. As in the Annamite country, communal dues in Cambodia are used for the benefit of the villages. An Order issued by the Senior Resident on 16 November 1925 fixed as follows the number of days' guard and dues which may be levied on behalf of the " khums " : 1 Royal Orders of 4 January 1902, 2 February 1916, 20 September 1917 and2 3 September 1924. Order of the Governor-General of 31 December 1917. 32 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA (1) three days of guard and watch-keeping which may be commuted at the same rate as labour dues; (2) three days of labour dues which may be commuted at the rate fixed by the local budget. 1 Laos. — An Order of 12 May 1914 regulated labour dues for natives and assimilated Asiatics between 18 and 60 years of age who inhabit the territory of Laos. Registered Laotians are required to provide 16 days' labour per annum, which may be commuted at the rate of 0.40 piastre, while " Khas " must provide 20 days. The commutation of labour dues is optional. Labour conscripts may only be recruited within a radius of 100 kilometres from the place of employment or at a maximum of five days' march for the outward and return journeys. No wages are paid for days thus worked, but each day taken up by the journey from the village to the place of work is paid at the rate of 30 cents. At least one-quarter of the labour called up must be employed solely on communal work. The commutation fee is fixed at 0.25 piastre. An Order of 18 June 1929 increased the commutation fee to 0.30 piastre. An important Circular issued on 21 June 1934 laid down the measures to be taken by the Residents in Laos to secure that the recruiting and employment of requisitioned labour should be carried out in the best conditions and with due attention to the requirements of health and hygiene. The recruitment of labour must be carried out with the greatest care and under the supervision and responsibility of the indigenous authorities. Sick and infirm persons, elderly persons and children may not be employed in any circumstances. When the workplace is far from the village, the workers must be carried in service lorries or canoes. Before work is begun the encampments must be carefully organised. The workers' food must be the object of strict supervision, and every care must be taken to avoid victimisation of the workers by itinerant traders. As a rule a dresser must be made responsible for the health in all workplaces employing at least 50 workers. The workers must be supplied with tools and implements so as to secure a maximum individual output. In the management and organisation of workplaces, every effort must be made to co-ordinate administrative supervision, the work of the indigenous authorities and the technical instructions issued by the public works services. It is thus clear that the regulation of labour dues has undergone practically the same evolution in all the countries of the Union. The old system of compulsory labour, which in theory was subject 1 See also Order of 27 November 1930 and Order of 17 January 1934. FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR 33 to no restrictions, has been reduced to a reasonable number of days by the French authorities, while the work exacted from the inhabitants has been restricted to the district in which the latter live, so as to avoid long absences from home and transfer to distant places. The regulations recommend the avoidance of mass levies likely to empty the villages of their able-bodied population, and discourage the requisitioning of labour during periods of agricultural activity. The introduction of certain measures for the protection of the workers' health (infirmaries in the workplaces, etc.), together with the compulsory supply of appropriate tools and implements has certainly introduced a more humane element in the labour system. Finally, the general adoption of commutation fees has led to dues being treated as a tax (in three countries, the dues are included in the personal tax). Only for certain tribes in mountainous districts is the character of the former compulsory labour system still maintained. §4. — Forced Labour for General Public Purposes Under this heading the international regulations include compulsory cultivation, public works and porterage. The General Government of Indo-China has never contemplated imposing compulsory cultivation, as the industrious character of the inhabitants, all of whom work on the land, renders all such measures unnecessary. The greatest freedom in such matters is therefore left to the inhabitants, who are intelligent enough to plant the crops required for their maintenance and to lay in the necessary reserves. The most important form of compulsory labour for general public purposes is certainly t h a t resulting from the necessity for large-scale public works. For such purposes the earlier Governments made use of the corvée system. This system, which dates back to ancient times, was regulated towards 1840 by a Decree issued by the Emperor Minh Mang, which contained the following basic provisions: " Persons liable to labour dues in each village had to provide the State with 48 days of labour a year. This labour was used for work of public interest such as the digging of canals, the building of royal roads and the upkeep of such works. Under no pretext might a requisitioned worker be required to work at more than five kilometres from his home . . .". Each community had to provide workers in proportion to the number of able-bodied persons on its register, but in most cases the latter, under one pretext or another, found substitutes to take their place, with the 34 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA result that requisitioned workers were drawn almost exclusively from the indigent and labouring elements of the population. The corvée system also existed from the very earliest times in Cambodia and Laos, two neighbouring and tributary States of the Annam Empire. Unlike Annam, no regulations existed in those two countries where the length and conditions of service depended entirely on the will of the local chieftains. It is impossible to ascertain nowadays what effect these mass levies had on the political and material situation of the country. But the impression left does not seem to be bad, as the work done was of capital importance, while the wages paid were fairly good. The corvée system was therefore not unpopular in the six Provinces of the Indo-Chinese Union when France annexed the country. In the early days taxes continued to be imposed in kind and the corvée system was maintained. The only trouble was that much greater use was made of it than under Annamite rule; abuses arose and revolts of levies occurred during the calling up of the workers. Other reasons helped to make the corvée unpopular. Epidemics frequently broke out while the works were in course. Work on the Chogao Canal had to be interrupted in 1875 on account of the appearance of cholera in the workers' encampment. In September 1880 an official report addressed to the Colonial Council exposed the great drawbacks of the corvée system in the following terms: " It is nowadays proved that the corvée, long considered as the only means of carrying out large-scale works, is a most unfair and a most onerous burden on the local population. Distributed by the district chiefs over the villages in accordance with the number of registered first-class workers, the corvée falls almost exclusively on non-registered persons who can be exploited at will. Doubtless the corvée system has permitted the completion of important works, but who can say what discontent these levies caused and to what exactions they gave rise ? In Cochin-China, where thrift is practically unknown and where the population lives a hand-to-mouth existence, the masses of discontented levies, torn from their villages and herded together in small areas, constitute a grave menace to public order, while hundreds of families deprived of their breadwinners are in want of thé most elementary commodities and complete disorder reigns in the villages which have suddenly been abandoned by their able-bodied males. The time is not far distant when free labour, armed with modern implements, will finally replace these mass levies and when labour dues in kind will be used only for the upkeep of local roads . . . ". The moment appeared opportune for Mr. le Myre de Vilers, the first Civil Governor of Cochin-China, to propose the abolition of the corvée system to the home authorities.1 This was actually done in 1881. In the preceding description of the course of events which converted the corvée into labour dues, attention was called to the measures taken by the French administrative authorities to curtail and render more humane this form of labour, so as to make it acceptable to the inhabitants, without restricting the facilities which it offered for the development of the 1 Congrès International de Sociologie Coloniale : Rapports et procès-verbaux : " Rapport de M. Nouet sur la corvée ", Vol. I, pp. 126-129. FORCED OR COMPULSORY 35 LABOUR Colony. The French authorities made use of requisitions mainly for the construction of railways. The guarantees introduced by them in connection with wages and health conditions in the encampments are illustrated by the following description of a concrete example of labour requisitions for work of this sort: In order to complete the section of the Haiphong-Lao-Kay railway situated between Trai-Hutt and Lao-Kay, the Public Works Department established working camps in which, from October 1904 to October 1905, they maintained several thousand Annamite workers recruited in the various districts of the Delta with the assistance of the Civil Service Department. The unhealthiness of this district, one of the worst in Tonking, the difficulty of obtaining supplies and the inadequacy of the sanitary arrangements had driven the workers away from these camps, which were a prey to epidemics and malaria. It was therefore essential for the rational organisation of the camps to provide the Annamite peasants who had been temporarily taken away from their homes as the result of the levies with the guarantees to which they were entitled : these included, in addition to regularly paid wages, material conditions enabling them to resist the hardships of the climate and curative and preventive medical treatment. The plan established for the organisation of working conditions met the essential requirements of modern conceptions of social hygiene. Climatológica! Conditions The damp heat in these districts renders all physical activity extremely dangerous. Variations of temperature are sudden and frequent. The district does not contain a single Annamite village. It is only visited by the Thos who, from their mountain fastnesses, bring their produce down to the military outposts. It was in this district that the Public Works Department had to maintain for a twelvemonth several thousand Annamite peasants, who were accustomed to living in flat country made healthy by intensive cultivation and who regretted being separated from their families and everyday habits. The conditions in which these people had to work were laid down in a plan of organisation which contained the following clauses: (1) — The period of service for every coolie employed camps was not to exceed 3 months. (2) — The daily rations were fixed as follows: Rice . . . . 900 grms. Tea Meat . . . . 200 » Salt Fish . . . . 60 " Nuoc-mam . . Vegetables . 100 » Sterilised water and tea were -everywhere to be placed of the coolies. in the working 20 grms. 16 » 6 centilitres at the disposal (3) Quarters. — Quarters had to be situated on high-lying ground so as to ensure good ventilation and permit the running-off of rain water. They were to be disinfected from time to time. (4) Clothing. — Each coolie was to be issued with an adequate supply of clothing to protect him against cold and rain. 36 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA (5) Labour. — The working day was not to exceed ten hours, with a break of not less than two hours. Sundays were to be devoted to rest and recreation: theatres, singers. (6) Wages. — The minimum wage was fixed at 25 cents for an actual day's work. (7) Medical treatment. — The workers were to be entitled to receive the necessary medical treatment in the camps themselves and in field hospitals. Workers who were not strong enough to remain in the camps were to be sent back to the villages on the medical officer's suggestion. Number and Origin of Workers Three contingents of workers were recruited in a period of twelve months. The first contingent included 8,500 workers, who were distributed over the various camps, where they remained from 20 September 1904 to 20 January 1905, or a period of four months. Work was then suspended for a month to enable the workers to hold the Têt festival, and the second contingent, 7,000 strong, worked from 20 February to 1 July, or four months and ten days. The 5,000 workers forming the third contingent did not exceed the period of three months established by the plan of organisation. These workers came from the Delta provinces: Hanoï, Haiphong, Nam-dinh, Sontay, etc. Besides these three contingents, which were regularly recruited and organised, accompanied by indigenous foremen from their own provinces, and which lived and worked in groups from the same villages and were sure of regular food and wages, were a number of Annamite and Chinese workers who had been engaged directly by the contractors without the help of the administrative authorities. These workers were known as non-contract workers. They had the same right to medical treatment in the camps and field hospitals as the requisitioned workers. In addition to these three levies mentioned above, the administrative authorities twice recruited bodies of about 4,000 workers each in 1905 . and 1906, but in both these cases the contingents were made up entirely of volunteers. By that time the work was advanced enough to permit railway traffic all along the new line and this fact enabled fresh batches of workers to be brought without difficulty to the scene of operations. From then onward the food supply service, as organised under the original plan, ceased to be necessary. In consequence the workers were left free to procure their own food, the administrative authorities doing no more than facilitate the arrival of the necessary supplies by rail x . The study of the question of forced labour by the International Labour Conference at Geneva in 1930 led to the introduction in Indo-China of important legislative prescriptions on this form of work. As the result of the debates in Geneva, the French Government, it will be remembered, issued a Decree on 21 August 1930 1 Renée DECHAMPS : La main-d'œuvre en Indochine et l'immigration étrangère, pp. 92-95. FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR 37 to define the general principles of compulsory labour for public purposes in colonies and protectorates, pending the total abolition of this method of labour. According to the terms of the Decree the expression " compulsory labour for public purposes " was defined as all work or service which is exacted from any person, for the performance of which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily, exclusive of work or service arising out of the said person's fiscal or military obligations or the carrying out of a sentence imposed under the general law. This definition, therefore, does not include cases of force majeure (which are specifically indicated), communal services authorised by the custom of the community concerned and labour dues which are considered as a fiscal obligation. The Decree required the Governors of the different colonies to submit within six months for the approval of the Minister draft Orders regulating recourse to compulsory labour in their respective colonies. In accordance with this stipulation the Governor-General of Indo-China, with the approval of the Minister, issued an Order on 5 February 1932 for the application of the Decree of 21 August 1930 to Indo-China. As this Order lays down the basic conditions for the regulation of compulsory labour for public purposes in Indo-China, a detailed analysis of its provisions will now be given. The Order first lays down that the Governor-General, on the recommendation of the heads of the local Governments (Governors and Senior Residents) is to specify districts where the use of compulsory labour is henceforth to be totally abolished (Section 1). With the exception of compulsory labour needed in cases of force majeure and of labour for communal services (Section 2 of the Decree of 21 August 1930), recourse may not be had to compulsory labour in Indo-China, except for public purposes and by way of exception (Section 2). Undertakings or employers authorised by contract to employ contingents of persons called up for compulsory labour for public purposes on work of public utility will be subject to the provisions of the Order and their workplaces will be placed under the direct supervision of the Government (Section 3). Part II of the Order fixes the conditions in which the levying of workers may be authorised. For new work or maintenance work necessitating less than 3,000 days' work, the heads of the local Governments (Governors and Residents) may authorise the subordinate authorities to levy compulsory labour (Section 6) ; when the work necessitates more than 3,000 working days, a special authorisation of the Governor-General is necessary (Section 4). The explanatory report submitted in support of the application for a special authorisation must indicate the number of man-days necessary for the carrying out of the work contemplated, the average number of days' work required of each worker, the reasons why recourse cannot be had to voluntary labour, and the present or imminent necessity of the work proposed and its importance to the community called upon to perform it (Section 5). 38 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Recourse to compulsory labour may not be had unless it is impossible to obtain voluntary labour under conditions of employment and at wages equal to those normally prevailing in the area concerned for similar work or service (Section 9). Part III of the Order deals with the actual levying of workers. All able-bodied males between 18 and 45 years of age may be called up, with the exception of certain classes of persons such as indigenous officials and notables, teachers and pupils of public or private schools, members of religious orders, persons engaged in commerce who pay a licence of 10 piastres or more, wage-earning or salaried employees in permanent employment, and widowers responsible for the maintenance of children under age (Section 10). All compulsory labour levies must be authorised by an Order signed by the provincial Commissioner or Resident (Section 11). As far as possible, the levy must be restricted to persons resident in the neighbourhood of the place where the work is to be carried out, or in any case within a radius of the workplace which may not exceed a maximum of 50 kilometres or four days' march for the outward and return journeys (Section 12). Section 13 requires the medical examination of the workers upon their arrival at the workplace and orders officials to see that the enforcement of compulsory labour does not in any case entail the unlawful calling up of women and children for compulsory labour (Section 13). The number of workers called up in each village or commune may not exceed one-fourth of the permanent able-bodied male population; whenever possible, workers will be called up only during periods when agricultural work is at a standstill (Section 14). Part IV of the Order refers to the duration and supervision of the levies. The maximum period for which any person may be taken for compulsory labour may not exceed 60 days in any period of 12 months, including the time spent in going to and from the place of work; any time spent on labour dues or porterage is to be included in the total of 60 days (Section 15). Sections 16 and 17 fix the methods of checking the amount of labour provided by individuals and villages and require all administrative officers to keep a record of the number of compulsory labour days worked in their areas. Part V of the Order lays down the " conditions for administration, training and safeguarding of morals ". It provides for the habituation of workers who are called upon to perform regular work to which they are not accustomed; this includes progressive training, the adaptation of hours of work and rest intervals, and any allowance or increase of rations which may be necessary (Section 18). Compulsory labour may not be used for underground work (Section 19). The local administrative authorities must take suitable measures to facilitate the remittance of part of the workers' wage to their families (Section 20). If the number of workers is such as to necessitate the establishment of a special camp, special huts will be set apart for workers who are accompanied by their wives and children (Section 21). The admission of gaming-house keepers to the workplace or its vicinity is to be strictly prohibited. Part VI of the Order fixes the conditions of employment, including the following: a maximum working-day of 9 hours, overtime being paid at the rate of time and a half (Section 24); substitution of task rates for daily rates, but solely as a means of training in work (Section 25); establishment of wages at rates not less than those in force for the same kind of work in the district where the workers are employed or in the district from which they have come, whichever may be the higher (Section 26); direct payment of wages to the workers (Section 27); FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR 39 inclusion of days spent in travelling in the calculation of days for which wages are paid (Section 29); prohibition of all deductions from wages, except where rations are issued to the workers (Section 30); right of the workers to a weekly rest day and to public holidays fixed by tradition and custom (Section 31). Part VII of the Order refers to medical attendance, hygiene and accidents. When requisitioned workers are to be employed at permanent or semi-permanent workplaces, Governors or Residents concerned must ensure that all the necessary hygienic measures have been taken, in particular with respect to housing, the supply of food and water, fuel and cooking utensils (Section 32). The service employing the workers is bound to provide them and their families free of charge with the usual medicaments and to assign a dresser or medical practitioner to every workplace where there is a considerable number of workers; in case of sickness or injury caused directly by an occupational risk, the workers are to receive the necessary treatment until they are completely cured or proved to be incurable, without prejudice to any damages at civil law to which they may be entitled ; they are also entitled to a reduced wage (Section 33). In case of sickness or accident involving permanent or prolonged incapacity, the worker will be repatriated at the expense of the administrative authorities if he is physically unable to make his own way home (Section 34). The regulations in force or which may be issued in Indo-China respecting hygiene, the protection of health and medical attendance for workers at workplaces, whether private or belonging to the administrative authorities, will apply to requisitioned workers whenever the nature and the size of the workplaces so necessitates (Section 36). Part VIII of the Order defines the methods of supervision to be used for the enforcement of the regulations and the right of complaint which is granted to all requisitioned workers (Section 39). The Governors or Residents and the labour inspectors must periodically submit to the Governor-General full and detailed reports on the use made of requisitioned labour (Sections 37-42). Finally, Section 44 stipulates that the Governors or Residents must establish, by Orders submitted to the Governor-General for approval, the conditions for the detailed application of the present regulations. Porterage is also the object of regulations on the lines of the provisions of the international Convention concerning forced or compulsory labour. The French administrative authorities had, however, already taken steps to reduce the burden which the system of porterage imposed on the population. According to an official document *, porterage did not exist at the beginning of 1928 (as labour requisitioned or hired with the help of the authorities for the transport of Government or commercial stores) either in CochinChina, Cambodia or in Kwang-Chow-Wan. In Annam, it was hardly ever used except as a provisional means of transporting supplies to the penal settlement of Lao-Bao and travellers to Bana. 1 Réponse du Gouverneur général de l'Indochine au questionnaire ministériel du 17 novembre 1926 sur la main-d'œuvre dans les colonies françaises. 40 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA In Laos, recourse was had to porterage in districts crossed only by tracks and paths, but such districts were numerous. In Tonking, the situation was different in the delta and the uplands. The delta, where almost the entire population of the country is concentrated, was provided with a well-developed road system covered in all directions by motor transport vehicles; porterage was therefore not employed for the transport of travellers or goods over long distances. Rickshaw men disappeared gradually from the roads as regular lines of motor transport developed. On the other hand, in mountainous districts, porterage continued to be a burden on the population on account of the want of practicable ways of communication, the rugged nature of the countryside, the sparseness of the population and the length of the journeys. At the same time, enquiries carried out at the orders of the administrative authorities had led to the adoption of a series of measures for the substitution of pack and draught animals for human transport, especially as regards the transport of Government stores and the luggage of officers and officials on mission. These measures were supplemented by an Order issued by the Governor-General on 6 February 1932 which regulated the conditions of compulsory labour for the transport of administrative staff and stores in the manner described below. In the first place, this Order fixed the conditions in which the right to requisition means of transport may be exercised by the various European and indigenous officials, employees and agents of the local and general services travelling on duty in Indo-China. Transport may be claimed for luggage weighing from 30 to 60 kgs. according to circumstances (Section 10). The load which may be carried by a single coolie may not exceed 15 kgs. The methods of transport and daily charges are to be fixed annually by the Governors and Residents, these prices never being lower than the rates in force in the district for the same class of transport (Section 11). Everything must be done to avoid the necessity for compulsory porterage, which must be forbidden whenever it is possible to use animal or mechanical transport (Section 12). When it is found impossible to procure porters or means of transport by ordinary means, recourse may be had to a levy for the transport of persons not belonging to the Administration, in cases of absolute necessity such as sickness, accident, etc. (Section 13). The right to requisition porters and means of transport is reserved for district officers and resident-administrators and their representatives. The rules defining the classes of persons who may be called upon for such work are the same as those laid down in the previous Order (Section 14); they prohibit the levying of females and males under 18 or over 45 years of age, require a prior medical examination whenever possible, and prohibit the calling up of more than one-fourth of the permanent able-bodied male population of any village or commune (Sections 15-19). FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR 41 The maximum distance for which a porter may be engaged is fixed at 100 kms., or 4 days' march. The stages must be regulated as far as possible so that the usual daily journey corresponds to not more than a working day of 9 hours, interrupted by rest periods totalling 2 hours; overtime is to be paid at time-and-a-half. Wages must be paid to the workers in cash and as soon as the job undertaken is finished; return journeys without loads are paid at one-half of the normal rate (Sections 21 to 23). As regards the duration and the supervision of compulsory porterage, and the obligations of the employers in case of sickness or accident, the Order of 6 February 1932 repeats the corresponding provisions of the Order of 5 February 1932 (see above). This is also the case as regards the application of the Order, the right of complaint and penalties. The Orders issued by the Governor-General on 5 and 6 February 1932 have been supplemented by administrative regulations defining their local application. An Order of 11 May 1933 fixed the local scope of the general prohibition of compulsory labour introduced by the Order of 5 February 1932, by defining the areas of Indo-China in which recourse to compulsory labour for public purposes was henceforth to be forbidden. These areas include the whole of Cochin-China and Cambodia and a considerable part of Annam and Tonking. It was stated t h a t in the other areas compulsory labour could be requisitioned subject to the terms of section 15 of the Order of 5 February 1932, which fixed the maximum period of compulsory labour for any one person at 30 days for Tonking and 60 days for Annam and Laos. In these three countries, however, local Orders may establish a shorter period than those just mentioned for a given province or district. In order to allow these regulations to be extended to the subjects of the Emperor of Annam, a " Du " dated 21 August 1933 fixed the parts of Annam in which compulsory labour was to be abolished or maintained provisionally and by way of exception for public purposes, as well as the classes of persons liable to compulsory service and the length of the period of service. 1 During recent years the Protectorate of Annam has made a great effort to reduce the use of compulsory labour as far as possible, pending its final abolition. With this end in view, proposals are made to the Governor-General at the end of each year for the abolition of compulsory work in districts still employing this system where compulsory labour levies have become unnecessary on account of the progress made during the previous year in the development of ways of communication and the organisation of transport 1 The methods by which the provisions of the " Du " were to be applied were established by an Order issued by the Senior Resident on 30 August 1933. 42 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA facilities. During the course of 1933 no compulsory labour levies were made for public works. On the proposal of the Senior Resident in Annam, an Order of 10 April 1934 included the Province of Pleiku among those in which compulsory labour is prohibited. In Tonking, compulsory labour is hardly ever found apart from the compulsory levies made for the transport of administrative staff and equipment across certain upland districts (Backan, Langson, Laokay, Sonia, Yenbay, and in the second, third and fourth military zones). An official document 1 gives the following details on this subject: As a rule, porters are chosen by the chief local European officer or by the local indigenous authority from among able-bodied Natives between 18 and 45 years of age. When there is a public medical officer in the district, the workers undergo a medical examination before their departure. In other districts requisitioned workers are employed only if they appear to be in good health and fit for employment as porters. A number of villages have agreed to share the cost of upkeep of a gang of porters who are supplied with food and quarters throughout the year. These men are all volunteers and, in addition to the food and quarters provided by the villages, are paid by the authorities at the usual rates when employed on porterage work. Theoretically, every person liable to be called up for porterage may be employed from 2-10 days during each levy, but statistics compiled by the provinces show that the average time worked does not exceed one day a year. The load carried by each man varies from 10-15 kgs. and the distance covered from 20-30 kms. The day's march depends on the length of the stage of the journey undertaken but it is never more than 9 hours a day. The length of the journey which every porter may be called upon to make varies from 40-100 kms. Such journeys are generally made across mountainous districts where the paths cannot be used by horsedrawn vehicles. The communes are notified of the compulsory labour levies by a Service Order issued by the provincial Commissioner. Wages earned by the porters are paid to them either at the end of each day or spell of service, in accordance with rates which vary in the different provinces, but are always about 0.40 piastre a day with load and 0.20 piastre without load. In Laos, the regulation of compulsory labour for public purposes has been the subject of a number of legislative measures, including an Order by the Senior Resident of 27 June 1933 which closely resembles that issued by the Governor-General on 5 February 1932. Moreover, in the countries of the Union where this form of labour is still permitted, Orders are issued periodically establishing the 1 Lettre du résident supérieur chine, 22 March 1933. au Tonkin, au Gouverneur général de l'Indo- FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR 43 maximum weight of the load carried by porters and the rates of wages payable to such workers. Annual reports are also sent to the central administrative authorities on the value and usefulness of requisitioned labour. If the present effort made by the authorities is continued, it is practically certain that in the near future compulsory labour levies for transport work and large-scale public works will become a thing of the past. The character of the forms of compulsory labour still surviving in Indo-China now stands out more clearly. In the first place, physical conditions impose a very important and sometimes rather onerous obligation on the Natives: the protection of the dikes when the rivers are in flood. This obligation is minutely regulated and gives rise to remuneration. But in this connection it is well to remember t h a t cases of force majeure are not covered, in the international regulations, by the definition of forced or compulsory labour. Compulsory labour in the service of private persons is not admitted by the Indo-Chinese Government, and the one exception, sanctioned by a contract concluded between the authorities and a transport company, may well disappear or lose much of its effect in 1937. 1 As to forced labour-on behalf of certain chiefs of the Muong tribes of Laos, this is a survival of former times which has at least the merit of procuring a certain number of advantages for the tribesmen concerned. In the opinion of the authorities it would seem better to leave this system to change with the course of time and economic development rather than try to abolish it by legislation. The same attitude is adopted towards labour levies for communal purposes, which illustrate the spirit of solidarity and mutual assistance of the Indo-Chinese peoples. Moreover, these levies are bound, by progressive changes, to adapt themselves to the new conditions which the settlement of Europeans in the country tends to create. Labour dues are not considered by the administrative authorities as a real form of compulsory labour but as a special sort of taxation. Labour dues have been included in the personal tax in CochinChina, Tonking and Annam. Throughout Cambodia, however, labour dues still exist as a separate tax and exceptions to the general right of commutation are found only among the primitive " khas " of Cambodia who are exempted from taxation in exchange for 16 compulsory days' work. This contract was not renewed in 1937. 44 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Finally, there are the various forms of compulsory labour for public purposes. These do not include compulsory cultivation, which is nowhere exacted in Indo-China. Porterage and compulsory labour levies for large-scale public works are regulated by the Orders of 5 and 6 February 1932, which are enforced by means of detailed administrative regulations. In virtue of these Orders the use of any form of compulsory labour is forbidden in Indo-China except in Upper Tonking, the mountain district of Annam and throughout Laos. In brief, recourse to compulsory labour levies is tolerated only in remote districts which have no regular ways of communication and even in such districts only the porterage and transport of Government stores can be imposed and then only subject to clearly-specified conditions. It may be noted, in conclusion, that the legislation of Indo-China is in harmony, on almost all points, with the stipulations of the international Convention of 1930. PART II WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT CHAPTER I CONTRACT LABOUR The present chapter deals with the position of agricultural workers recruited for employment at a distance from their homes under long-term contracts. The very special circumstances which have always accompanied such recruiting—the transfer of workers from Tonking to Southern Indo-China or to the French Establishments in the South Pacific and the signature of a written contract for three years in the former case and five years in the latter, with penal sanctions—constitute a fundamental difference between this form of employment and non-contract labour. This is really an exceptional system which recalls the older method of " controlled immigration ". In the following survey it has been thought desirable to make a distinction between recruiting in the strict sense—that is, the series of operations whereby workers are induced to offer their services and are brought to their place of employment—and the general conditions of contract' labour. Recruiting, which is the initial act by which the independent agricultural worker is led to undertake wage-paid employment, is sufficiently important in itself to deserve separate treatment. Moreover it gave rise in Indo-China to an extensive controversy which must be studied in some detail. A brief historical survey of the development of recruiting in IndoChina will be followed by an outline of the present regulations; these subjects together form § 1. §2 will deal with the conditions of contract labour, including (1) the contract of employment itself, its contents and the methods by which it is concluded ; (2) the actual working conditions (hours, rest periods, wages, special provisions concerning women and children); (3) the workers' living conditions (food and supplies, 46 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA clothing and accommodation); (4) the provisions concerning deferred pay; (5) the supervision of the workers and the methods of dealing with offences ; (6) the moral situation of the workers, using as an index the number of desertions; (7) the protection of the workers' health ; (8) deaths among the workers ; (9) provisions concerning repatriation; (10) the various problems involved in the stabilisation of labour on plantations. The conditions of recruiting and employment for the French Establishments in the Pacific will be dealt with in § 3. § 1. — Recruiting HISTORICAL SURVEY It was in 1905, when the number of plantations began to increase rapidly on the vast stretches of fertile but uncultivated land in Cochin-China and Cambodia, that the problem of recruiting first arose. The land in which this extensive agricultural development took place was situated in countries which were too sparsely populated to provide the necessary workers, and consequently the planters naturally turned to the northern parts of Indo-China and more especially to the Delta, where the supply of labour seemed inexhaustible. Recruiting on a large scale began in 1919. Between 1 January 1919 and 31 December 1922, 9,143 coolies from Tonking disembarked in Saigon and were allocated to the various plantations of Cochin-China, Cambodia and Southern Annam. In 1923 some 30,000 hectares were devoted to rubber growing and the number of immigrants was about 6,000. In 1927 the annual increase in the area under cultivation suddenly rose to 14,000 hectares, reaching 26,000 in 1928, and the number of workers employed was over 20,000. This sudden increase in the demand for plantation rubber raised a number of problems for the administrative authorities and for the managements of undertakings. The most important question was whether the large area already granted to the plantations or applied for could be entirely developed with the labour supply available in the colony. Early in 1927 the central Government of the colony undertook an enquiry with a view to discovering what were the exact requirements of Southern Indo-China as regards agricultural workers and to what extent Tonking and Annam could meet the demand without depleting their own labour supply. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 47 As regards the amount of labour required, the conclusion reached by the enquiry was that there were already 29,000 workers in Cochin-China and that, allowing for re-engagements, the labour turnover was 5,800 annually. The number of workers engaged in Cambodia was 2,500, with a turnover of 500 annually. In view of the demands for concessions, however, it was estimated t h a t in the very near future it would be necessary to recruit 39,000 workers for Cochin-China and Cambodia in order to meet the needs of the rubber plantations alone. In Southern Annam, in view of the rapid development of the Moï districts and notwithstanding the uncertainty as to the possible utilisation of the labour, it was estimated that almost 30,000 workers would be required. The conclusion of the enquiry was that if the demand for indigenous labour was spread over four years and if allowance was made for desertion, repatriation and the cessation of employment for other reasons, about 25,000 immigrant workers would have to be brought to Cochin-China and Cambodia annually from 1928 to 1931 ; it was thought that during the same period the new plantations in Kontum, Darlac and Upper Donai could find the necessary labour in Annam itself, or on the spot, or in the neighbouring Annamite provinces. Once the labour requirements had been determined, the next step was to discover whether the densely-populated parts of the colony could provide a sufficient number of workers for CochinChina and Cambodia. A study carried out by the Senior Resident in Tonking at the request of the Governor-General of Indo-China, the results of which were published in May 1927, gave reassuring information as to the existence of reserves of labour in the different territories of the colony. The statistics published in connection with this study emphasised in the first place the extreme density of the Annamite population in the provinces of the Lower Delta. It was further shown that the percentage of labour recruiting among contract workers for service outside Tonking from the beginning up to the end of 1926 was less than half per cent, of the total population of the provinces in which recruiting had been carried out (cf. Appendix I, table III: Percentage of Recruiting at the End of 1926). The Senior Resident in Tonking also pointed out that the reports of the resident administrative officers in the various districts of the Tonking Delta showed that the annual increase of the population was about 3 per cent. The provinces of the Delta in which recruiting was possible had a population of 4,779,000, increasing by 80,000 annually on the average. There therefore seemed no reason why Tonking could not easily provide the 25,000 workers required in Southern Indo-China without any risk of disastrous consequences for the labour market in general. 48 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Although at first sight it seemed that bonking could very easily supply the labour required for Southern Indo-China, it was thought necessary to extend recruiting to Annam, so as to increase the area from which workers were drawn. These considerations explain the decision taken by the Government with regard to recruiting: in Tonking no limit would be set to the number of workers recruited. Permits for recruiting would be granted by the Governor-General for employment outside Indo-China and by the Senior Resident for undertakings in other parts of the colony. The sole purpose of the formality of obtaining a permit was to enable the administrative authorities, before giving their consent, to make certain t h a t the employers concerned had observed the provisions of the regulations concerning the treatment of workers and particularly those concerning the accommodation provided for new workers. In the case of Annam the recruiting of contract labour for other parts (Southern Indo-China and the Pacific islands) was to be limited to 8,000 workers annually, of whom 7,000 would go to the former part of the colony and 1,000 to the Pacific. This quota was fixed so as to take account both of the general interests of colonisation and of the special position of Annam, which required workers not only for its growing industry but also for the active and extensive local agricultural development, for the labour requirements of the mining districts of Laos and for extensive road and railway development. 1 Beginnings of Legal Protection for Recruited Workers This proposed mobilisation of indigenous labour made it necessary to introduce regulations which would ensure the greatest possible success in the transplantation of a large fraction of the available population of the north of Indo-China willing to accept employment in the concessions of the south. The employers did not immediately agree to the necessity for such regulations. Some of them urged that they should be granted the fullest liberty in the organisation of their labour supply and that the whole question should be governed by the contracts of the workers. Others felt the need for detailed regulations which would stipulate a definite method of engagement and regular conditions of employment for the workers. The General Labour Inspectorate, which 1 E . D E L A M A R R E : L'émigration p . 15. et Vimmigration ouvrières en Indochine, 1931, WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 49 had been set up under the Governor-General by an Order of 19 July 1927, set to work and prepared draft Orders concerning the conditions of remuneration of workers from Tonking and measures for protecting plantation coolies, including provision for deferred pay. These draft texts were submitted to the local administrative authorities for their opinion and came before the Government Council in 1927; they received the signature of the GovernorGeneral on 25 October 1927. A fuller analysis of the three Orders issued on t h a t date will be given later in connection with the detailed study of recruiting operations and contract labour. It will suffice to mention here t h a t these texts clearly defined the form and conditions of the contract; they made provision for the supervision of the workers on the plantations by representatives of the authorities; they laid down the conditions of employment, the method of wage payment and the material conditions of food and housing. Special precautions were taken to safeguard the health of the workers and definite rules were laid down for the clauses concerning the expiry, termination, transfer or renewal of contracts, and for deferred pay so as to overcome the thriftlessness of the Annamite coolie. Recruiting continued on the basis of these regulations. During 1927, 17,606 contract workers from Tonking and Annam went to Cochin-China, Cambodia and Southern Annam and 1,432 workers were sent to the French Establishments in the Pacific. During 1928 the volume of emigration remained approximately the same (17,977 contract workers from Tonking and Northern Annam to Cochin-China, Cambodia and Southern Annam, and 3,048 workers for the Pacific). During the first months of the operation of the regulations, which came into force in October 1927, certain omissions were noted, and a few alterations, additions and improvements were made: the Order of 31 March 1928 adapting the regulations to the special conditions in Annam, the Orders of 18 February and 31. March 1928 concerning the personal tax for contract workers, the Order of 26 July 1928 concerning the methods of applying the fundamental regulations in Cochin-China, the Orders of 29 December 1927 and 10 July 1928 concerning the details of the special accounts for workers' deferred pay and the Decree of 12 July 1928 setting up a special system of labour supervisors to deal with infringements of contracts of employment. Mention may also be made of the Order of 10 July 1928 which substituted for the identity card which every emigrant formerly had to possess 4 50 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA a special contract worker's card issued on the basis of a declaration made by the worker himself; these cards greatly facilitated the transfer of labour to the undertakings in Southern Indo-China. The Orders of 29 and 30 August 1928 were intended to concentrate as far as possible all the operations for the engagement of workers from Tonking and Northern Annam under the auspices of the Workers' Emigration Supervision Office in the port of Haiphong. Controversies concerning Recruiting The regulations of 1927 concerning recruiting could not have full immediate effect. Many workers returned to Tonking at the end of their period of engagement in indigent circumstances and in very bad health. This gave rise to a campaign against recruiting which spread through Tonking from November 1928 onwards. The view of the administrative authorities with regard to this campaign was as follows: The campaign was led by anti-French elements . . . the population did not realise that the workers who returned and made complaints were only the remnants from a certain number of hastily-developed plantations which had sprung up during the rubber boom in districts where Annamite workers had been used in clearing the forests because the indigenous population could not provide the necessary labour. The coolies whose conditions of work were satisfactory remained with their employers and thus could not counteract the effect of this negative propaganda. Moreover the new regulations concerning the protection of the workers and deferred pay did not come into force in practice until 1 January 1928 and had not had time to produce results. Agitators increased the bad impression by spreading false rumours about the methods employed by recruiters and this gave rise amongst the credulous natives to a spirit 1of distrust that brought recruiting operations to a complete standstill. It would appear, however, t h a t very real abuses provided a basis for this campaign against recruiting. The authorities assert that the campaign was led by anti-French elements, and that is undoubtedly true. But it would not have been so successful if abuses had not been committed in the plantations of the southern districts: inadequate provision for the workers in very unhealthy districts, resulting in a high morbidity rate, and, as adequate treatment was not available, in a high mortality rate; the failure of certain employers to carry out loyally the provisions of the contracts; the extortions of indigenous overseers, and, it must be admitted, the violence, brutality and assaults of which European overseers were sometimes 1 E. D E L A M A R R E , op. cit., p. 16. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 51 guilty. One is glad to report that they were not of French nationality. The action taken by the Courts and the expulsion of one1 particularly notorious undesirable person put an end to these practices. The controversy which then arose and continued during 1928 and 1929 is worthy of study in some detail because it led up to the reorganisation of the recruiting system with considerable alterations in 1930. Plantation managers complained in the first place that the obligations imposed on them by the new regulations (concerning deferred pay and medical attendance, etc.) meant a large increase in their labour costs, which represented 75 per cent, of the total cost of producing rubber. They also pointed out that the administrative formalities concerning recruiting, and in particular the power granted to the Senior Residents in Tonking and Annam to prohibit recruiting in their respective provinces, were a considerable obstacle to the development of undertakings in Southern Indo-China. The resistance shown by Tonking, which was the chief source of labour, to the emigration of workers to the south seemed to the employers entirely unreasonable. The sums repaid to the authorities in Tonking out of the taxes imposed on the workers provided them with the same revenue as formerly, and in any case Tonking was over-populated and had an annual increase in population of 3 per cent., of which only a sixth at most was taken away by the recruiting of from 25,000 to 30,000 workers annually. It was unjust, in their view, to prohibit the inhabitants of these over-populated and poverty-stricken provinces of the north from earning their living where they could find employment and thus help on the economic development of the colony. It was also unjust of the authorities to make the planters responsible for the whole cost of protecting the workers; they ought to take their share, as for instance by providing new roads in plantation districts and building hospitals for contract workers who fell ill. This demand seemed all the more reasonable because the authorities, in so far as they were employers of labour, were in a privileged position: they did not consider themselves bound by the same legal obligations as they imposed on private undertakings. Finally the employers alleged that the authorities did not give them all the assistance they might: they permitted the emigration of dangerous agitators and of weakly and disabled workers or sometimes even of children ; they did not satisfactorily carry out their task of supervision on the plantations; they gave too much power 1 P a u l CHASSAING, op. cit. 52 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA to the inspectors and did not take steps to punish undesirable elements among the workers.1 The solution proposed by the employers was that recruiting should be unrestricted and should be carried out without special permit by the employer himself. The Indo-China Committee therefore submitted to the Ministry of Colonies a draft Decree providing for the establishment of local labour exchanges to facilitate recruiting, presumably with the assistance of the administrative authorities 2 . The planters also asked for a reduction in the share of the expenditure on hygienic measures which they had to bear, part of which should be paid out of the local budgets ; the strict application of the Order of 25 October 1927 to public authorities and also to indigenous employers; the exemption of undertakings from the deferred pay provisions and from the payment of the workers' taxes. In considering the attitude of the authorities to these desires, which amounted to denying the value of the recent legislation for the protection of the workers, a distinction must be made between the point of view of Tonking and that of the GovernorGeneral. Tonking 3 pointed out that, in spite of appearances, the labour supply at its disposal was far from being inexhaustible and was not really too large for the purposes of its own economic development 4. Attention was also drawn to the serious social and economic 1 The employers' point of view was put forward more especially in the following documents: (a) letter from a group of firms owning plantations to Governor-General Pasquier on 18 September 1928 (cf. L'Asie française, February 1929); (b) minutes of the meeting of the Commerce, Industry and Agriculture Committee of Indo-China of 9 November 1928 (cf. Cahiers coloniaux de l'Institut Colonial de Marseille, 4 March 1929); (c) Bulletin of the IndoChina Committee No. XIV (Cahiers coloniaux de l'Institut Colonial de Marseille, 5-12 August 1929); (d) La question du caoutchouc, report by Mr. Bouvier to the Superior Colonial Council (cf., Les produits coloniaux et'le matériel colonial, 26 August 1929). 2 A brief analysis of this draft Decree appeared in Cahiers coloniaux de l'Institut Colonial de Marseille, 3 June 1929. 3 It would be more correct to say certain representative organisations in Tonking (the Chamber of Representatives of the People and the Chamber of Agriculture). The Senior Resident does not seem to have expressed any views on the subject of recruiting that conflicted with the oflicial views of the Central Government. 4 As early as August 1927 the delegate of Annam in the Superior Colonial Council indicated that the amount of labour available in Tonking on a generous estimate could not exceed 135,000 men (out of a population of 5 millions) and that all the available labour was already employed at that date in the following manner: public works (building and maintenance), 30,000; agricultural work and various industries, 20,000; mines, 30,000; Native guards, army and navy, 20,000; required for Cochin-China, 25,000 (this number has been greatly increased since then); Pacific Establishments, 10,000 (more than double that number has been recruited for that.destination) ; total: 135,000. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 53 disadvantages of a wholesale exodus of workers; the President of the Chamber of Representatives in Annam, for example, made the following statement: Every day distressing sights occur which are harmful to family life and to moral conditions; we find a son abandoning his father, a wife deceiving her husband, brothers parting company and pupils deserting their -teachers. Our chief source of anxiety is the fact that the recruiting of labour may have serious consequences for the economic life of the country: there may be a shortage of workers for our fields and gardens and therefore a rise in wages. It is unnecessary to dwell on the prejudicial effects of labour recruiting for the race and for humanity as a whole ; these have been pointed out on many occasions by the press and by the League of the Rights of Man. This should be sufficient proof that the recruiting of labour is contrary to the wishes of the people, whether they be Annamite or French 1. In a letter of 14 June 1929, the Governor of Cochin-China drew the attention of the Association of Rubber Planters in Saigon to certain abuses brought to his notice by the Senior Resident in Tonking 2. He added : It is notorious that, as a general rule, the coolies are badly fed and suffer from malnutrition. The state of physical destitution in which they arrive in Tonking is clear proof of the psychological error which still governs the activities of the majority of the employers of coolies, in spite of numerous warnings. A very active campaign is now being carried on in all indigenous circles against the exodus of agricultural workers to the south under present conditions. Tonking will soon cease to be an inexhaustible reservoir of cheap labour if the present mistakes are not rectified 3. The Chamber of Agriculture in Tonking therefore asked for the complete abolition of direct recruiting and the substitution of a system of public employment exchanges, to be opened in every province in which recruiting was possible. It advanced the following arguments in support of its conclusions: Every system of labour recruiting so far employed had given rise to unfortunate abuses and to complaints by many of the workers and their families, for which there was only too often ample justification; In particular many workers complain of having been sent to countries other than those for which they contracted; Many recruiters succeeded in persuading the population that they held some official position and took advantage of this situation to exploit the 1 2 Cf. L'Asie française, 2 December 1929, p. 395. A copy of the report of the provincial authorities on which the complaint of the Senior Resident of Tonking was based will be found in Appendix II (Document 1). Extracts are also reproduced (Document 2) from a report by Mr. Delamarre, Inspector of Political Affairs, on the situation of plantation coolies. 3 Extract from the minutes of the meeting of the Association of Rubber Planters in Indo-China of 10 July 1929. 54 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA workers who trusted them; this exploitation in many cases developed into illicit trading in labour *. According to the proposals made by the Chamber of Agriculture, workers wishing to serve abroad would apply voluntarily, without any pressure, to the proposed employment exchanges, and the colonial undertakings which wished to recruit workers from Tonking would likewise apply directly, without intermediaries, to the employment exchanges. The Central Government of the colony defended the preliminary social legislation contained in the Orders of 1927 against this double current of hostile opinion. In reply to the planters, the Governor-General pointed out 2 that the French authorities could not ignore the large-scale exodus of workers from Tonking to the south and allow private agencies to carry on recruiting without any restriction, rule or guarantee; in the interests of order and social, peace and in the interests of the planters themselves, it was essential to secure reasonable treatment for the agricultural workers and such treatment was a guarantee of satisfactory work; in any case, the preliminary legislation in question was by no means rigid or final and the authorities were quite prepared to give due consideration to changes which might be suggested by the employers. Replying to the complaints of the employers in northern Tonking and Annam, as expressed by the Chamber of Representatives of the People and the Chamber of Agriculture in Tonking, the Governor-General indicated that the recent rise in wages in Tonking was due not to a labour shortage but to the general prosperity, which had led to the disappearance of starvation wages; statistics proved that the north of Indo-China could supply the south with the workers it required, but the plantations must offer adequate wages and a certain degree of well-being in order to attract those workers. As to the Tonking proposal to set up public employment exchanges, the Governor-General thought t h a t the rural population was not sufficiently developed to enable such organisations to work effectively. He hoped that the planters of Indo-China would follow the example of those in the Netherlands Indies and would form groups to organise recruiting and to draw the attention of their members to the possibility of using non-contract labour. The controversy on recruiting reached its height early in 1929. 1 Letter of 9 April 1929 from the Chamber of Agriculture in Tonking to the Senior Resident in Tonking. 2 Speech of Governor-General Robin at the opening of the session of the Government Council on 19 November 1928. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 55 Just then (9 February 1929) the assassination of the Director of the General Recruiting Office, a private emigration agency, who had succeeded in concentrating most recruiting operations in his own hands, added to the general chaos by removing one of the main organisations responsible for recruiting and at the same time brought out more clearly the urgent necessity for a system of rules governing the whole question. Regulation of Professional Recruiting Several systems were theoretically possible for recruiting contract labour. The reasons why the Governor-General declined to set up official employment exchanges were explained above. With regard to the emigration agencies which had been set up in IndoChina, the Government could either ignore them or regulate and supervise them. The first alternative was unthinkable, as it would have permitted any abuses to be practised. .There remained the second—the system of regulation and supervision. Indo-China had not yet reached the stage of social development at which special organisations, such as those developed in Europe to bring workers in search of employment into contact with potential employers, could be established, and consequently professional recruiting had grown up very rapidly in Tonking and Annam. Professional recruiters had opened agencies or offices through which workers could be found on the spot in the North for employment in Southern Indo-China or the Pacific islands ; these agencies undertook to have the contracts of employment signed, to make the necessary advances and to ship the workers to their destination. The methods of work of these commercial agencies were practically always the same: the managers, who were either French or Annamite, had to employ Annamite intermediaries who alone could engage in propaganda among their compatriots and persuade them to accept employment in some distant part of the country. These intermediaries in turn employed indigenous recruiting agents. It may be presumed that these intermediaries had no knowledge of the law and rarely possessed conscientious scruples which would make them respect the freedom of engagement which the legislation certainly intended to guarantee 1. 1 " How do the emigration agencies work ? By methods on which there is no need to dwell. The recruiting agent entices the simple and illiterate peasant into his office and makes him sign—or rather make his diem chi—on the standard form of contract drawn up by the authorities ". Paul CHASSAING: op. cit., p. 274. 56 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA It is true t h a t the legal regulations on the subject required a series of administrative formalities which in theory should have left no loophole for evasion. They prescribed for example: (1) that every agency had to obtain a permit in advance for each operation; (2) that the text of the contract should be examined so that the authorities might satisfy themselves t h a t the conditions of employment, life and wages were normal and in accordance with the legislation; (3) that the authorities should exercise supervision at the port of embarkation so as to determine the identity of the workers and make certain that their free consent had been obtained ; (4) that the workers should undergo two medical inspections before leaving Tonking; (5) that the vessels on which they were transported should be inspected from the point of view of hygiene. These provisions, however, involved so many interventions b y the representatives of the authorities that they were liable to give the impression that the authorities wished to play an active part in recruiting operations and give direct help to undertakings in supplying them with the necessary labour. It is possible t h a t some indigenous recruiters fostered this mistaken view in order to facilitate their own task. This led the authorities to consider the adoption of regulations concerning labour recruiting agents. The Governor-General explained the reasons which led him to this decision in the following Circular sent out in May 1929 to the heads of the local Governments of Tonking and Annam: For these reasons I consider it desirable that you should ask the resident administrators and the provincial authorities to explain to the people, who look on them as their traditional advisers, that in so far as the engagement of workers is concerned the sole and true duty of the Government may be defined in the two words: supervision and protection. It is essential to make them understand that recruiting is by no means official and that the Government does nothing to encourage it. It is certainly desirable for the surplus population in the overpopulated districts of Tonking and Annam to find new openings. Nine-tenths of the large sums invested in the development of plantations are intended to meet labour costs. It is surely in the general interest that the inhabitants of districts in which the land is excessively subdivided and cannot p-ovide an adequate livelihood for everyone, even at the price of strenuous labour, should be able to hire out their services and earn a more comfortable existence in distant parts while at the same time promoting the economic development of the country. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 57 But the Government of Indo-China has always taken the view that inhabitants of Tonking and Annam who decided to accept such employment should do so freely and with a full knowledge of the conditions offered to them. The persistent rumours which have gained ground recently suggest that certain recruiting agents, perhaps unknown to their employers, have by their actions placed the simple and credulous inhabitants of rural areas in dubious situations for the solé purpose of earning a greater profit for themselves. I would therefore be grateful if you would give immediate consideration to the possibility of adopting regulations governing professional recruiting. These regulations should provide guarantees against the abuses which indigenous recruiting agents might otherwise be tempted to commit. As this is a question affecting the home life and the tranquillity of rural areas I would ask you to consult as many as possible of the chairmen of Chambers of Commerce and Agriculture, resident administrators and provincial mandarins and to inform me of the results of your enquiry and the proposals you may make as to the future regulations. (Signed) P. PASQUIER. The reform thus proposed was not carried through until 1930, when an Order was issued on 16 July regulating the profession of private emigration agent. This text, which will be discussed later in connection with the analysis of the existing regulations, enabled the authorities to know who were the employers and the emigration agents responsible for the engagement of workers and to eliminate those who did not appear satisfactory. It also laid down the principle t h a t these employees were responsible for, and must guarantee the conduct and methods of operation of, any assistants they employed. Development of Recruiting during Recent Years Recruiting continued to prove difficult from 1928 onwards. Between 1 July 1927 and 30 June 1928, 42 recruiting licences were issued for the transfer of 13,248 workers to Southern Indo-China, whereas during the second half of 1928 and the first half of 1929 the local authorities in Tonking issued only 17 licences for 5,540 workers. The authorities also reported t h a t even these applications had not been entirely satisfied, and when they came to study the reasons for recruiting difficulties in Tonking they proposed a solution which was suggested by a comparison of the conditions granted to workers in Southern Indo-China and those granted in the Pacific colonies. This shortage of labour affects Cochin-China and Cambodia more than the Pacific colonies, where the conditions of the contract are more 58 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA favourable for the workers and where an effort has been made to . guarantee them reasonable conditions of life. The planters of Southern Indo-China might follow the example set in the New Hebrides for attracting workers, for the measures taken there generally secure compliance with the obligations of the contract; in Southern Indo-China insufficient attention has been paid to the psychological aspect of the question. Regulations in themselves are not sufficient; some action must be taken by the head of the undertaking to show his care for his workers, and it may be presumed that if the workers were satisfied they would prove excellent channels for propaganda in favour of recruiting. This is found to be the case at present in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, where whole families or groups from the same village have voluntarily offered their services to the recruiting agent. The labour problem is not merely a demographic and financial problem but also a human one; it is from this point of view that changes must be made in the present system so as to attract voluntary workers, who will certainly offer their services if they can expect that life will be easier for them than it is in the over-populated provinces of the Tonking delta, especially if the harvests are not so exceptionally abundant as they have been in the last few years 1. About the middle of 1929 a new factor appeared which was destined to have immediate effects on recruiting: the world depression, which caused a drop in the quotations for colonial products, and especially for rubber, t h a t became more marked in 1930 and 1931, led the planters to suspend their development work and to cut down their overhead expenses by reducing the amount of labour to the minimum necessary for maintaining their plantations. Consequently the recruiting of contract labour declined, and eventually stopped altogether, as is shown by the following figures : In 1929, 7,428 workers (including women and children) were brought to Southern Indo-China, and the number repatriated in the same year was 6,907. In February 1930 a very appreciable increase occurred in the number of workers engaged, when the Order of 8 February 1930 concerning the general budget for Indo-China for that year contained a supplementary appropriation of 1 million piastres for special advances to rubber planters. The number of departures for Southern Indo-China in 1930 was 10,925, and the number of persons repatriated was 8,960. The continued collapse of the quotations for colonial products, however, increased the difficulties of many undertakings, and there was a further drop in the statistics for 1931, when the number of repatriations greatly exceeded the number of workers recruited: 10,646 as against 2,565. This repatriation on a large scale sometimes caused overcrowding, both at Saigon and at Haiphong, of the premises for housing workers returning to their countries of origin, and it was sometimes found necessary to allow an excessive number of workers to travel on the boats leaving Saigon in order to relieve this overcrowding. 1 Compte rendu sur le fonctionnement 1928-29, p . 30. de l'Inspection générale du travail, WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 59 The General Labour Inspectorate now took steps to lower labour costs, more especially by revising t h e conditions of engagement of workers. The minimum wage under new contracts was reduced from 40 t o 30 cents for men and from 30 to 25 or 23 cents for women, with a supplementary allowance of rice for children. The authorities consider t h a t this reduction in wages was responsible for t h e revival of emigration from 1932 onwards. There had been no recruiting in t h e period from 1 July 1931 to 30 June 1932, b u t 2,129 workers were recruited during t h e corresponding period of 1932-33. This movement became more marked in 1933-34, when there were 7,449 departures as against 3,569 workers repatriated. 1 REGULATIONS CONCERNING RECRUITING Recruiting is organised as follows under the regulations at present in force.2 Authorisation of recruiting. — All operations for the recruiting of contract labour must be authorised by the Governor-General in the case of workers proceeding outside Indo-China or by the Senior Resident of the district in which recruiting takes place if the workers are to be employed within the Union. The application for such permission must indicate, among other details, the name of the recruiting agent or agents, the place in which the workers are to be employed and the conditions offered to them. This application, initialled by the local labour inspector, who must 1 Cf. Tables 4, 5 and 6 in Appendix I : Statistics of agricultural workers disembarking at Saigon, workers on the plantations in Southern Indo-China, and workers repatriated, from 1922 to 1934. 2 It may be asked to what extent the application of these regulations (Orders of 25 October 1927 and supplementary texts) to workers proceeding to Southern Indo-China is strictly compulsory. Theoretically the contract system is optional in the sense that it applies only to workers who bind themselves to an employer by a contract. The question is whether they can be recruited otherwise than by contract. On this point there is no room for doubt, as is shown, for example, by the following statement made by GovernorGeneral Pasquier: " Development companies have a choice between two methods of obtaining the labour they require: recruiting under contract and the recruiting of non-contract workers. These firms may—and this method offers them the fullest guarantees for a regular supply of labour—engage workers in accordance with the regulations. The contract whereby the workers hire out their services for a period of three years requires that this guarantee of service should be offset by the granting of special conditions of accommodation and medical attendance; it makes provision not only for wages, but also for the supply of clothing, a ration of rice, and deferred pay. Workers are engaged under the medical and administrative supervision of the public authorities, who also supervise the fulfilment of the contract." (Speech to the Grand Council of the Economic and Financial Interests of Indo-China on 22 October 1929). In practice all the groups of workers recruited in the northern part of the country since 1927 for employment in Cochin-China and Cambodia have been recruited under the Regulations of 25 October 1927. It should be added that in the case of Indo-Chinese workers proceeding to French plantations in the Southern Pacific the contract system is strictly compulsory. 60 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA make certain that the information is correct, more especially as regards the existence of suitable accommodation for the workers on their arrival and the arrangements for ensuring adequate conditions of hygiene, is transmitted by the head of the Local Government of the country of employment to the head of the Local Government of the country in which the workers are to be recruited. It is the latter who decides whether the application can be accepted. If the reply is favourable, the applicant is notified through the head of the Local Government concerned, and the approved recruiting agent or agents and the general labour inspector are also notified. The permit specifies the provinces or parts of a province in which recruiting is to take place, and the operations are restricted to the specified areas. A recruiting licence is valid for six months at most. The special regulations for Annam and Tonking provide t h a t the Governor-General, on the suggestion of the Senior Resident in Annam or Tonking, may for general reasons or for health reasons suspend recruiting operations, in which case any licences already granted are suspended and the holders have no claim to compensation. 1 Recruiting agencies. — Recruiting is carried out in the areas specified by the head of the Local Government by private emigration agencies acting for the employers or by their agents. According to the Order of 16 July 1930 the manager of a private emigration agency must be recognised by the authorities before undertaking any operations. He is personally responsible for the conduct of, and the methods employed by, the auxiliary staff in his employment. His employees who go in search of workers seeking employment are subject to special supervision by the authorities. They may not proceed to engage workers until their names have been entered on a list submitted to the local labour inspection office or service, which prepares a record sheet for each agent containing full personal details, a photograph and any other necessary information; failure to comply with this rule renders the culprit liable to a fine of from 1 to 15 francs and to imprisonment of from 1 to 5 days without prejudice to any action t h a t may be brought against him for imposture or fraudulent activities. If any 1 Order of the Governor-General of 31 March 1928 concerning the conditions of recruiting, engagement and transport of workers who hire out their services in Annam by contract for employment in another country of the Union or outside Indo-China (section 5). Order of the Governor-General of 25 October 1927 "concerning emigration from Tonking (section 1). WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 61 employee is not considered suitable because of his previous record or because he has been guilty of extortion in connection with the engagement of workers, the employer is notified and is requested to dismiss him; the employee may not then enter the service of any other recruiting agency. All the private emigration agencies are informed of this fact. If an employee, who has thus been dismissed, fraudulently obtains employment with another emigration agency the latter is formally ordered to dismiss him, and if it fails to comply all its recruiting permits are withdrawn, even if they are in course of fulfilment. The provisions outlined above apply equally to any employer or his representative or to the agent of any group of employers engaging workers under contract. 1 Recruiting and assembling at the port of embarkation. — When the private emigration agency has received its recruiting licence it sends its agents to the provinces mentioned therein to engage workers. Before signing a contract the worker must prove his identity by producing an identity card, introduced.by order of the GovernorGeneral on 9 November 1918 for every person passing from one country of the Union to another. This document, which was originally intended for individual movements and not for the transport of groups of emigrant workers, could not be obtained without certain formalities, which made it unsuitable for the recruiting of large groups. Consequently the Governor-General, by an Order of 10 July 1928, facilitated the engagement of workers under contract by introducing a special card for contract workers which takes the place of their identity card during the period of their engagement. This card is issued by the authorities on the basis of the information freely supplied by the worker himself and not under pressure from indigenous authorities. It has the additional advantage of enabling the worker to offer his services in any area in which recruiting is taking place without being compelled, as formerly, to apply to the authorities of his native province and village. 2 1 The Order of 16 July 1930 defines the term " engaging " as follows: " The act of bringing a worker into the office of a private emigration agency or receiving him in such an office and either making him sign a provisional private contract or else subjecting him to the first formality leading to his engagement, which is the medical inspection." 2 " With regard to the special card for contract workers, the labour inspector in Tonking finds that the percentage of false declarations is insignificant, being not more than 2 or 3 per cent, at most. These false statements are usually quickly discovered and are notified after the departure of the workers, thanks to the successful method of circularising descriptions of the persons concerned 62 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA A worker who goes to the recruiting agency with his special card first undergoes a medical examination by a Government medical officer or a doctor recognised by the authorities in order to determine whether he is healthy, robust and fit for the work for which he is being engaged. If he is found fit he is immediately vaccinated against smallpox and against such other epidemic diseases as the medical authorities deem necessary. A note of his physical capacity and of the vaccinations is entered in the draft contract, which takes the form of a booklet and is drawn up in duplicate, one copy being for the employer and the other for the worker. At the same time two identity sheets are prepared, one for the records of the local labour service and the other for the immigration service of the country of destination. Two additional sheets with the same information are prepared for the local police and for the records of the province of origin of the worker. From that time the worker is fed and housed at the expense of the recruiting agent until such time as he can be sent to the concentration camp at the port of embarkation, which, in Annam, m a y b e Bên-Thuy, Tourane or Quinhon, and in Tonking, Haiphong, which is the most important and the best equipped from the point of view of workers' emigration. The workers are usually transported from the recruiting centre to their port of embarkation by rail or by launch. In the three ports of embarkation in Annam emigrants are under the supervision of the resident administrators acting in collaboration with the identity service. In Tonking, the Orders of 29 and 30 August 1928 were intended mainly to concentrate all the operations for the engagement of workers emigrating from t h a t port—that is to say, all those from Tonking and Northern Annam—in the hands of the Supervisory Office for Workers' Emigration in Haiphong. It may be well to give a few details as to the nature and work of this important body. The Supervisory Office for Workers' Emigration in Haiphong, which was established by section 2 of the Order of 29 August 1928, is not a local service, but an office attached to the labour inspectorate and working and to the close collaboration that exists between the provinces of origin, the local labour inspectors and, when necessary, the police. In order to improve this system, the local authorities in Tonking recently decided that when workers were engaged a supplementary identity sheet should be drawn up for each emigrant worker, containing his photograph and an anthropometric description. This sheet, a copy of which is immediately sent to the provincial authorities of the place of origin of the worker, enables them to discover any individuals who are sought by the police and who are endeavouring to leave the country by means of the special card for contract workers." (Compte rendu sur le fonctionnement de VInspection générale du travail, 1929-30, pp. 13 and 14.) WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 63 under the authority of the resident mayor. It is responsible for ensuring compliance with the regulations concerning workers' recruiting up to the time of their embarkation and the formalities until their return. While the workers are living outside the colony the Office is kept informed of any changes (death, change of plantation, desertion, etc.), and keeps the emigrants' individual files up to date. The head of the Office is present during the medical examination and when the contracts are being signed, and he prepares for the labour inspectorate a report on the recruiting operations and the embarkation of each contingent. When the workers are repatriated the head of the Office meets each contingent on its return to Haiphong; he pays out the deferred pay accumulated for each worker under his contract, draws up a report and sends to the heads of provinces a list of the repatriated workers so that they may be entered on the taxation rolls of their home villages. Each private emigration agency must have an " isolation camp " at the port of departure in which the workers can live in satisfactory hygienic conditions and can easily be supervised and where the necessary medical and administrative formalities can be carried out. Each camp must have a hospital with the necessary technical equipment and a supply of the usual drugs. The workers must spend not less than three full days, not including Sundays and public holidays, at the port of embarkation before the vessel leaves. This period is used for completing the final formalities of signing the contract, which are carried out in the presence of a member of the labour inspection service or, at Haiphong, before the head of the Emigration Office. Before the worker signs and thus finally accepts his contract he undergoes a second medical examination, which is carried out free of charge by a medical officer, and is intended to check the examination carried out in the province where the worker was recruited. After this final examination those who are recognised fit for service receive further vaccinations if the first ones did not take effect or if additional ones are thought necessary by the medical inspector. The results of the inspection are noted on both copies of the contract. The workers also receive an advance from the recruiter in the presence of the representative of the authorities; this sum is subsequently withheld from the workers' wages. Those who are found unfit are sent back to their village of origin at the expense of the recruiting agent. Inspection of vessels. — Embarkation. — Administrative supervision during the journey. — Every vessel intended for the transport of emigrants must be carefully inspected before it embarks by a supervisory committee set up in Haiphong by Order of the GovernorGeneral of 13 March 1925. This committee, which consists of the 64 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA resident mayor of Haiphong or his deputy, the chief medical officer, the medical officer of the vessel concerned, the chief of the Maritime Registration Service in Haiphong and an official of the shipping section of the Public Works Department, must see t h a t the statutory measures for the safety and health of the emigrants have been complied with. It orders any essential changes to be made to ensure comfortable quarters for the emigrants, more especially as regards the cubic air space per person, the bedding supplied, etc., and it also fixes the number of persons who may be taken on board. A report on this inspection must be sent to the heads of the Local Governments concerned and to the Governor-General. Emigrants may not embark until these formalities have been carried out. When they embark they receive from the private emigration agent a linen working suit, a raincoat of latania leaves, a blanket, 1 a conical hat, a mat, a rice-bowl and two chopsticks. The women are also supplied with a white linen bodice. No charge is made for these supplies. All the emigrants, as they embark, are questioned once again by the harbour police inspector to ascertain whether they have any complaints. During the whole voyage they are under the direct supervision of an official who travels on the vessel and who must satisfy himself that the quarters and the quantity and quality of the food are satisfactory. Arrival at destination. — Immigrants' camps. — Transport to the plantations. — Workers recruited in Tonking and Annam for employment in Southern Indo-China must necessarily disembark at the port of Saigon if they arrive by. sea. When the vessel arrives, a representative of the Immigration Service boards it to make certain of the exact number of immigrants. The workers are then sent to the immigrants' camp at Xom-Chiêu, where their identities are checked. Within 48 hours of their arrival they undergo a medical inspection by a medical officer, who verifies their physical condition, detects any contagious or other diseases and, if necessary, administers additional vaccinations. After this inspection, those suffering from contagious or other diseases are either isolated or sent to hospital, and if their condition so requires they are returned to their country of origin at the expense of the employer who has engaged them. The others are passed and are immediately handed over to their employer, 1 And a mosquito net (Section 6 of the Order of 21 September 1935). WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 65 who is responsible for their transport to the plantation, which is generally carried out by motor lorry. § 2. — Conditions of Contract Labour T H E CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT All the workers recruited in Tonking or Annam for employment in another country of the Union or in the French Oceanic Establishments are engaged under a written contract, the fundamental provisions of which must be in accordance with the standard contract drawn up by the authorities and guaranteeing a minimum of well-being to the emigrant. 1 The authorities of Indo-China take no direct part in recruiting operations or in the conclusion of the contract; in accordance with their usual policy as regards workers' emigration they merely supervise and protect. The contract must be drawn up in duplicate in French and in the national language of the workers concerned ; it is in the form of a booklet of a type prescribed by the authorities, with a number of sheets on which an account of the workers' deferred pay is kept. 2 The contract of employment must contain the following particulars: (1) the name in full or the name of the firm of the employer; (2) the name in full of the recruiter; (3) the date and place of conclusion of the contract; (4) the name, age, parentage and domicile of the contract worker ; (5) the place where the work is to be performed, the duration of the contract and the nature of the undertaking; (6) the daily hours of work, and whether task work is to be substituted for time work; 1 In the case of Chinese immigrants the agreements regulating the conditions of immigration are not communicated to the French authorities; these Asiatic workers enter the Colony as free immigrants. In the case of Javanese, section 2 of the Order of 2 March 1910 provides that " contracts of engagement will be signed in the country of origin of the workers in such form and under such conditions as may be prescribed by the legislation of the country concerned ". 2 A sample of the contract of employment for Indo-China is reproduced in Appendix II (Document 3). 5 66 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA the number of rest days, specifying those for which wages are to be paid; (s; the rate of wages and the method of calculating and paying wages ; (9 the right of the contract worker and his family to housing accommodation and free medical attendance; (io; the right to be supplied with all or part of their food and, in appropriate cases, with clothing; (il the amount of any advances made and the method of repayment ; (12 a clause respecting the repatriation of the contract worker and his family; 1 (13 a clause specifying, in appropriate cases, that the regulations respecting deferred pay will be applied ; (14 mention of the fact that the contract was read to the worker in his own language before he signed it; (15 a statement of the number of the identity paper of the worker, his signature, or a print of his right forefinger in place of signature; (16 where necessary, the names and numbers of the identity papers of the members of the worker's family engaged with him.2 (7 An official must be present when the contract is signed and must make certain that the worker has fully understood the conditions. He must also satisfy himself that the contract is in conformity with the regulations in force at the time and he then certifies it. Contracts are drawn up in duplicate, one copy being given to the employer and the other to the worker. 1 This clause was amended to the following by the Order of 21 September 1935: " (12) the right of the contract worker and the members of his family accompanying him to free transport from the place at which they were recruited to the undertaking on which they are to be employed and the right of the worker and his family to repatriation to the place of recruiting. The place of recruiting must be mentioned in the contract." 2 This enumeration is taken from the Order of 25 October 1927 concerning the protection of indigenous and alien Asiatic labour employed under contracts in agricultural, industrial and mining undertakings in French Indo-China. In the second Order of 25 October 1927 concerning emigration from Tonking the enumeration of the clauses is slightly different: no mention is made of the advances to the worker, but it is specified that the date at which the worker, if he is under the age of 18 years, will reach that age and the new wage to which he will be entitled as from that date must be indicated. The special regulations for Annam (Order of the Governor-General of 31 March 1928) contain an enumeration which mentions the amount of the advances and the clause concerning minors. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 67 The following categories of persons are permitted to emigrate under contract: (1) adult men, married or single, over the age of 18 years (French reckoning) ; (2) married women over the age of 18 years provided t h a t they are accompanying or rejoining their husbands who are already employed in the same undertaking; a note of the husband's contract must always be made on the wife's contract and vice versa; (3) adult women over the age of 18 years who are single, widows or divorced, provided t h a t women under the age of 21 years have the authorisation of their parents; (4) young persons of both sexes between 14 and 18 years of age who are accompanying or rejoining their parents, provided t h a t they work in the same undertaking as their parents. Married women of any age accompanying or rejoining their husbands, and children of either sex up to the age of 18 years accompanying their parents may emigrate without a contract, but the recruiting agent is responsible for the expenses of the double journey and for their food during the two voyages. The duration of the contract of workers employed in undertakings in Southern Indo-China is three years, with the possibility of renewal when it expires 1 . The period covered by the contract may be extended by an amount equal to any period during which the worker was absent or unemployed, without due reason, but this extension may not exceed two months for a contract of one year, four months for a contract of two years, or six months for a contract of three years. When a contract is due to expire it must be renewed not more than three months before the date of expiry in the presence of the authorities who are competent to deal with the engagement of workers. 2 The contract by which a worker is recruited must be for a speci1 The Order of 21 September 1935 (section 4) states that " the length of the2 period of renewal may be one, two or three years ". The Order of 21 September 1935 stipulates that this period of three months may be increased to six months with the permission of the labour inspector. The Order also states that if a worker who has been liberated from his employment wishes to enter the service of another employer the latter must take over all the obligations of the former employer towards the worker, including the obligation to repatriate him and his family (section 36). 68 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA fied undertaking. 1 The transfer of a contract is permitted only with the consent of the worker and the authorisation of the administrative authorities. In every undertaking employing contract labour a copy of the contract of engagement in French and in the language of the workers concerned must constantly be posted up in a prominent place or in the workers' encampment. The contract may be terminated: (1) by mutual consent of the parties; (2) on account of the duly established physical unfitness of the worker; (3) on the application of the employer one month after the disappearance of the worker, without prejudice to any judicial action which the employer may t a k e ; (4) at the express request of one of the parties if the other party is shown to be unable to carry out the stipulations of the contract; (5) by the worker after 18 months' service if he gives three months' notice and repays all advances and his recruiting and transport expenses; in this case he loses his right to free repatriation; (6) at the request of the employer in cases (duly certified by the labour inspector) of bad conduct, offences against discipline or actions likely to cause disturbance in the undertaking ; (7) at the request of the employer as a result of a contract worker being sentenced for an offence against ordinary law or against the labour regulations; (8) at the request of either party for any lawful reason; (9) on the death of the husband or head of the family the wife and children under age have the right to cancel their contracts without payment of compensation and to claim repatriation. 2 When the worker is under an order of expulsion or deportation in his country of origin or is prohibited from sojourning in the 1 " Or for a group of undertakings belonging to the same company or to a single proprietor" (Order of 21 September 1935, section 5). 2 The above enumeration was amended by Order of 21 September 1935 (section 33). In particular, clause 5 was changed so as to permit a worker who terminates his contract by giving three months' notice after 18 months' service to retain his right to repatriation. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 69 locality in which he was to be employed the contract of employment is automatically annulled. An employer may not knowingly engage a worker whose contract with another employer has not expired. CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT Hours of Work Work may be carried out on a daily basis or on a task basis. In the former case the hours of work are ten in the day, including the time required by the worker to go from his dwelling to his place of employment and return, which in practice would seem to reduce the actual hours of work to nine in the day. In outlying districts where health conditions are still far from satisfactory the managements of certain undertakings have reduced hours of work to eight in the day so as not to place an undue strain upon their workers. When work is organised on a task basis the amount assigned to any worker must not exceed what can resonably be performed in the maximum hours fixed for work on an hourly basis. If the worker claims t h a t he has been required to perform an unduly large task the dispute is submitted to the labour inspector for settlement. In addition to his daily work every worker must spend two hours a week without pay in cleaning the encampment. If the worker is required to work overtime for urgent and exceptional tasks he is paid at one-and-one-half times the normal rate. 1 Rest Periods A rest period of two hours must be given about the middle of the day when the sun is hottest. 2 If the workplace is far fr >m their camp and the workers are obliged to spend the rest period at the workplace shelters must be built to protect them against sun and rain. The workers are entitled to at least one day of rest a week; with the consent of the employer they may take two consecutive 1 The special regulations for Cambodia (Order of 6 November 1928) state that the workers may not bé wakened before 4.30 a.m. or return to their camp later than 5.30 p.m. 2 The Order of 21 September 1925 provides that the length of this break may be reduced to one hour by agreement between the employer and the workers, provided that the permission of the labour inspector has first been obtained and that the agreement is confirmed by the labour supervisor. 70 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA days of rest per fortnight. In addition they are granted four days for the feast of Têt and the second and fifth days of the fifth Annamite month (about June) and the fifteenth day of the seventh month (about August). No wages are paid and no food supplied for these rest days. The employers must guarantee their workers not less than 25 days of paid employment monthly. Wages Wages must be paid at least once a month and within ten days of the end of the period for which they are due. 1 If wages are not paid at the proper date during the period of engagement the labour inspector or the labour supervisor, acting under the provisions of the Decree of 24 January 1933, orders the employer to make payment within a specified period not exceeding one month. If the employer fails to do so, the labour inspector may, with the permission of the head of the Local Government, sue the employer directly before the competent court for the recovery of the sums due to the workers, without prejudice to the possibility of claiming damages and the termination of the contract if necessary. Workers employed under contract have the benefit, in respect of their wages, of the privilege granted to domestic servants by the fourth paragraph of section 2101 of the Civil Code. Debts contracted by workers in a shop or store situated on the premises of the employer may not be deducted from their wages. Workers who fail to work on working days for the following reasons are not entitled to wages: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Permission applied for by them; Illness, except in the case of an industrial accident; Refusal to work or unjustifiable absence; Abandonment of the undertaking; Imprisonment. Wage rates may not be changed during the engagement except with the formal consent of the worker, certified by a representative 1 This obligation was found necessary because the planters tended to pay their workers as rarely as possible and at the latest possible moment after the expiry of the period for which the wages were due ; when a plantation owed a sufficiently large sum to the worker the latter was less likely to leave the plantation and seek employment elsewhere. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 71 of the authorities ; workers who do not accept a reduction in wages must be repatriated. Up to September 1932 the scale of wages was as follows: Men Women 0.40 piastre a day 0.30 piastre a day (There was no provision for the wages of young persons between 14 and 18 years of age.) After September 1932 1 the new rates of wages were as follows: Men Women Young Persons 0.30 piastre a day 0.23 piastre a day 0.20 piastre a day In considering the exact rates of wages account must be taken of the cost of the daily ration of rice supplied free of charge by the employer to each worker. Cash advances may be granted to contract workers during their engagement, except during the three months preceding the expiry of their contract.2 These advances may in no case exceed the full wages for two months. The sum advanced is refunded by monthly deductions not exceeding a quarter of the worker's wages. Special Provisions concerning Women and Children The regulations contain certain special measures for the protection of women and children. These two categories of workers may not be employed on work beyond their strength. On the plantations of Southern Indo-China the nature of the work entrusted to women varies from one plantation to another, but generally 1 In a letter of 5 May 1935 the Governor of Cochin-China informed the Association of Rubber Planters in Indo-China that the Governor-General had approved a reduction in the daily wages of contract workers from 0.30 to 0.27 piastre for men, and from 0.23 to 0.20 piastre for women (Bulletin du Syndicat des planteurs de caoutchouc de l'Indochine, 8 May 1935). This reduction did not seem sufficient; in a letter of 7 February 1936 the Planters' Association of the " Red Lands ", supported by the Association of Rubber Planters in Indo-China, requested the Governor-General to permit them to recruit workers in Tonking at a wage of 0.25 piastre per working day for men (ibid., 26 February 1936). 2 The following advances may be made at any time, and if they are not repaid the appropriate sums may be deducted from the worker's wages when his contract expires: (a) Advances for the payment of the worker's taxes; (b) Advances of not more than 2 piastres per worker for the festival of Têt; (c) Any sum which the worker is sentenced by a court to pay to his employer (Order of 21 September 1935, section 14). 72 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA speaking they are employed only on work not requiring any great muscular effort. Their main tasks are connected with the household duties of the encampment (cleaning, cooking, the care of children, etc.). Women may not be engaged under the age of 18 years or children under the age of 14 years. Women are entitled to one month's rest with pay after their confinement. During the latter part of their pregnancy and the first two months while they are nursing their children they may not be employed except on light work. In large undertakings employing a considerable number of workers, including more than fifty women, the authorities may compel the employer to build and maintain a crèche in which children are fed and cared for while their mothers are working. The quantity of rice and milk to be supplied to the children may be fixed by the health service. The regulations provide that no worker may be separated from his wife and family against his will, and if he is separated from them without his consent the authorities may order the family to be immediately reunited. When a woman worker marries, her contract of employment is automatically terminated as from the date of her marriage, but the employer may be entitled to compensation. The special regulations for Tonking (Order of 25 October 1927 concerning the emigration of Tonkinese workers) provide that the compulsory proportion of women to be recruited in order to make up the full strength of a convoy must be decided in each case by the Senior Resident in Tonking after consultation with the chief administrative officers of the State concerned. LIVING CONDITIONS Food and Other Supplies The free daily ration provided under the contracts for agricultural workers on the plantations of Southern Indo-China consists of 700 grammes of dry rice per man, woman or young person between the ages of 14 and 18 years. In addition, women receive a supplementary ration of 400 grammes for each child between the ages of two and 13 years and 200 grammes for each child under the age of WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 73 two years. On certain plantations the men receive 800 grammes of rice instead of the statutory 700 grammes. 1 The rice distributed is generally what is known as " plantation " or " Java " rice, which is not entirely husked so as to keep the vitamins and protect the workers against beriberi. 2 In addition to the free-supply of rice, the undertakings generally try to provide their contract workers with as much fresh food as possible at cost price or even at a slightly lower price. 3 In outlying districts the employer must open a store for the sale of food and essential articles to his workers at prices which must not be higher t h a n those current in the capital of the neighbouring province. The purpose of this regulation was to put an end to the exploiting of coolies which took place in canteens, which were often managed 1 The composition of the minimum ration is defined in section 50 of the Order of 25 October 1927 as follows: Grammes Dry rice • 700 or dry rice 500 and-bread 200 Fresh or preserved meat or dried fish 200 or fresh fish 400 Green vegetables 300 or in default thereof dried vegetables . . . . 150 Salt 20 Tea 5 Fat 20 Nuoc-mam or tuong 15 . The rations must provide an adult man with at least 3,200 calories and contain a certain proportion of fresh food. The minimum quantity of rice was altered by an Order of 21 September 1935 to 750 grammes, or 550 grammes of dry rice and 200 grammes of bread. The same Order provided that children under the age of eighteen months who were not being nursed by their mothers should receive every second day a tin containing 400 grammes of sweetened, unskimmed, condensed milk. 2 The special regulations for Cambodia (Order of 6 November 1928) contain the following supplementary regulations. If the workplaces are at such a distance that the workers must eat their midday meal there, the cooking should be done by workers specially detailed for this duty. If they are moving from one workplace to another their food must be served ready prepared by the employer. When the employer is responsible for providing their food fresh meat must be given at not less than three meals weekly and fresh vegetables according to the season at not less than six meals weekly; fruit may be supplied in place of green vegetables three times a week; the fat should be fresh pork fat. 3 " Many undertakings situated in the ' Red Lands ' where the supply of food is difficult have been able to persuade their workers to accept a prepared meal at midday, for which they pay the cost price or a slightly lower price. The workers who are fed in this way are found to be appreciably healthier, but many attempts to introduce the system have been nullified by the desire of the workers to dispose freely of the whole of their wages " (Compte rendu sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection générale du travail, 1930-31, p. 43). The Order of 21 September 1935 provides that the employer may deduct from wages the value of any food supplied to the workers against payment (section 15). 74 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA by the wives of the indigenous foremen; in spite of the legislative provisions these persons tried to deduct from the workers' wages any sums due in respect of food supplied at twice or three times its real value. Some plantations are visited by itinerant merchants who have permission to enter the camps and supply food to the workers. On practically every plantation hot tea is distributed to the workers, so as to protect them against diseases caused by water from neighbouring streams. The employer must supply the workers with the necessary water for drinking, cooking and washing. The minimum amount of drinking water is five litres a day; where possible it should be spring water; water of doubtful quality must be sterilised by boiling or by treatment with hypochlorites. Clothing Contract workers are provided with only a few necessary clothes at the time of their embarkation ; during the whole period of their engagement they must supply their own clothes. When they are employed in clearing land or cutting down forests, however, they must be supplied free of charge with footwear and leggings to protect them against rodent ulcers, which are one of the most frequent causes of incapacity for work on new plantations or those extending their area. Accommodation The workers are entitled to free housing accommodation for themselves and their families. It must be prepared for them in advance and may not be constructed or put into use without a written permit issued by the district officer after consultation with the representative of the Health Department. The accommodation must be sound and suitable and must satisfy the general rules of hygiene ; the sleeping places must be raised not less than 50 centimetres above the ground. The occupants are responsible for keeping it clean. The regulations make a distinction between permanent dwellings (collective or individual dwellings of wood, brick or mud with a roof of straw, tiles, corrugated iron, etc.), and temporary dwellings (collective dwellings with walls of straw or woven bamboo and straw roofs). In Cochin-China and Cambodia provisional dwellings are permitted for a period of three years on new plantations when less than half the area has been developed, and on parts of old WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 75 plantations where development is still going on. Both the temporary and the permanent dwellings must provide a minimum of three square metres of covered surface per adult occupant; the surroundings must be entirely cleared for a radius of not less than 300 metres. Generally speaking, contract workers employed in Cochin-China and Cambodia are accommodated in individual huts or in wellequipped trai. Most of the buildings are of brick or wood roofed with tiles or corrugated iron. The huts are grouped together to form a camp or village. The regulations stipulate that the employer must provide separate groups of dwellings for workers of different nationalities. DEFERRED PAY On the same date as the basic Order of 25 October 1927 for the protection of the workers, the Governor-Gen eral issued an Order making provisions for the accumulation of deferred pay for every indigenous worker recruited under contract for service in an agricultural, industrial, mining or commercial undertaking in IndoChina. The amount of pay deferred is made up of 5 per cent, of the net wages due to the worker, with an equal contribution by the employer and any supplementary payments which the worker may wish to make. The sums deducted from the workers' wages are withheld every pay-day and paid monthly into his account. The receipts for these payments take the form of special stamps sold by the post offices and affixed to the workers' contract books. The aim of the Governor-General in instituting this system was to protect the workers against their own improvident habits and their tendency to squander their earnings on games of chance and borrow money at exorbitant rates of interest, so that in too many cases they returned home destitute on the expiry of their three years' contract. It was also thought desirable, in order to promote the extensive recruiting of labour for employment in Southern Indo-China, to enable workers when they returned home at the end of their contracts to show a certain amount of accumulated savings. As a rule, the deferred pay is refunded to the workers when they are repatriated, but half the amount may be paid out during their service either to enable them to meet the expenses connected with various rites and customs on the occasion of the death of a parent, wife or child, or for their legal marriage. 76 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA In order to avoid instituting a new service, it was thought preferable t o make the Postal, Telegraph and Telephone Service of Indo-China responsible for the sale of deferred pay stamps, the refund of deferred p a y and the keeping of t h e necessary accounts. An Order of 29 December 1927 laid down rules for these accounts which were to be provisionally adopted until a separate deferred pay fund was established. By J a n u a r y 1928, the post offices in the districts where workers were employed under contract had obtained their supplies of stamps and the new system came into operation. In the course of the first few months it was found t h a t the necessity for affixing stamps in the books involved complications and loss of time for the managements of undertakings. An Order was therefore issued on 10 July 1928 permitting undertakings to be exempted at their request from the obligation of affixing stamps monthly, provided t h a t t h e y paid the total amount of the deferred pay in respect of their contract workers to a post office every m o n t h ; in exchange, they received a single receipt or separate receipts, and when the workers' engagements expired these receipts could be exchanged for stamps, which were t h e n affixed to each worker's book to an amount equivalent to the deferred p a y standing to his name. A Decree of 1 May 1929 established a separate deferred pay fund, administered by a Board under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary of the Governor-General and managed by the Postmaster-General of Indo-China; the Board was responsible, among other things, for the investment of any available funds. 1 Sections 8 and 9 of the Order of 25 October 1927 were amended by Orders of 28 June 1930 and 9 June 1931 with regard to the means of transferring deferred pay to the legal heirs in t h e event of the death of the worker and permitting the worker to obtain an advance from his deferred pay account in order to pay his personal tax. According to the Decree of 6 November 1930, claims against t h e deferred pay fund lapse b y prescription after five years. D u r i n g t h e early period of its a p p l i c a t i o n , t h e deferred p a y s y s t e m a r o u s e d a c e r t a i n apprehension a m o n g t h e c o n t r a c t workers, w h o were n o t willing t o see 5 per cent, d e d u c t e d from t h e i r wages. T h e y b e g a n t o a p p r e c i a t e t h e n e w s y s t e m w h e n t h e y found t h a t t h e small c a p i t a l t h u s a c c u m u l a t e d w a s d u l y paid t o t h e m . It w a s only, after 1 J a n u a r y 1931 t h a t t h e full effects of the s y s t e m could be a p p r e c i a t e d b y all t h e r e p a t r i a t e d workers, who h a d b y t h a t t i m e been m a k i n g c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o t h e deferred p a y fund for three years. Special m e a s u r e s h a d t o be t a k e n t o enable deferred p a y t o be 1 The available funds may be used: (1) to purchase French stock or public securities issued or guaranteed by the Government; (2) to purchase stock or securities issued in Indo-China with the approval of the Government; (3) to grant loans on such securities; (4) to grant loans to agricultural credit funds, the public office for cheap dwellings, building credit societies, and housing societies ; (5) for loans guaranteed by first mortgage, with the special permission of the Governor-General. The Governor-General may issue Orders concerning the allocation or use to which the income from the investment of deferred pay may be put (Decree of 1 May 1929, section 6). WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 77 rapidly distributed when contingents of repatriated workers arrived home, for these contingents became very numerous about this time. The Emigration Office receives the total amount of the deferred pay for each contingent from the postal service and returns the receipts to the office in Haiphong after payment has been made. The fact t h a t each immigrant is handed an appreciable sum when he embarks has completely changed the conditions under which workers return to their native countries. The authorities no longer require to take action except to assist workers who, for exceptional reasons, have not been able to draw their deferred pay or have no deferred pay because they are being repatriated shortly after their arrival for health reasons. 1 The deferred pay system worked satisfactorily until about the beginning of 1932, when some companies were in financial difficulties and were often considerably in arrears with the payment of the sums due by them. The local labour inspectors were obliged to take action. It would seem that the employers even considered the abolition of the whole system, as is shown by the following extract from the Report of the Labour Inspectorate for 1932-33: During this period of economic depression and unemployment, the deferred pay system has continued to prove extremely valuable by facilitating the re-adaptation of large contingents of repatriated contract workers to their ordinary lives. It thus proves the best form of propaganda among the needy peoples of Northern Indo-China, who can appreciate the excellent results obtained. In view of its educational value, therefore, it would be a great mistake to consider its abolition. The relief that the abolition of the system would provide for the planters of Southern Indo-China is entirely offset by the disadvantages of every kind involved in the repatriation to their countries of origin of emigrant workers who would be entirely destitute when their contracts expired. During the year 1932-33, the total amount of deferred pay brought back to Tonking by workers repatriated from Southern Indo-China or the Pacific Islands amounted to more than 2,400,000 francs. The figure for 1933-34 was almost 2 millions. On 1 June 1934 the fund had a balance in hand of 257,563 piastres. 2 The legislation concerning deferred pay was supplemented by an Order of 31 January 1934 which redrafted two sections of the Order of 25 October 1927 so as to indicate in greater detail the methods of calculating the deductions from wages and the employer's contribution. 1 Compte rendu sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection générale du travail, 1930-31, p. 48. 2 Table 10 of Appendix I shows the amount of the savings brought back by repatriated contract workers from Southern Indo-China and the Pacific. 78 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA SUPERVISION OF THE WORKERS AND PUNISHMENT OF OFFENCES The supervision exercised by the administrative authorities for the purpose of protecting the workers is in the hands of the labour inspectors, the administrative officers and the labour supervisors, working under the direction of the head of the Local Government (Governors or Senior Residents). In practice, the actual work on the plantations is carried out by the labour supervisors, whose main duty is to see that the employers and the workers fulfil their contractual obligations. The regulations define the duties of the labour supervisors in the following terms: They shall supervise the introduction of contract workers, verify their position, explain to them clearly the terms of their contract, their rights and duties, cause them to be repatriated and generally take any necessary administrative action. They shall be bound to visit at least twice a year the establishments which employ workers engaged under a contract, inspect the camps or buildings for the use of workers, satisfy themselves of the quality of the food and the accuracy of the weights and measures used for the distribution of food when supplied by the employer, receive complaints from employers and contract workers and draw up reports if necessary. They shall check the wages lists, work-books and in general all documents relating to the accounting in respect of contract workers. They shall verify the number of contract workers and their identity. They shall have the right to be present on the occasion of the payment of contract workers and to require the employer to notify them at least three days in advance of the date of the payment of wages. In the event of a complaint made by employers or contract workers, the labour supervisors shall visit the premises in order to ascertain the facts of the case. They shall record the complaints made to them and the result of their enquiry. They shall draw up reports on any contraventions of the labour regulations and in particular of this Order, and shall transmit the reports as soon as possible to the district officer, whom they shall in addition be bound to notify of any difficulty which occurs. Labour supervisors shall also be responsible for the auditing and approval of the workers' deferred pay fund accounts. 1 It will be seen t h a t the labour supervisor is the keystone of the system for ensuring the enforcement of the regulations concerning contract workers. It is therefore important to know how these supervisors carry out their duties in practice, and this question will be discussed in greater detail in the chapter concerning labour inspection. 1 Sections 27 and 28 of the Order of 25 October 1927, issuing regulations for the protection of indigenous and alien Asiatic labour employed under contracts in agricultural, industrial and mining undertakings in French Indo-China. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 79 The regulations provide t h a t any worker may lodge a complaint directly with any of the officials responsible for supervision; in addition, if a contract worker informs his employer that he wishes to lodge a complaint, the latter must, within 48 hours or at least by the first mail, notify the representative of the administrative authority, who will take the necessary steps within the limits of his jurisdiction. The penalties that may be imposed on workers or employers in connection with the fulfilment of their contractual obligations were laid down in sections 61-67 of the Order of 11 November 1918, which were retained in, force and extended to the whole of IndoChina by section 95 of the Order of 25 October 1927 (cf. also the Decree of 18 February 1928). These penalties are as follows: A. Workers. — A fine of from 1 to 15 francs and imprisonment of from one to five days or either of these penalties singly may be imposed for the following offences: (1) an unfounded complaint, unless made in good faith by a worker, provided it does not fall under section 373 of the Penal Code; (2) absence from the undertaking for more than 24 hours without the permission of the employer, except for the purpose of lodging a complaint with the representative of the authorities or with a court ; (3) voluntary self-injury or mutilation rendering the worker unfit for employment; (4) refusal without valid reason to obey a reasonable order of the employer or his representative; wilful damage to the employer's property; (5) obtaining employment by means of false certificates; (6) breach of the peace on the undertaking, even in the case of justified complaints; r (7) absence from work without due cause. A fine of from 1 to 10 francs and imprisonment of from one to three days or either of these penalties singly may be imposed for the following offences : (1) refusal by the worker to produce his identity book when required to do so by the authorities; (2) refusal or failure to go to the plantation sick room or to hospital: leaving these establishments without due permission; (3) failure to work, without valid excuse; (4) selling or exchanging rations supplied by the employer. B. Employers. — The following offences render the culprit liable to the penalties mentioned: (1) an unfounded complaint, unless made in good faith, by the employer or one of his representatives or agents: 16 to 300 francs; (2) preventing a worker from lodging a complaint: 16 to 300 francs; 80 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA (3) refusal to comply with administrative provisions issued in conformity with the regulations: 25 to 500 francs; (4) failure to supply the workers with their proper rations: 16 to 500 francs; (5) issuing a fictitious contract of engagement or identity book as the result of a fraudulent agreement: 25 to 500 francs; (6) refusal to submit contracts of engagement or renewed contracts to the competent administrative authority for approval: 25 to 500 francs; (7) compelling a worker to work longer hours or perform a greater amount of work than that prescribed in the legislation: 25 to 500 francs; (8) making deductions from the workers' wages without valid reason: 25 to 500 francs; (9) keeping a worker on the plantation, without valid reason, after the expiry or termination of his engagement: 25 to 1,000 francs. (10) employing in the undertaking workers who have not paid their taxation card or who have no identity papers: 50 to 2,000 francs. Provision is also made for the following penalties: a fine of from 50 to 2,000 francs and imprisonment for not more than three to six months for any person who knowingly recruits workers already bound by a contract (enticing workers from their employment); a fine of from 16 to 250 francs and imprisonment for from six days to three months for desertion (i.e., absence of the worker for more than two days without valid reason). It will be seen that this legislation contains penal sanctions for infringements of the contract by the worker. The employers in Cochin-China, however, complained t h a t the means at their disposal for suing coolies guilty of desertion involved an unduly long and costly procedure. They maintained t h a t the cost of the proceedings for securing the punishment of deserters often exceeded the value of the injury they had suffered. They therefore urged that a more rapid procedure should be introduced, and they claimed that they were entitled to this advantage in return for the additional obligations imposed on them by the legislation of 25 October 1927. The authorities appeared to share this view, as is shown by the following extract from the Report of the Labour Inspectorate : The fact that it is impossible to appeal to the ordinary courts, which are usually too far away, and that the procedure to be followed is out of all proportion to the nature of the offences, means in practice that the managers of agricultural undertakings are deprived of the effective assistance to which they are entitled in securing faithful compliance with their contracts on the part of the workers. There can, indeed, be no doubt that the introduction of a simple and immediately operative system of jurisdiction would ensure a greater degree of order among the masses of immigrant workers on the plantations WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 81 of Southern Indo-China and would provide protection for them as well as for the employers, for the rapid intervention of the courts would prevent outbursts of disorder such as occur when the normal disciplinary measures are inadequate. 1 In order to overcome this difficulty, a special system of jurisdiction to deal with offences against contracts of employment was introduced by the Decree of 30 January 1929. According to this Decree the labour supervisors have power to impose ordinary police penalties (fines of from 1 to 15 frs. or imprisonment for from one to five days) in the case of breach of contract by the workers. The sentences they pass, whether at their headquarters or while travelling round their districts or on special visits in urgent cases, take the ordinary form of police court sentences: there is no appeal and they take effect immediately, subject to certain conditions of rapid confirmation by the judicial authorities. No costs are involved in this procedure. Workers sentenced to imprisonment are employed on public utility work and are kept in the local detention room or in the provincial prison, or at the headquarters of the labour supervisor, but they are always kept separate from prisoners sentenced under ordinary law. It will be noted that this system of justice is an innovation which has no parallel in any of the other French colonies for the settlement of labour disputes. In Madagascar, French West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, Togoland and the Cameroons, labour disputes are dealt with by arbitration boards, the powers of which are limited to civil matters. It is only when a worker fails to fulfil his pecuniary or other obligations arising out of the decision of the arbitration board that he may be imprisoned in these colonies, and the period of imprisonment is very limited (usually one month at most). No figures. are available to show to what extent the labour supervisors exercised the repressive powers granted to them by the Decree of 30 January 1929.2 The duties of the labour supervisors in connection with law suits brought by the workers in connection with their contracts still remain to be defined. Contract workers are. generally ignorant of the rules of law and of the judicial system and are in practice unable to defend their own interests in the courts and in particular 1 Compte rendu sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection générale du travail, 1927-28, p. 10.' 2 During 1933-34, in Cochin-China, the supervisor for the Honkuan district passed sentence in 208 cases, the supervisor for Bienhoa in 10 cases and the supervisor for Budop in 3 cases, for various infringements of section 61 of the Order of 11 November 1918 (absence without leave, refusal to work or breach of the peace). 6 82 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA £ to compel the employer to fulfil his obligations when he delays unduly the payment of wages or of the contributions to the deferred pay fund. Consequently a Decree was passed on 24 January 1933, permitting the officials of the Labour Inspection Service to act for contract workers when the latter bring legal proceedings. The supervisors are convened by the clerk of the court to every hearing at which the affairs of the worker concerned are under consideration. They are bound to appear unless prevented by circumstances beyond their control and they may submit any comments they consider desirable. The labour inspector may, after obtaining the permission of the head of the Local Government, bring an action directly before the competent courts for the recovery of wages due to the worker.1 The machinery just described for punishing offences was not considered adequate by the employers, more especially as a means of dealing with the fraudulent retention of advances. A Decree was therefore issued on 2 June 1932, and amended on 28 January 1933, to provide t h a t any Native, French subject, French protected person or person under French mandate, bound by a contract of employment freely concluded, who fraudulently retains advances of wages or an engagement bonus in cash, in effects, in food, in goods, in agricultural or industrial implements, or in livestock, in that he does not voluntarily carry out the work for which he contracted in order to obtain such advances or engagement bonus, shall be liable to imprisonment for not less than two months and not more than two years and a fine of 25 to 3,000 francs, or to either of these penalties singly. Any person who after travelling at the employer's expense to the place where the work is to be performed wilfully evades the obligations he has undertaken shall be liable to the same penalties. 2 1 The duties of the labour supervisors were defined in greater detail by the Order of 21 September 1935. They must be notified by the managers of undertakings of any incident likely to become at all serious; the information thus received must be transmitted by the quickest route to the head of the Local Government and the labour inspector. The supervisors must also be informed by the managers of any change in the position of the workers or their families, and this information must be passed on to the local immigration service. The labour supervisor also acts as an intermediary for transmitting the workers' contracts from the Immigration Service to the employer when they are engaged and from the employer to the worker when the contract comes to an end. He also transmits from the employer to the labour inspector any notification received of the transfer of a worker from one plantation to another. Finally, it is he who decides, at the request of the employer, whether the contract of a worker may be extended when the employer is entitled to claim a certain period of additional service. 2 This Decree, which applies to all French colonies or possessions, is merely a repetition of a Decree of 20 January 1910, which supplements section 408 of the Penal Code whereby desertion by a worker who had not fulfilled his obligations could be considered equivalent to fraud. WAGE-PAID 83 EMPLOYMENT Since this Decree was introduced, the contracts of workers recruited for employment in Southern Indo-China have been supplemented by a clause mentioning the penalties to which a worker is liable if he is guilty of fraudulently retaining advances made by his employer. The annual report of the Labour Inspectorate in Tonkin g for 1933-34 contained the following statement as to the change in the procedure for dealing with breach of contract, as a result of the application of the Decree of 2 June 1932 : Hitherto deserters who returned to Tonking were practically safe from pursuit. In future any worker reported as a deserter in the Bulletin de Police Criminelle will, when discovered, be summarily arrested for breach of trust. Notice of his arrest will be given by telegraph to the court of the place where the offence was committed, which will then hand over the case to the court of the place of arrest and transmit the file by the most rapid means. As a result of the application of this Decree in Cochin-China, the local magistrates of Bienhoa and Baria passed sentences Vif from 15 days to 6 months' imprisonment in 34 cases and 25 cases respectively during 1933-34. 1 T H E MORALE OF THE W O R K E R S . — DESERTION The morale of the workers, especially in large undertakings, depends to a great extent on the efforts made by the managing staff to become acquainted with the workers, to look after their needs and to protect them against the tyranny of the indigenous supervisors and foremen, while at the same time treating them firmly and justly. This is the task of the European staff of the undertakings, and a knowledge of the native language and conditions of life is of fundamental importance and might have prevented many incidents the causes of which have remained obscure and many abuses that have been committed unknown to the management. On medium-sized concessions, where the planter is usually a local man with experience and is in direct touch with his workers and resides among them, such cases cannot occur. 2 The most faithful indication of the state of mind of the plantation workers is the proportion of desertions. 3 In Cochin-China, from 1 Rapport sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection du travail en Cochinchine pendant la période du 1er juillet 1933 au 30 juin 1934. 2 Compte rendu sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection générale du travail, 1927-28, p. 35. 3 Tables 1 and 8 of Appendix I give statistics of the number of cases of breach of contract and the number of deserters recaptured from 1923 to 1934. 84 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA 1 January to 30 June 1928, there were 1,741 deserters out of a total of about 30,000 workers; 635 were recaptured. The report of the Labour Inspectorate showed that " the undertakings from which desertions are abnormally numerous are generally those with an excessively high mortality rate; while admitting t h a t certain agents entice the workers away, there can be no doubt t h a t their work is greatly facilitated by the bad hygienic conditions on some plantations and the resulting demoralisation of the workers "- 1 Between 1 June 1928 and 1 June 1929, the number of deserters in Cochin-China was 3,723, of whom 1,457 were recaptured or voluntarily returned. The number of cases of breach of contract reported to the labour supervisors among all the workers in Cochin-China, Cambodia and Southern Annam has risen to a striking extent: 730 in 1923, 847 in 1924, 1,081 in 1925, 1,653 in 1926, 3,824 in 1927 and 4,484 in 1928. The official explanation of this phenomenon is that " the majority of these deserters was enticed away by special agents and engaged as non-contract workers on plantations which officially do not employ contract labour ". 2 During 1929, the number of cases of breach of contract by desertion in Cochin-China, Cambodia and Southern Annam, although slightly lower than the preceding year was still considerable, being 4,301 out of a total of 36,350 workers on 1 January 1930, or 11.2 per cent. 3 In 1930, the figure fell to 2,793 out of a total of 33,671 workers, or 8.3 per cent. 4 When recruiting revived in 1933, the number of desertions again increased, and the Labour Inspectorate of Cochin-China gave the following explanation: The reason generally given is the reputation of some plantations for being unhealthy (which is often only partially justified nowadays), or the tendency of older workers whose contracts have not expired or even of the indigenous supervisors to terrify new arrivals so as to impress them or to impose on them tasks which the beginners consider excessive. The attention of the planters concerned has been drawn to this point. It has also been stated, although the Labour Inspectorate has been unable to verify the information, that on some plantations there have sometimes been persons who made a business of enticing workers away and handing them over to the undertaking engaged in the construction of the Southern Annam railway. It is said that the indigenous foremen 1 Compte rendu sur 1927-28, p . 35. 2 Idem, 1928-29, p. 3 Idem, 1929-30, p . 4 Idem, 1930-31, p. le fonctionnement 40. 33. 45. de l'Inspection générale du travail, WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 85 who supply such labour, receive a bonus proportionate to the number of workers t h e y provide. At first sight it seems difficult to accept this explanation, for labour is abundant in the districts through which the future railway will pass and the contractors or subcontractors in Annam can obtain great facilities for recruiting. Nevertheless it would be well to check these allegations. All these reasons may have played a part, b u t there is probably another and more important cause for the numerous desertions t h a t occur among newly recruited workers, namely, their desire to avoid paying the sums which will be deducted from their wages during the first months of their employment in exchange for t h e advances made when they were recruited. These advances would t h u s seem to be an incentive t o desertion. This explanation, which has been advanced by various planters, would seem worthy of attention. Some employers have proposed t h a t advances (which were formerly 10 piastres per worker and were reduced to 8 piastres with the approval of the Senior Resident in Tonking) should be abolished and replaced by an engagement bonus of 5 piastres, which would remain the property of t h e worker without any subsequent deductions from his wages. The worker would no longer be tempted to run away if he had no debts t o repay to the plantation. This suggestion should be studied by the heads of t h e Local Governments of Tonking and Annam and, if it received their approval, might be submitted to the Association of Rubber Planters in Cochin-China. 1 MEDICAL PROTECTION A p a r t from t h e m e d i c a l inspections a n d v a c c i n a t i o n s w h i c h t h e w o r k e r s m u s t u n d e r g o when t h e y are r e c r u i t e d a n d r e p a t r i a t e d , t h e y r e m a i n u n d e r t h e p e r m a n e n t supervision of t h e chief medical officer of t h e d i s t r i c t d u r i n g t h e whole of t h e i r s t a y on t h e plant a t i o n s . H e is responsible for all m a t t e r s c o n c e r n i n g hygiene a n d t h e p r o t e c t i o n of t h e h e a l t h of t h e w o r k e r s , a n d he carries o u t his duties e i t h e r b y periodical visits t o a g r i c u l t u r a l u n d e r t a k i n g s in a c c o r d a n c e w i t h a plan d r a w n up in a g r e e m e n t w i t h t h e l a b o u r i n s p e c t o r or w i t h t h e assistance of t h e m e d i c a l services of t h e different p r o v i n c e s . If necessary, t h e h e a d s of t h e Local G o v e r n m e n t s m a y order a n y a g r i c u l t u r a l u n d e r t a k i n g t o c a r r y o u t a n y w o r k or t a k e a n y steps to i m p r o v e t h e general conditions of h y g i e n e a n d , if t h e u n d e r t a k i n g fails t o c o m p l y , t h e a u t h o r i t i e s m a y c a r r y o u t t h e w o r k a t t h e employer's expense.2 1 Rapport sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection du travail en Cochinchine pendant la période du i e r juillet 1933 au 30 juin 1934. 2 Section 25 of the Order of 21 September 1935 contains rules for the collaboration that must be established between the chief medicai officer of the district and the employers, through the labour inspector, for securing improvements on plantations where malaria is common ; it provides that the malaria service of the Pasteur Institute may be consulted. 86 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Every employer must send monthly to the representative of the local health service a return of the number of cases of illness, showing the disease in question, the number of deaths, and the cause of death. Every worker is entitled to free medical attention and drugs for himself and his family. Those who are excused from work are placed in a sick-room which must be kept supplied with the more usual European drugs. When the workers are seriously ill they must be sent to hospital 1 and the head of the Local Government fixes the payment to be made by employers to local funds to cover the cost of hospital treatment for their workers. The special regulations for Cochin-China contain the following additional provisions 2 : Every undertaking employing less than 50 workers shall have a first-aid post and a supply of the usual drugs. Every undertaking employing more than 50 workers shall have a sick-room and one or more hospital wards with not less than six beds for every 100 workers or fraction of that number. The nursing staff shall consist of one hospital attendant for every 300 workers. The staff shall be under the supervision of a doctor, who shall be a French citizen or French subject, or of an assistant doctor, who shall visit once a month every plantation employing between 300 and 500 workers, and once a fortnight every undertaking employing between 500 and 1,000 workers. A single doctor may be permitted to supervise the medical requirements of several plantations if the most distant encampments are within 40 km. of his place of residence. Every undertaking shall be responsible for the transport to hospital of workers who are seriously ill; those employing 100 workers or over shall have a motor vehicle specially fitted up for this purpose. The chief medical officer may at any time order a periodical distribution of quinine or vaccination or the free supply of hot tea or rice water to some or all of the workers on any plantation. The workers on plantations in the " red lands " shall take not less than 1.75 grammes of quinine a week as a precautionary measure. It is advisable to make use of mosquito nets on these plantations; the use of such nets shall be compulsory in sick-rooms for patients suffering from malaria. When the period of treatment in a Government hospital expires, the worker shall be examined by the doctor in attendance, who shall give a certificate stating whether the worker may resume work or is unfit for the work he previously performed and must be employed on lighter work, or whether he must be repatriated. 1 " Unless the undertaking has a hospital of its own approved by the health service " (section 29 of the Order of 21 September 1935). 2 Order of 26 June 1928 containing detailed rules for the application to Cochin-China of the Order of the Governor-General of 25 October 1927 concerning the protection of workers. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 87 The special regulations for Cambodia contain very similar provisions concerning medical protection. 1 They are supplemented, however, by a provision to the effect that when a single employer employs more than 6,000 workers on one or more plantations, a French doctor must reside on the plantation; there must be two French doctors if the. number of workers exceeds 12,000. From the health point of view a very clear distinction must be made between plantations in the " grey lands " and those in the " red lands ". On the former, conditions are normal, whereas on the latter malaria is rife. In 1927, according to information suppbed by the general medical service for Cochin-China, the proportion of workers unfit for work was 12 per cent, on the average, and the number of hospital cases was 265 per 1,000, the average mortality being 54 per 1,000, which is more than double t h a t of the population of Cochin-China in general (23 per 1,000). This figure becomes more striking when one remembers that the contingents of contract workers comprise only young men or women or persons in the prime of life, and t h a t the figures given represent an average for all plantations. The local medical service in Cochin-China attributed this state of affairs to the unhealthy conditions in the " red lands ", to the work of clearing the ground, and to the fact t h a t the general health of the new workers was not always satisfactory. It urged t h a t new workers should be put on a special diet to improve their strength and should be given as much fresh food as possible (fruit and vegetables). The authorities were fully aware that much had still to be done to improve the health organisation. A certain improvement was made in 1928. The investigations of the Pasteur Institute in Saigon had shown that the " red lands " contained a number of species of mosquitoes which carried the most dangerous forms of malaria. Malaria was responsible on the average for half the hospital cases, two-thirds of the repatriations, and three-fourths of the deaths. The authorities, therefore, drew attention to the necessity for using mosquito nets as well as providing a supply of quinine. The improvement was maintained and became more marked in 1929 and 1930, as will be seen from the following figures: Year 1929 1930 Number of nos- Average number pital cases employed Percentage 8,931 28,223 31.5 2,911 23,689 12.28 1 Order of the Senior Resident of 6 November 1928 containing detailed rules for the application to Cambodia of the Order of the Governor-General of 25 October 1927. 88 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA These figures refer only to agricultural undertakings in CochinChina, b u t health conditions in Cambodia also improved during the same period. These encouraging results may be attributed to two main factors: the fact that no new ground was being cleared and the development of prophylactic measures against malaria under the auspices of the Pasteur Institute. The fact t h a t practically no new land was being cleared removed the principal cause of fatigue among the workers and of their reduced resistance to disease ; it also meant a decline in the number of workers recruited and it had always been difficult to acclimatise these workers to forest areas. The measures for dealing with malaria, which are of fundamental importance for the future of colonisation in Indo-China, will be discussed in detail later. Apart from these two main reasons for the better health of the contract workers, the progress made may be attributed in part to the following measures which were adopted in many plantations in Cochin-China and Cambodia and are tending to be more and more generally used: (1) On many plantations provisional dwellings have been replaced by better-equipped permanent dwellings. (2) There has been less delay in sending sick workers to hospital. (3) Boots and leggings have been distributed and antiseptics supplied for washing when the workers return from their day's work; this suppressed practically all the rodent ulcers which often kept the workers idle for several months in hospital. (4) The workers have not so far to travel to their daily work. (5) A mid-day meal is cooked and supplied to the workers by many employers on new plantations in the " red lands ". (6) Regular supplies of fresh vegetables are provided by public or private motor lorries; market gardens have been developed by the undertakings, and individual or collective gardens have been provided from which the workers can obtain food containing the necessary vitamins for keeping their bodies in a healthy condition, able to resist disease. (7) The workers have been supplied with " plantation " or " Java " rice, which is only partially husked and thus contains vitamin B; this has led to the almost complete disappearance of beri-beri. (8) Drinking water has been distributed by means of pumps and water towers, which provide an unlimited supply. (9) Hot tea is supplied at the workplaces, whereas the workers formerly used water from neighbouring streams; diseases due to bad water have almost entirely disappeared. (10) Pregnant women and young children have been transferred from plantations in the " red lands " to those in the " grey lands ". (11) Open-air recreation grounds have been organised. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 89 (12) Roads have been built between the plantations and the main highways so that supplies can more easily be brought and patients can more rapidly be transferred to hospital. (13) Regular supplies of quinine are distributed in accordance with a plan drawn up by the health services. Remarkable results have been obtained in combating malaria, thanks to the assistance of the Pasteur Institute of Indo-China. Doctors and officials who have to deal with the workers on the plantations in Southern Indo-China have found that the great majority of the cases of incapacity for work, hospital treatment, death, repatriation, and infantile mortality among the agricultural workers, especially on the " red lands ", could be attributed to malaria. They were also unanimous in considering t h a t the demoralising influence exercised by this disease was one of the main reasons for the difficulties met with in recruiting workers, and for the large number of cases of desertion by contract workers from undertakings where malaria was most common. The mere use of quinine as a preventive, even in large doses, is not enough, although such a measure is costly. There is, however, a modern method of malaria prophylaxis by means of which this endemic disease has been practically entirely stamped out in countries with very different climates where the method was systematically applied on a large scale. These include Panama, the banks of the Suez Canal, the Roman Campagna, and in recent times Palestine and Corsica. The method in que'stion is intended not to cure the disease but to abolish its cause; it is based on recent advances in entomology, biology, and microbiology. The investigations made by the Government of Indo-China led to the drafting of a programme for the organisation of an anti-malaria service in all workplaces for public works in Indo-China. 1 This programme, which was approved by Governor-General Pasquier, led to an agreement being signed on 22 June 1930 as a supplement to the contract governing the relationships between the authorities and the Pasteur Institute. The Pasteur Institute agreed to supervise the new service to be set up for the special purpose of malaria prophylaxis and for dealing with diseases caused by water in all public works undertakings in Indo-China. 1 The following studies provide fuller information as to the measures taken to deal with malaria in Indo-China: Dr. Henry G. S. MORIN: La lutte contre le paludisme dans les collectivités ouvrières (General Labour Inspectorate for Indo-China, Hanoï, Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient, 1931 — Collection for the International Colonial Exhibition in Paris, 1931); Dr. L. BORDES: Le paludisme en Indochine (same collection); M. GIRARD: La main-d'œuvre en Indochine (Congress on Economic Equipment and Communications in Colonies, 20-25 July 1931). 90 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA In addition to the assistance given to public works undertakings, the Pasteur Institute gives very valuable help to industrial and agricultural undertakings which suffer from malaria and instructs them as to the measures to be taken to protect their staffs according to the district concerned and the types of mosquitoes found there. The Pasteur Institute in Saigon, which carries on active propaganda among employers, has already given instructions for drainage work on certain plantations in Cochin-China and Cambodia. A few very striking examples will show the effectiveness of modern methods of malaria prophylaxis. On the plantation of Au-viêng, before the plan for the prevention of malaria was adopted, the percentage of cases was 17.40 and the percentage of deaths 26.29 in 1927, when the undertaking began its work; by 1931 those percentages had fallen to 8.70 and 0 respectively. On the plantations of the Song-ray Agricultural Company, 12 months after the introduction of systematic measures for dealing with malaria, the percentage of cases of unfitness for work had fallen from 20 or 25 to 3. Dr. Morin has expressed the view that the measures taken to deal with malaria mean an increase of 40 per cent, on the average in the value of the labour employed in the undertaking concerned.1 Another equally interesting aspect of the health question is the very definite effort made in recent years by many plantations to organise sick-rooms or hospitals in accordance with the regulations. At Dau-Tiêng in the " grey lands " (the Michelin Company of Cochin-China), a huge hospital, which is a model of its kind, was established in 1929 under the supervision of a European doctor. The Kantroy-Mimot group in Cambodia also employs a European doctor for the medical service of its plantations. Permanent medical attendance in the sick-rooms is supplied by a Native staff, sometimes under the direction of an Indo-Chinese doctor; except in the few plantations with a resident European doctor, medical inspections are carried out periodically by the district medical officers in Cambodia and by private doctors in Cochin-China. The local and provincial authorities in Cochin-China and Cambodia voted considerable appropriations in their budgets for the development of the medical services in areas where colonisation is common. 1 Compte rendu sur le fonctionnement de VInspection générale du travail, 1930-31, pp. 39-40. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 91 The progress made in the improvement of health conditions, considerable as it has been, requires unceasing efforts if it is to be maintained. On the few plantations which, because of present difficulties, have neglected the essential prophylactic measures or have interrupted the drainage work they had begun, a rapid increase in the number of cases of malaria has been noted.1 On the plantations of Cochin-China, the number of cases of malaria treated was 43.02 per cent, of the average number of workers during the second half of 1933, and rose to 57.87 per cent. in the first half of 1934. 2 This increase shows how necessary it is for the managers of undertakings to pursue unremittingly their efforts to combat malaria. DEATHS When a worker or a member of his family dies the employer must notify the labour supervisor or, failing him, the chief district officer. At the same time he must hand over the engagement book of the deceased worker showing his financial position and the property he has left behind, so t h a t it may be transferred to his heirs. 3 The deferred pay accumulated by a married worker must be handed over to his legitimate wife in accordance with the provisions of the law of his country of origin. If he was living alone on the plantation the provincial commissioner of the province of origin must make investigations to discover his heirs. The employer must provide proper burial for any worker who dies in the service, in accordance with the local customs of his country of origin, and he must supply a coffin free of charge. If death occurs in a hospital or similar institution the burial expenses must be borne by the employer. When the husband or head of the family dies the wife and children who are under age may terminate their contracts without paying compensation and may claim repatriation. The mortality rate of plantation workers has moved as follows : 1 Compte rendu sur le fonctionnement de VInspection générale du travail, 1932-33. 2 Rapport sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection du travail en Cochinchine pour la période du 1er juillet 1933 au 30 juin 1934. 3 The Order of 21 September 1935 stipulates that when the furniture left by a worker cannot be handed over to his heirs on the spot it must be sent to them through the emigration service at the employer's expense. 92 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA 5.4 p e r cent, in 4 9 2 7 , 4.5 p e r cent, in 1928, 2.83 p e r cent, in 1929 a n d 2.32 per cent, in 1930. 1 These rates are very high when one remembers t h a t they apply t o persons in the prime of life who are presumed to be of good constitution and free from defects, since t h e y have passed three medical examinations before commencing work on the plantations. It must be added t h a t , although the statistics m a y be strictly exact, the improvement is less great t h a n might be imagined, because in 1929 there was far less recruiting t h a n in previous years and the extension of existing plantations was at a standstill. Cases of sickness and death occur mainly: (1) among new workers who have just reached t h e plantation and who often find it difficult to become acclimatised; (2) among workers engaged in clearing forests and other land in preparation for new plantations. When prosperity returns and the extension of plantations is resumed the mortality rate will rise. Fortunately the progress t h a t has been made will ensure t h a t the percentage will not be as high as in the past. 2 REPATRIATION T h e O r d e r of 25 O c t o b e r 1927 for t h e p r o t e c t i o n of w o r k e r s s t i p u l a t e s t h a t if provision is made in the contract for t h e r e p a t r i a t i o n of t h e w o r k e r t h e cost m u s t b e defrayed b y t h e e m p l o y e r in all t h e cases u n d e r w h i c h a c o n t r a c t m a y b e cancelled a c c o r d i n g t o t h e r e g u l a t i o n s , e x c e p t w h e n it is cancelled a t t h e r e q u e s t of t h e w o r k e r after 18 m o n t h s ' service, w i t h t h e r e p a y m e n t of all advances. F r o m t h i s it m i g h t b e concluded t h a t r e p a t r i a t i o n is n o t a n a b s o l u t e r i g h t g r a n t e d t o t h e w o r k e r in every case; n e v e r t h e l e s s , t h e s t a n d a r d c o n t r a c t p r o v i d e s in section 17 t h a t w h e n t h e c o n t r a c t expires or is t e r m i n a t e d b e c a u s e of t h e p h y s i c a l i n a b i l i t y of t h e w o r k e r t o c o n t i n u e his e m p l o y m e n t t h e l a t t e r a n d his family m u s t b e r e p a t r i a t e d t o t h e place of r e c r u i t i n g a t t h e e m p l o y e r ' s e x p e n s e . In p r a c t i c e it w o u l d seem t h a t all t h e w o r k e r s recruited in T o n k i n g or N o r t h e r n A n n a m for e m p l o y m e n t in I n d o - C h i n a were r e p a t r i a t e d a t t h e e m p l o y e r ' s e x p e n s e . 3 If t h e w o r k e r refuses t o a c c e p t r e p a t r i a t i o n w h e n he leaves t h e p l a n t a t i o n h e r e t a i n s t h e r i g h t for a period n o t exceeding t h r e e m o n t h s . T h e e m p l o y e r is responsible for t h e cost of r e p a t r i a t i o n for a period of six m o n t h s if t h e a u t h o r 1 Cf. Table 9 in Appendix I, which gives statistics of the deaths of agricultural workers reported to the labour supervision service by employers in Southern Indo-China. 2 3 Paul CHASSAING: Op. cit. The obligation for the employer to repatriate workers at his expense was made more definite and made compulsory in every case by section 33 of the Order of 21 September 1935. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 93 ities are obliged to order repatriation because the worker is in indigent circumstances or is being expelled by the police. When their contracts expire workers employed on the plantations of Southern Indo-China are sent to the emigrants' depot in XomChiêu (Saigon) where their identity cards and contract books are handed to them. The employer must certify in the contract book t h a t the engagement of the worker has expired under normal conditions and must indicate the date at which this occurred and the amount of deferred pay accumulated in the worker's account as reported by the labour supervisor. Workers whose health is unsatisfactory and renders them unfit for a sea voyage are sent to hospital at the employer's expense until they can travel by another boat. 1 Workers are repatriated along with their families as composed at the date of repatriation. 2 As on the outward journey, the workers are under the supervision of an official specially detailed for the purpose during the whole of their return voyage. When they arrive at the port of disembarkation in their country of origin they are subjected to a medical inspection by a Government medical officer. They are then questioned by the local labour inspector and any complaints they may have to make concerning the execution of their contracts are immediately noted. Their deferred pay is then handed over to them, and they are free to return to their native villages. In the historical survey of the development of recruiting, given above, it was pointed out that the campaign which began in November 1928 against the engagement of contract workers for Southern Indo-China was based largely on the unfortunate impression that was produced in Tonking by the return of numerous workers from Cochin-China and Cambodia in a state of destitution and of bad health. The measures taken early in 1929 to provide every possible guarantee for the repatriation of contract workers —inspection on board ship, hospital treatment until complete recovery, supervision of food and living conditions during the return voyage by officials travelling on the same boat and the provision 1 Section 31 of the Order of 21 September 1935 provides that the employer is responsible for these expenses for a period of three months only. 2 Section 2 of the Order of 21 September 1935 states that whenever steps are taken to repatriate a worker the cost of the repatriation of his family must be included. Section 30 states that the labour inspector may, if a formal request is made by the worker and confirmed by the labour supervisor, authorise a worker to continue his employment on a plantation even when one member of his family has been repatriated for health reasons. 94 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA of appropriations in the general budget to help workers on disembarkation and send them back to their native villages—very soon bore fruit. The percentage of workers admitted to hospital on disembarkation in Haïphong, which was 2.13 per cent, during the first half of 1929, fell to 0.04 per cent, during the second half.1 SETTLEMENT OF W O R K E R S IN THE AREAS OF EMPLOYMENT The labour employed on the plantations of Southern Indo-China has long been extremely unstable. As emigration only began comparatively recently the line of demarcation between the peasant and the agricultural worker is not yet fixed. The bond between the worker and his native soil is still very powerful, and the large numbers of workers repatriated when contracts expire—together with the numbers of deserters, which were sometimes even higher than those of workers repatriated—involved almost constant renewals of the whole labour force of plantations. The disadvantages of this instability are sufficiently obvious: the workers have not time to become really adapted to the new conditions of climate, work and existence, so t h a t the number of those who become unfit is bound to remain high; they have no time to specialise in any branch of the work or even to become personally known to their employers; production is insecure because it is subject to the fluctuations of successive recruiting and repatriation operations; the penal sanctions which were thought necessary in order to keep the workers on the plantations, whether they wished to remain or not, involve a considerable restriction on the worker's liberty. Most of these difficulties would be removed if the contract workers on plantations could gradually be replaced by non-contract workers. The only emigrants would then be Tonkinese who wished to settle on the plantations of Southern Indo-China; the mixture of populations would be avoided; the undertakings could count on a stable supply of labour and the workers would be completely free in their employment. It may therefore be said t h a t the most important problem in connection with contract labour is that of its disappearance. Opinions differ very widely as to the possibility of the plantations of Southern Indo-China employing non-contract workers only. In this connection a distinction must be made between Cambodia 1 Cf. Table 6 in Appendix I, which gives statistics of agricultural workers repatriated from Southern Indo-China from 1922 to 1934. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 95 —where the people would appear to have a certain inborn lack of ability which makes it necessary to engage workers from abroad under long-term contracts 1—and Cochin-China, which is populated by Annamites who might easily be attracted to work on the plantations. In Annam the agricultural holdings on the upper plateaux (Haut-Donai, Kontum, Darlac) already employ under short-term contracts workers who have voluntarily come from the more populous coastal areas; these workers constitute their only supply of labour.- On the plantations in Cochin-China, however, the great majority of the workers has up to the present been Annamites imported from Tonking, and the managements of the undertakings allege that the recruiting and labour costs are so high that they cannot be paid off unless the workers have contracts for three years or more. 2 Even if it can be taken as proved that the plantations in Southern Indo-China cannot find the necessary workers on the spot as non-contract workers, there would still be two possible ways in which these plantations could gradually build up a supply of such labour: (1) by the settlement of the workers at present employed in these undertakings; (2) by organising a steady emigration of non-contract labour from the north to the south. Until quite recently the conditions of recruiting for contract labour (no separate dwellings, distribution of rations, work a t fixed hours, the regimentation of the workers by indigenous overseers, etc.) made such recruiting appear to the population a form of military conscription. The workers had to give up the conditions of life they had known in their country of origin and they missed two factors which are of fundamental importance for 1 " The plantation of Chup, which several times endeavoured to use as much local labour as possible, purely for reasons of economy, was obliged eventually to dismiss all its Cambodian workers because they could not satisfactorily perform the very delicate task of tapping the rubber plants. The management of the plantation made great efforts to train the Cambodians as specialists in this work, but it is a task that requires great skill, great care, tidiness and regularity—qualities which none of the Cambodian workers possess " (Rapport annuel de l'Inspection du travail au Cambodge, 1933-34). 2 One exception is reported. It concerns a very interesting experiment made by the Development Company of Phu-Quôc. This company recruited indigent Catholic families in Tonking and transported them as non-contract workers to its plantations. They transplanted 450 families of 600 adults and 826 children who were granted the ownership of patches of land varying from 200 to 1,000 square metres; these families formed a constant source of labour supply which was renewed as the younger members grew up. Unfortunately the resources of the firm were suddenly exhausted and it was unable to provide paid employment for these workers; the local authorities were therefore obliged, with the approval of the Governor-General, to take over the care of these emigrants. 96 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA the Annamite: the family and the village. It may therefore be suggested t h a t by restoring those two factors the workers might be induced to settle permanently at the places of employment. It is true that efforts have been made by means of the regulations to create these conditions to some extent. It is provided, for example, that when the number of workers of the same race employed on an agricultural undertaking of more than 1,000 hectares exceeds 500 the undertaking may at the request of the owner or manager be considered as an independent village. These villages would be administered like other communities by a council of notables and all workers of 18 years of age or over employed on the plantation would be considered members of the village. Every village would receive from the owner of the undertaking the usufruct of an area of not less than one hectare for every 10 workers. 1 The results obtained by some of the efforts to set up agricultural communities of this kind have been extremely encouraging (e.g. the village settlement in the Province of Rach-gia). Several plantations have made laudable efforts to provide an environment for their workers comparable to t h a t to which they were accustomed at home: they tried to recruit whole families and provide their workers with individual houses and gardens, as well as with pagodas, theatres, etc., in the vicinity of the workers' houses. The managers of many plantations have made great efforts to induce their contract workers to settle. They have built rows of houses of the Annamite type in well-chosen sites. Each family has a small house surrounded by a garden. The land is cleared by the undertaking, which also supplies the workers with seeds and young fruit plants. Every worker has one free afternoon a week with pay during which he can work in his garden and decorate his house according to his tastes. This experiment has proved entirely successful and the number of individual houses is increasing steadily. This method is one which can be recommended, for it produces an undoubted improvement in the health and morale of the worker, who finds himself once more in his ancestral environment.2 Similar steps have been taken by the large undertakings in Cambodia to provide individual houses for their workers and transform their encampments into villages. In spite of the material progress t h a t has thus been made it cannot be said that the morale of the contract workers is yet 1 Order of the Governor of Cochin-China of 26 June 1928 concerning the application of the Order of 25 October 1927 (sections 29-33). The special regulations for Cambodia contain similar provisions: Order of the Senior Resident of Cambodia of 6 November 1928 (sections 34-38.) 2 Rapport sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection du travail en pendant la période du 1er juillet 1933 au 30 juin 1934, p . 21. Cochinchine WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 97 such that a general settlement movement among these workers can be expected in the near future. Such a transformation will not really be possible until the engagement of workers is a spontaneous act from the very outset, that is to say when the workers are recruited. When that stage has been reached whole families would be able to settle in conditions of complete liberty. There are other factors to be considered and particularly the moral factor: when a worker, instead of dealing only with an indigenous foreman, feels that the white staff of the undertaking shows a spirit of understanding and care for his well-being the number of desertions and repatriations will undoubtedly decrease.1 In other respects it would seem that the planters of Indo-China might well follow the example of certain industrial undertakings in the Belgian Congo, and in particular the " Union Minière du Haut-Katanga ", which had to solve exactly the same problem of recruiting workers for employment in a district where there was no labour supply and inducing them to settle there. The efforts made were remarkable and the results prove that the methods adopted were sound, for at the present time the Native population of Upper Katanga may be said to be almost entirely stable.2 The second possible method of substituting non-contract labour for contract labour on the plantations would be to create a spontaneous current of emigration from Tonkingto Southern Indo-China, which would ensure a sufficient supply of labour for the plantations in the south. This is the solution which the authorities hope one day to achieve, and they consider that the completion of the Trans-Indo-Chinese Railway will be an important factor by facilitating the rapid and cheap movement of workers who wish to emigrate from the over-populated districts in the north to the south. " There is every reason to hope that by that time the progress made by employers as regards the utilisation of labour and the material and moral welfare of the workers and their protection against endemic diseases and also by the administrative and health authorities as regards collaboration in the work of settlement will be such that the current of emigration towards the south will develop 1 Document 4 of Appendix II contains useful comments by a plantation manager on the desirability of the European staff of undertakings having a knowledge of the Native language and customs and the necessity for increasing output by substituting task work for time work and by rationalising equipment. 2 In making this comparison, however, it should be borne in mind that industrial undertakings, because of their output, have much more extensive means of action at their disposal than agricultural undertakings. 7 98 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA naturally because of the incentive offered by the prospects of better conditions." 1 This raises the whole general problem of internal land settlement in Indo-China, which will be dealt with in Chapter III of Part III of this study. § 3. — Workers Proceeding to the South Pacific The supply of labour provided by French Indo-China to the French Establishments in the South Pacific since 1923 has proved very valuable. It has been said without exaggeration that the rapid arrival of contingents from Tonking in these districts saved the French undertakings from a very serious labour shortage and that these workers have become an essential factor in the development of these colonies. The figures show that the movement of imports and exports in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, which in 1922 was 50 per cent, lower than in 1913, has risen steadily since 1923, when the first contingents of Indo-Chinese workers arrived. It was decided at the outset that labour would be supplied only to New Caledonia and the New Hebrides.2 The quota originally allotted to New Caledonia and the New Hebrides was 2,500 coolies a year, with the possibility of increasing it to 3,500 at most. Between 1923 and 1925 almost 4,000 Annamites were brought to the Pacific colonies.3 The sudden development of this emigration movement took the authorities and the employers in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides by surprise: neither the public services nor the individual employers had prepared any special organisation for dealing with the Indo-Chinese workers, whose nature and requirements were unknown in Oceania. In particular, the health and labour inspection services in the New Hebrides were notoriously inadequate. In 1925, therefore, the Governor-General of Indo-China sent Mr. Delamarre, Inspector of Political and Administrative Affairs in Tonking, to the French 1 2 E. DELAMARRE, op. cit., p. 14. The experiment of sending a small contingent (about 743) of Tonkinese workers to Tahiti in 1925 and 1926 was not continued because of the difficulty of ensuring the necessary supervision by sending Indo-Chinese officials on periodical visits of inspection to that distant colony. 3 Table 11 of Appendix I gives statistics of Indo-Chinese workers proceeding to the French Establishments in the Pacific and of repatriation to Indo-China from 1920 to 1934. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 99 Establishments in the Pacific to consider possible improvements with regard to emigration. As a result of that mission a new standard form of contract was drawn up and an extensive programme for reorganising the medical service and the administrative arrangements in the New Hebrides was prepared and put into operation by means of heavy taxes levied on the French settlements. The Governor-General of IndoChina supported this work by placing two assistant doctors from Tonking at the disposal of the French Resident in the New Hebrides. The total number of doctors rose from 2 in 1925 to 8 in 1928. In New Caledonia also, determined efforts were made to strengthen the labour inspection service, and the Colonial Council of that colony voted an appropriation of 400,000 francs to set up a special ward for contract workers in connection with the colonial hospital in Nouméa. Arrangements for deferred pay were made in 1926. Finally, by two Orders of 26 October 1927, the Governor of New Caledonia introduced a system for facilitating the free settlement of workers in the colony when their contracts were terminated; the regulations provided for their settlement in special rural centres in which Government land was placed at their disposal free of charge. From 1923 to 1928 the number of departures of Annamites for the Pacific and the number of repatriations to Indo-China were as follows : Years 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 Departures Repatriations 1,129 2,166 1,628 2,648 1,432 3,048 — — 492 200 220 373 In 1928 the new contract of employment seemed to have proved successful and to guarantee the workers better living conditions, but the regulations had still to be co-ordinated and brought up to date before the Annamite workers could adapt themselves to conditions of life in the South Pacific and be induced, whenever possible, to settle with guarantees of freedom and advantages that satisfied their particular needs and aspirations. For that purpose the Government of Indo-China sent Mr. Auger, labour inspector in Annam, on a mission to the Pacific Islands in 1928. In the meantime the industrial, commercial and agricultural undertakings in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides were very severely affected by the depression and had cut down their demands LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA for Indo-Chinese labour. The number of departures and repatriations from 1929 to 1932 was as follows: Years 1929 1930 1931 1932 Departures 1,839 655 — 2 Repatriations 438 2,886 3,454 2,748 During the three years 1930 to 1932, more than 9,000 workers were repatriated, while the number who left Indo-China was only 657. The undertakings in the South Pacific alleged that the cost of maintenance and transport of Indo-Chinese immigrants was more than they could pay when the quotations for colonial products had fallen. An investigation made in 1931-32, in consultation with the Government of New Caledonia, led to the amendment of certain clauses of the standard contract, and the new monthly wages for contract workers in the Pacific Islands were fixed at 100 francs for men (instead of 12 piastres) and 70 francs for women (instead of 9 piastres). These new conditions would seem to have encouraged the revival of Indo-Chinese emigration, as is shown by the following figures: Years 1933 1934 (up to 30 October) . . . . Departures 883 591 Repatriations 611 704 In 1934 the French Establishments in the Pacific submitted a new request for the recruiting of a contingent of 1,500 workers; these were provided by Tonking without any difficulty. In 19331934, the number of departures from Indo-China to the South Pacific was 934 as against 985 repatriated workers ; the corresponding figures for 1934^35 were 601 and 1,159. The Government of New Caladonia requested a further reduction of 2 piastres in the monthly wages of Indo-Chinese workers proceeding to the New Hebrides. This reduction, which amounted to about 20 per cent, of wages, seemed excessive. The GovernorGeneral therefore proposed to introduce a progressive scale of wages which would take account both of the heavy burden borne by the employers during the first year of the workers' engagement and of the legitimate interests of the workers. The local authorities in Tonking accepted the measure proposed by the GovernorGeneral and further suggested a number of amendments to the standard contract for workers recruited for the Pacific Islands so as to bring it into harmony with that used for Javanese workers. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 101 Generally speaking, the standard contract for Indo-Chinese workers proceeding to the South Pacific is the same as t h a t for workers proceeding to Southern Indo-China. 1 The main differences are as follows: (1) the contract is for five years for the Pacific as against three years for Southern Indo-China; (2) the time spent by the workers under observation at the port of embarkation before their departure is eight days as against five for workers proceeding to Southern Indo-China and a medical inspection is carried out free of charge at the time of embarkation. The emigration of workers to New Caledonia was regulated by an important Decree of 24 December 1935 2, the main provisions of which are given below: Applications for the introduction of immigrants must be submitted to the Governor of New Caledonia, who shall draw up in agreement with the authorities of the workers' countries the conditions of engagement and the provisions relating to the introduction of recruits. Every application for the introduction of labour, involves the obligation for the applicant to meet the costs of introduction and repatriation of the workers. Vessels transporting immigrants must meet certain conditions as to accommodation and hygiene; they shall be inspected on their departure from the colony by a committee which shall report to the Governor. A doctor approved by the Governor must be carried at the cost of the employer. The doctor shall combine with his medical functions those of Government Commissioner and police officer. On the arrival of the vessel the head of the immigration service shall go on board, verify the number and identity of the immigrants and receive their complaints, if any. Every immigrant shall be examined by a doctor appointed for the purpose by the Governor. After landing the immigrants shall be entered in a special register. Husbands and wives may not be separated, nor may parents and their children under 18. The contract of employment shall be concluded between the employer and the worker in the presence of the head of the immigration service or an immigration official. The duration of the first contract of engagement shall as a rule be five years; re-engagements may not be for more than two years. The employer must provide the worker and his family free of charge with board, lodging, clothing and medical attention in addition to the wages. The amount of loans to be made to recruited workers may not exceed one-third of the wage. A monthly deduction of one-fifth shall be made from the wages of the worker for the constitution of a deferred pay fund which shall be handed to the immigrant on his return to his country of origin. Hours of work shall be a maximum of nine in the day with a rest period of two hours about mid-day. The workers are entitled to the weekly rest. Women may only be employed on work suited to their 1 Copies of the individual work-book and of the contract of employment for workers emigrating to the Pacific colonies are given in Appendix II (Document 5). 2 Journal officiel de la République française. 4 January 1936. 102 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA sex and corresponding to their strength. Women workers are entitled to one month's rest after childbirth. The head of the immigration service is in charge of the general protection of immigrants under the supervision of the Governor; he acts on their behalf in all matters relating to contracts of employment. Recruited workers shall be visited both by a travelling inspector of labour and by immigration officials and delegates of the Administration. No immigrant who is the victim of an industrial accident may be repatriated until he has received fair compensation for the injury. Failure on the part of the worker to carry out the terms of the contract shall be punishable by measures of workshop discipline imposed by the head of the immigration service in virtue of powers delegated to him by the Government. Every immigrant whose contract reaches its termination must be repatriated at the latest within the six months following the expiry of his contract. An immigrant who has given proof of good behaviour and has completed a minimum contract of five years may, however, be permitted to reside freely in the colony if he so desires. While there can be no doubt t h a t the introduction of IndoChinese labour to the French Establishments in the South Pacific has helped considerably to promote French commercial activity in that colony, all observers are not unanimous as to the advantages gained by the emigrant workers themselves. These colonies are so distant t h a t the Indo-Chinese authorities cannot exercise the same supervision over them as they do in Cochin-China. The measures undertaken in 1928 and 1929 by representatives of the Governor-General of Indo-China revealed quite serious abuses: offences against the person, infringements of individual liberty, etc. 1 The authorities in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides have made laudable .efforts to improve the position of the emigrants and have constantly emphasised certain social and psychological advantages which the Annamite workers can obtain by emigrating to the South Pacific. The following statement by the General Commissioner Guyon may be quoted by way of example: Physically the Indo-Chinese emigrant immediately benefits not only from the healthy climate but also from the type of food, the additional facilities he enjoys with local wages, and the general social life of the community. On holidays he may be seen neatly and often elegantly dressed in European clothes, and no one would recognise the half-starved and sickly nhaqué whose appearance so often disturbs the complacency of French 1 According to some accounts, it would appear that a large number of Indo-Chinese workers has difficulty in obtaining repatriation when their contracts expire (Tribune Indochinoise, 18 September 1935). As a result of complaints by Indo-Chinese workers in New Caledonia it was decided to make an enquiry, and the Governor-General sent Mr. Motáis de Narbonne, first President of the Court of Appeal, to study conditions on the spot (Economiste Colonial, 8 October 1935). WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 103 visitors, who have not been hardened to the sight, when they first visit the over-populated, swampy delta of Tonking. The contingents which live in New Caledonia arrive as a group of heterogeneous elements recruited from the most varied districts, underfed and sickly, but they soon become healthy and vigorous. The diversity of requirements and the consequent variety of the tasks to be performed1 enable the workers to be employed according to their different aptitudes. 1 Report of the Governor of New Caledonia to the Governor-General of Indo-China on the conditions of Indo-Chinese workers in the French Establishments ofthe South Pacific, 1928, p. 11. CHAPTER II NON-CONTRACT LABOUR The outstanding features of the system of contract labour, which has just been discussed, are the existence of a contract binding the worker to the employer, a long period of engagement, and the fact that the parties are covered by a very complete set of legislative provisions with penalties for the non-observance of their reciprocal obligations. In the forms of non-contract labour which will now be considered, the contracting parties are bound only by the principles of ordinary law, t h a t is to say, by the clauses of the contract or the principles of civil law. For this class of labour, it is usual to conclude a verbal agreement of short duration (a few days or a few weeks) and breaches of the agreement entail no penal sanctions. Together with these engagements, which are regulated only by civil law, it is proposed—in view of the example given in the records of the Indo-Chinese Labour Inspectorate—to discuss certain forms of agreements which, strictly speaking, cannot be styled " free ", as the servants or workers who fail to observe their requirements or who terminate them prematurely are liable to certain penal or administrative sanctions. By these are meant the agreements introduced by the Order issued by the Governor-General on 26 August 1899. . The idea of classifying these agreements with engagements entailing no penal sanctions is justified by the fact t h a t the real difference between " non-contract " labour and " contract " labour is the length of engagement. It was, in fact, the element of the length of the contracts which necessitated the introduction of penal sanctions to keep the workers on the plantations over a period of years as well as the obligations imposed on the employers as a counterpart to the stability thus given to the staff in their employment. The system of labour discussed in the present chapter covers two distinct classes of workers: (1) agricultural workers'; (2) workers employed in industrial and commercial undertakings. . These two classes will now be studied in succession. The main problem connected with the first class is to ascertain to what extent the regulations for contract labour, as analysed in the WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 105 preceding chapter, are applicable to non-contract agricultural workers. In the case of industrial workers who form the second class, a few details will first be given as to their situation, with special reference to mining workers, who form the largest element; the legislative texts on which the protection of this class of worker is based will then be analysed and discussed. § 1. — Agricultural Workers Contract labour is a feature of the plantations situated in the " red lands " of Cochin-China and Cambodia. Plantations situated in the " grey lands ", being able to obtain all the labour they require, have no need to recruit contract labour. Similarly, the large concession-holders of South Ann am employ only non-contract labour from the plains, and the same is true of the planters of North Annam and Tonking. Moreover, the measures taken to settle labour on all the plantations, even on those of the " red lands ", have had the result of creating a fairly large group of former contract workers who remain on the scene of their employment as " non-contract workers " after the expiry of their contracts. Such are the various elements which go to form the mass of non-contract agricultural workers, who in 1930 numbered 44,000 (men and women) as against 37,000 contract workers. To what extent then are the regulations established for contract labour applicable to non-contract agricultural workers ? The Order of 25 October 1927 stipulates that only sections 62, 64-67, 69-70 and 72-74 were to apply " to workers not employed under a contract who live on the undertakings ". These sections embody the provisions relating to the notification of disease, housing accommodation and clothing for the workers, measures for the destruction of mosquitoes, quinine supplies and latrines. Thus, non-contract workers need not necessarily be given the benefit of the measures laid down in connection with the clearance of vegetation around workers' dwellings, the water supply, medical attendance and food, which really embody the most essential of the protective measures established on behalf of the coolies. Moreover, indigenous employers, who are not covered by the Order of 26 August 1899 (which applies only to labour contracts concluded between European employers and indigenous or alien Asiatic workers x) are 1 An Order issued by the Governor-General on 25 January 1930 for Tonking only extended the provisions of the Order of 26 August 1899 to indigenous or alien Asiatic employers and workers. 106 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA not bound by any regulations concerning the health and hygiene of their workers. Furthermore, the few provisions of the Order of 25 October 1927 which were to be applied to non-contract workers seem to have been given no practical application in spite of the small cost entailed for the undertakings. In practice, only undertakings employing contract labour are open to the supervision of the labour inspectors and supervisors.1 It might doubtless be thought that workers recruited or engaged without a written contract do not need such complete legal protection as contract workers for, if they are not satisfied with their conditions, they are free to go elsewhere. This however holds true only if the worker is really free to throw up his work, and this generally arises only when he is employed in the vicinity of his home. This is not the case for workers recruited in Tonking and Annam for plantation work in Cochin-China. Some special consideration of their case would seem to be called for on account of the fact that a number of undertakings appear to have decided during recent years to re-engage their workers under a so-called non-contract system merely with the intention of dodging the obligations imposed upon them by the regulations for contract labour.2 It cannot be denied that in this respect there is a serious defect in the present regulations. This fact has, however, not escaped the attention of the authorities, as in December 1930 a draft Order was prepared by the Governor-General of Cochin-China to regulate " the medical care and administrative protection of noncontract workers employed on public works and in industrial, agricultural and mining undertakings in the Colony ". This draft Order, which was couched in very general terms as to the classes of workers covered, would have been applicable only to CochinChina, and in view of the almost complete absence of mining and 1 It is stated for example in the Rapport sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection du travail en Cochinchine pendant la période du lei juillet 1933 au 30 juin 1934 that " the plantations of Phuochoa, Kerhuella and the Song-ray AgriculturalCompany do not employ any contract labour and therefore will not be inspected until further notice ". 2 It has been reported that certain plantations in Kontum, seizing the pretext of the economic depression, had ceased or reduced their payments towards the visits of the Medical Inspection Staff or had stopped issuing quinine because the coolies were recruited without a contract. As a result the standard of health on the plantations in question has fallen. For example, during the second half-year of 1932, statistics for the concession worked by the K concession, which employed 1,200 to 1,500 workers, recorded six deaths and 1,242 cases of illness, including 633 cases of malaria. Yet just at that time the management of the plantations had decided to reduce its subscription towards medical inspection. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 107 industrial undertakings in that State of the Union it would therefore have applied mainly to agricultural workers on the plantations who are not covered by the provisions of the Order of 25 October 1927. The draft embodied very detailed provisions concerning housing accommodation for non-contract workers (compulsory cubic air space, clearance between floor and ground, choice of site, etc.), the supply of food and drinking water and medical attendance in particular. Among other things it required undertakings employing over 260 workers and situated at more than two hours from the nearest medical centre to set up an infirmary with an indigenous dresser in charge, to distribute quinine to the workers, to vaccinate them against smallpox and to take certain provisions in connection with industrial accidents. This draft was submitted in September 1930 to the Rubber Planters' Syndicate of Indo-China, which proposed a certain number of amendments to the original text. 1 As far as is known no effect has ever been given to this draft Order. 2 On more t h a n one occasion the study of labour regulations in Indo-China has led to the conclusion that they ought to be completed so as to ensure protection for non-contract agricultural workers. 3 1 Cf. Bulletin du Syndicat des Planteurs de Caoutchouc de VIndochine, 142 January 1931. The Decree of 30 September 1936 which regulates the conditions of noncontract labour in a very complete manner does not apply to agricultural workers, except for a few special clauses. 8 For example, as a result of the report made by Mr. Thiroux, a member of the Reserve Medical Corps, to the General Purposes Committee of the Society of Commercial Geography and Economic Studies on 27 February 1932, the meeting adopted the following resolution which was ratified by the governing body of the Geographical Society: The General Purposes Committee of the Society of Commercial Geography, after paying a tribute to the high value of the organisation of conditions of work in Indo-China by long-term contracts, in accordance with the Order of 25 October 1927, expresses the wish: (a) that this Order and in particular sections 50, 52, 53, 54 and 55, which relate to the workers' diet, should be made applicable whenever possible to non-contract workers and workers employed under short periods in indigenous as well as European undertakings; (b) that the deferred pay system should be extended as far as possible to workers with short contracts and that in the establishments every encouragement should be given for the organisation of recreation such as Annamite theatres and cinemas likely to counteract the gaming tendencies of the people; (c) that the Academy of Medicine should take up the study of the question of the workers' diet and its influence on the development of the population of our Colonies and that it should encourage research into the component parts—salts and vitamins—of the stable articles of food, including certain commodities special to some of our Colonies. 108 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA § 2. — Industrial Workers Of the 221,052 wage-paid workers shown in 1929 by the statistics for Indo-China,1 86,624, or 39.2 per cent., were employed in commercial and industrial undertakings and 53,240, or 24 per cent., in mining establishments. In the present chapter no reference will be made to commercial establishments but only to industrial and mining workers. Some details will first be given concerning the situation of these workers and this will be followed by an analysis of the legal provisions applicable to them. SITUATION IN THE MINING INDUSTRY The mineral wealth of Indo-China had been worked for a long time back by the Chinese, and most of the mines now exploited were known before the French occupation. But really scientific mining operations date no further back than the beginning of this century. A Mines Department was set up in 1902, while the years between 1926 and 1929 witnessed a hectic fever of prospecting. Licences in force in Tonking increased from 1,056 in 1925 to 2,245 in 1928 and to 2,306 during the first six months of 1929. The influx of capital and technical workers entailed by this movement made it possible to explore the mineral possibilities of Indo-China on an unprecedented scale. During 1928 alone, 150 million francs of fresh capital were invested in the mining undertakings of the colony. From the Chinese frontier to the confines of Burma and the shores of the Gulf of Siam prospectors and engineers were engaged in boring and sinking shafts all over the country. A stop was put to these activities by the economic crisis, the following figures being a striking illustration of the depression which then overtook the mining industry: Personal Licences issued throughout Indo-China for All Minerals 1 2 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 294 99 49 49 40 42 23 See, in Appendix I, Table 12 for the composition of thè working population of Indo-China in 1929. 2 In Indo-China every concession is approved by an Order of the GovernorGeneral. Before receiving a concession the applicant must obtain a personal licence issued by the local authorities and a prospecting licence valid for three years and for an area of 9 square kilometres. WAGE-PAID 109 EMPLOYMENT Prospecting Licences in Force in Indo-China on 1 January of Each Year 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 8,185 17,685 16,818 13,099 1,973 1,317 957 906 Applications received for Concessions in Indo-China 1929 1930 1931 1932 430 273 34 15 1933 19 1934 5 1935 4 The deflation which has taken place during the course of recent years has not been a bad thing from all points of view. Too often, again in 1935 to 11,204,000 piastres. The deflation which has taken place during the course of recent years has not been a bad thing from all points of view. Too often, indeed, concessions were obtained for land of no known mineral value and without their holders having any qualification but an intense desire to make money from rights easy of acquisition. The mining output of Indo-China consists very largely of coal, tin and zinc. The colony has rich coalfields which have the advantage of being easily worked and situated in accessible districts. There is therefore no difficulty in transporting their output to centres of consumption in the colony itself, or to the coast for shipment to the importing countries. The chief coal mines are those of Dong Trieu in the Bay of Along; about 150 kms. long and 30 kms. broad, these coalfields possess coal of great heat value. The coal is found in several deposits, the workable depth of which is often 20 m. and in some places 80 m. It is worked in quarries or in mines according to possibilities. At the present time the greater part of the coal output is obtained from open workings. " The immense slopes of Campha eat into the side of a mountain and an army of workers constantly swarms up and down these gigantic steps." 2 The development of these mines has necessitated the installation of a considerable amount of plant, and has led to the construction of seaports and industrial centres. The port of Hongay is accessible to medium-sized ships (of 3,000-4,000 tons) which are loaded at the quayside by modern machinery and methods. The port of Campha was built as an outlet for the coal produced in the eastern part of that district. Equipped with the most modern loading machinery, it is open even to the largest vessels. 1 See, in Appendix I, Table 13 for the annual mining output from 1929 to 1935 under the various headings. 2 P. GOUROU: Le Tonkin. HO LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA The local market in Indo-China absorbs only about a quarter of the coal output (26 per cent, in 1934). Most of the rest is marketed in China (274,000 tons exported in 1934) and in Japan (547,000 tons exported in 1934). In 1935, Tonkinese anthracite was sold to France, Italy and Canada, while it is even hoped to conclude contracts with the United States of America.1 In Indo-China, tin is worked in Tonking in the Pia-Ouac mountains and in Laos in the Nam-Patène district. From 1930 to 1935 the annual output increased from 1,904 to 2,359 metric tons (of ore). Zinc is obtained in Tonking from the Cho Dien mines. The slump in the price of ore has led to a considerable decline in the zinc mining industry. The annual output of Indo-China fell from 38,000 tons (of ore) in 1930 to 11,600 tons in 1935. The collapse in prices which followed the dissolution of the international cartel (on 31 December 1934) obliged the Government to take steps to assist zinc miners and founders (financial assistance to miners, introduction of quotas, increase in protective tariffs) and it is hoped that these measures will save the Indo-Chinese undertakings which are in a precarious situation. The production of other ores (lead, antimony, chrome, gold) is insignificant or even at a standstill nowadays. The Bong-Miu mine, however, produced 497 kgs. of ingots, including 258 kgs. of fine gold and 112 kgs. of silver. As to the distribution of the mineral deposits, it is enough to say that practically the whole mining output of Indo-China (93 per cent.) comes from Tonking. Laos produces tin only, Cambodia exclusively precious stones, while coal, phosphates and ochres are found in Annam. No mines of any sort are found in Cochin-China. As to the mine workers, their numbers rose until 1929 (from 12,000 in 1920 to 53,000 in 1929) but afterwards a fall was recorded (45,700 in 1930, 33,000 in 1932 and 34,800 in 1934 2). With the exception of some 1,500 workers employed in the tin mines of Laos, in the Bong-Miu gold mines or in prospecting work in Laos and Annam, all the mine workers are employed in Tonking. It is not without interest to give some details concerning the recruiting of these workers, their stability, and the safety measures taken in the mines.3 1 2 3 In 1935 the coal output rose to 1,774,000 metric tons. This figure rose to 39,000 in 1935. Most of these details are taken either from a report by Mr. Blondel, Secretary to the Committee for the Study of the Mining Industry in French Oversea Possessions, which was submitted to the Congress on Colonial Eco- WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 111 The Recruiting of Labour It may first of all be noted that the Delta of Tonking with its teeming population possesses a large reservoir of labour and it is from this State of the Union that undertakings in other parts of Indo-China obtain the workers they require. From this standpoint the coal mines are in a somewhat privileged position. In the first place they are situated on the border of the Tonking Delta, so that the workers are never very far from their families, being often at a few hours' distance and as a rule never more than one day's journey. In addition the whole Delta is covered by a network of roads over which there is considerable traffic, especially by motor-bus. This is most fortunate, for the Annamite does not like to leave his country. While it is easy to get him to change his trade, it is quite another matter to persuade him to accept work at any considerable distance from his native village. Moreover, as the coal mines lie in the near vicinity of the Tonking Delta, the Annamite does not feel that he is working in the mountains. This again is another • point in favour of the mines, as it is common knowledge that the Annamite shows a marked repugnance for Upper Tonking, a country which he considers is very unhealthy. Then, again, the coalmines of Tonking have now been working for some considerable time—the Hongay mines for 40 years—and the Annamites have become accustomed to them. The result of these various factors is that, while it is not exactly easy for the mines to recruit workers, neither is it very difficult. Until 1932, workers attached to the Hongay mines were numerically insufficient for the growing requirements of the undertakings and the management had to recruit seasonal workers. These workers were recruited twice a year, the main batch being engaged after the IndoChinese new year (Têt) and a smaller batch in July after the harvest of the fifth month. The recruiting operations were carried out in the over-populated provinces of the Delta, Nam-dinh, Ninh-binh, and Thai-binh. For this purpose the management appointed its most trustworthy cals as recruiting agents and authorised them to proceed to the Delta provinces and recruit the coolies in their villages. The cats conducted the engaged workers to a concentration point in Nam-dinh, whence the company provided free transport facilities to Hongay and fed the workers during the journey. The workers were definitely engaged on arrival at the mines after verification of their taxation cards and inoculation against smallpox and cholera. The cals employed as recruiting agents were paid a fixed amount (10 to 20 piastres) to cover their expenses, plus 0.50 piastres for every coolie recruited and a bonus varying from 0.25 to 0.50 piastre according to the time the coolie remained in the service of the mines. Since 1932 the Hongay mines no longer employ seasonal labour. The mining plant has been perfected and individual output has risen. The economic depression and tariff barriers have reduced the export market, while the efforts made to establish workers in the coalfields have led to the settlement of about 17,000 coolies, a number sufficient to cope with the present requirements of the mines and, if necessary, to increase their output. nomic Equipment and Communications (20-25 July 1931), or from an article by Mr. Guillaumat on " L'industrie minière de l'Indochine en 1934 " published in the Bulletin économique de l'Indochine, May-June and July-October 1935. Í12 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA The whole question is much more difficult for the Tonkinese mines, which lie farther in the mountains, and especially for the zinc mines which employ about 5,500 workers. As a result of well-organised recruiting methods, however, these mines do not appear to have experienced any real difficulty in recruiting workers, at least during the past few years. It may be pointed out that some of the undertakings situated near the Chinese frontier find it profitable to employ Chinese rather than Annamites, who are not so good at heavy work. The question of recruiting did not present any real difficulty except for mines in Laos. In this connection it may be pointed out that, although these mines are much smaller than those in Tonking, they nevertheless employ about the same percentage of the local population as the Tonking mines, because Laos is but sparsely populated. It was therefore impossible for the Laotian mines to recruit the necessary number of workers from the population of the country and even from that of the neighbouring districts. They consequently had to organise recruiting in Annam on a basis somewhat similar to the scheme adopted by the Cochin-Chinese plantéis and naturally had to put up with all the drawbacks of such a scheme. A fairly large proportion of the workers employed in these mines come from the Vinh district of North Annam, which lies on the far side of the Annam range at the end of the road which leads to the tin mines. It was estimated in 1925 that 7 per cent, of the workers employed were made up of women and children. Most of the women and children are employed in open workings and on surface work, especially riddling, but some are also employed underground for the transport of coal and ore. Settlement of Labour in the' Mining Areas There is a large labour turnover in the mines and most of the large companies have therefore taken steps to facilitate the settlement of their labour force. For example, the French Coal Fields Company of Tonking, which alone produces 55 per cent, of the total Indo-Chinese output, has built villages in the more important centres, while water has been laid on in a number of main centres, including Hongay, Hatou, Campha-Mines and Campha-Port. Each centre has its own infirmary and in addition there are two hospitals, one at Campha-Mines and the other at Hongay. In the latter place a large hospital with 254 beds is partly in use. Schools have been opened in the various centres with teachers paid by the Company. The Dong Trieu Coal Fields Company has put up 36 buildings each containing six compartments, in which it can house 2,600 workers. It has also built an infirmary with 60 beds and a number of annexes including a consultation room, a dressing station, an operating theatre, etc. The medical service includes two male dressers and a midwife. The Company also has two schools, one at Uong Bi, the other in the neighbourhood of the mines. The Mining and Metallurgical Company of Indo-China, which employs 4,000-5,000 workers at Cho Dien in Upper Tonking, has put up dwellings for all its workers, besides building sick-rooms and operating theatres. It has also organised a large market which is now one of the most important centres of the country and to which people come from various parts for their supplies. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 113 The Tin and Wolfram Company of Tonking has provided similar facilities at the Tinh-Tuc mines in Upper Tonking, where it has also built a church and a cinema. In Laos, the Prospecting and Mining Company has built three villages where the workers, who include Annamites, Laotians and Siamese, are housed by nationality. Safety in Indo-Chinese Mines The proportion of fatal accidents per 10,000 workers in the mines as a whole has varied in the following manner during recent years : 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 22.5 15.0 15.2 13.0 14.8 12.8 Statistics for 1935 show that 40 persons were killed and 63 injured out of a total of 34,000 workers employed in the coal mines. Transport (haulage, rolling, railways) and falls of earth were the main causes of accident. As the mining industry must now abandon open workings and develop underground mining, the number of accidents is expected to rise during the next few years. OTHER INDUSTRIES Side by side with the mining industry, a number of other industries have grown up in Indo-China during recent years, especially in connection with foodstuffs, textiles, engineering, etc. The food industries include undertakings treating rice, sugar cane and oleaginous products. At Cholon there are a score of large rice-husking factories run mainly by Chinese and each able to handle from 300 to 1,300 tons of paddy a day. Rice is also used by distilleries and breweries. The manufacture of sugar is carried out mainly by small indigenous establishments, but there are also large European refineries in Cochin-China, one of which is supplied by a plantation of 800 hectares. The textile industry works up cotton and silk. The Cotton Spinners Company of Tonking has 35,000 looms at Nam-dinh and 30,000 in its Haiphong mills. To this list must be added a whole series of manufacturing industries including saw-mills, paper mills, match factories, oil works, soap works, tanneries, pottery works and tobacco factories. The colony has also a number of undertakings in which technical operations are very complicated and comparable in every way with European establishments. These include shipbuilding yards (the Saigon yards employed 1,367 workers in 1932), iron works, foundries, chemical factories and very large electric power stations in the main towns. Transport also employs a large number of workers, more than 8 114 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA 10,000 persons finding employment on the railways. Finally, public works including the construction of dikes, canals, roads, railways, bridges, and structural work of all sorts employ a large number of workers. THE REGULATIONS Until 1933, non-contract labour in Indo-China was the object of very few regulations. The administrative authorities had made an attempt to define the legal status of non-contract labour by issuing work-books to certain classes of workers and establishing machinery for the regulation of individual and collective labour disputes occurring between workers and employers. They had also promulgated a number of laws organising protective measures for the workers' health and welfare. Finally, in January 1933, they took steps to regulate conditions of work. Analysis is given below of the main legislative texts which accompanied this threefold effort by the Government. The Legal Status of the Workers Work-Books An Order issued on 26 August 1899, which was originally applicable only to Tonking, fixed in summary manner the conditions of short-term agreements between European employers and Asiatic workers and servants, and introduced work-books. By virtue of this Order servants and workers could not hire their services for longer than one year, apart from re-engagement, to any given undertaking. The hire of services for an unspecified period could in all cases be terminated freely by either party on 15 days' notice. The work-book, which was issued to all indigenous persons in the employment of a European or assimilated person, had to contain details concerning the holder's identity, his village of origin, his previous place of domicile, the nature and length of the engagement, his wage and the method of payment. Termination of services, without notice or before the expiry of the period of notice, entailed imprisonment of one to five days and a fine of one to fifteen francs, or one of these penalties only. On each successive engagement the worker had to have his workbook countersigned by the competent authorities, who were thus able to keep track of the workers. This Order was extended to Annam, Cochin-China and Cambodia in 1902 and to Laos in 1911. But in recent years the employers had come to neglect it and its provisions were hardly ever applied except to servants in the employment of Europeans. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 115 Moreover, an Order issued by the Governor-General on 6 March 1924 had fixed at 18 years the age at which Asiatic workers and servants were required to obtain a work-book. It finally became evident t h a t if these regulations were more rigidly observed it would be much easier to abolish certain practices, such as desertion after receiving an advance on wages and the enticement of workers from their employment, and t h a t this would lead to greater stability of labour. The local administrative authorities in Tonking therefore took steps to recall the provisions of the Order to the notice of those concerned and to apply them in the first place to skilled workers, who represented the more stable element, pending their extension to other classes of labour. This initiative was well received by the employers, and since the end of July 1930 skilled workers in the majority of the undertakings in Tonking have had to be identified and provided with work-books. In order to strengthen the system of protection established, the Governor-General issued an Order on 25 January 1930 extending the provisions of the Order of 26 August 1899 to all indigenous or assimilated Asiatic employers and workers throughout Tonking; but domestic servants and indoor staff, who in indigenous society are considered more as members of the family than as ordinary employees, were exempted from the regulations. All that now remained to be done was to extend these regulations, which applied only to Tonking, to the rest of the Indo-Chinese Union and this was the aim of the Order of 10 February 1936 1, which recast the regulations concerning work-books. Under this Order, every indigenous or assimilated Asiatic worker of either sex and over the age of 18 years, who is not a French citizen and who is employed as a servant or worker in a town or in the country under a written or verbal agreement by a French citizen, subject or dependant, or by an alien, is required to obtain a work-book. No person may take into his service an indigenous or assimilated Asiatic worker not in possession of a work-book. The work-book is not compulsory for the following persons: (1) indigenous or assimilated Asiatic servants or indoor staff employed by indigenous or assimilated Asiatic employers ; (2) agricultural workers employed on seasonal work. The work-book must show the holder's identity, the village from which he comes or with "which he is connected, his previous domicile, the nature and length of his engagement, his wage and the method of payment. Any person who is required to have a work-book may not 1 Journal officiel de l'Indochine française, 19 F e b r u a r y 1936. 116 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA hire his services for longer than one year, apart from re-engagement, to any given undertaking. The hire of services for an unspecified period may in all cases be terminated freely by either party on 15 days' notice. Minors may conclude and terminate an engagement only with the consent of their parents or guardians. Work-books are delivered or countersigned by the provincial commissioners or their representatives and by the police authorities in districts where they exist; all books must bear the signatures of the worker and the employer. Successive engagements contracted by the same worker and their termination must be noted in accordance with the procedure adopted for the issue of the work-book and by the same officials, who must make the necessary entries in the book. Other sections of the Order deal with the penalties entailed by failure to observe the regulations. Section 16 states that the Order does not apply to workers engaged under long-term contracts concluded in accordance with the Order of 25 October 1927. Settlement of Disputes Individual disputes. — The increasing economic development of Indo-China was bound to call the attention of the General Labour Inspectorate to the necessity for machinery ensuring the prompt and economical settlement of individual disputes occurring between employers and workers. This, indeed, was the aim of Book IV of the French Labour Code which, it may be noted, has not been promulgated in Indo-China. Apart from the old French colonies, where the Labour Code is applied, a number of other possessions much less advanced than Indo-China from commercial, agricultural and industrial standpoints had already been given arbitration boards. Boards were instituted, for example, in Madagascar in 1906, in French Equatorial Africa in 1922, and in French West Africa in 1925, and it certainly seemed that similar measures would be appropriate in Indo-China. In some quarters the promulgation of the Act of 27 March 1907, relating to probiviral courts, was suggested. Enquiries made in the Colonial Council of Cochin-China and other bodies representative of European interests in the Colony showed t h a t there was a current of opinion definitely opposed to the extension of the Act to the Colony. The establishment of probiviral courts similar to those existing in France would, indeed, have been neither useful nor practical and would have entailed expenditure quite out of proportion to the services rendered. It was obviously necessary, however, to find some method of avoiding the cost, slowness and complications of the proceedings to which individual disputes gave rise. Simultaneous enquiries carried out by two committees^ one WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 117 sitting at the General Labour Inspectorate in Hanoï and the other in Saigon, led to the adoption, after, discussion in.the Grand Council of Economic and Financial Interests, of a plan for the establishment, not of labour courts as had first been suggested, but simply of conciliation boards. This decision was dictated by the fact t h a t more than half of the cases submitted in France to the probiviral courts are settled before their hearing by the courts and t h a t close on two-thirds of the other cases are settled out of court, so that in the end the courts have only to take a decision on one-tenth of the cases. The draft Decree was signed by the President of the Republic on 29 April 1930. 1 This Decree institutes in Indo-China conciliation boards composed of a justice of the peace or the magistrate or official acting in his place, and two members, viz. one employer and one wage-earning or salaried employee. The members of the boards, viz. French and indigenous employers and workers, are chosen by lot from lists drawn up by the Governor or Senior Resident in Council. Disputes between European employers and workers are referred to the French section of the board, which consists of French members. Disputes between indigenous or assimilated employers and workers are referred to the indigenous section, consisting of Indo-Chinese members; this section may be presided over by an indigenous justice of the peace if there is one within the area of the board. Disputes between Europeans and Indo-Chinese are referred to a mixed section. The proceedings are simplified and based on the practice of the probiviral courts: the board hears the parties, who are summoned by a registered letter from the secretary, and conciliates them if possible, or places on record that conciliation has not been effected. There is no appeal against the records of conciliation. The conciliation procedure is compulsory if the parties are domiciled within the jurisdiction of one of the boards; otherwise the procedure is optional, so as to avoid it being a burden on persons who might be obliged to come from distant parts and, in the case of non-conciliation, to return to the judges of their district for a settlement of the matter. 2 1 Decree of 29 April 1930 instituting conciliation boards in Indo-China for the settlement of individual disputes between employers and workers arising out of contracts of employment (promulgated in Indo-China by Order of 20 June 1930 and amended by Decrees issued on 18 April 1931 and 19 April 1934). 2 The Decree of 29 April 1930 was amended by the Decree of 18 April 1931, which makes provision for an attendance allowance payable to indigenous worker members of conciliation boards who are paid by the day, and introduces a number of amendments of detail to facilitate the application of the regulations to places outside the main centres. In order to facilitate the annual reappointment of the boards, the Decree of 19 April 1934, promulgated on 31 May of the same year, states that members and substitute members of the boards may be chosen directly by the Governor or Senior Resident in Council, when it is impossible to follow the usual habit 118 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA In application of the provisions of the Decree of 29 April 1930, conciliation boards were appointed : (1) in Tonking, by Order of 30 August 1930, in the towns of Hanoï, Haïphong, and Nam-dinh; (2) in Cochin-China, by Order of 7 October 1930, in Saigon; the area of this board, which met in the court of the justice of peace of Saigon, included the territory of that town and that of Cholon and Gia-dinh; disputes arising in other parts of the colony could be referred to this board if the litigants so desired; (3) in Cambodia, at Pnom-Penh. The conciliation boards began to function early in 1931. All the claims were introduced by wage earners, and had to do with the payment of wage arrears and dismissal allowances. During 1931, the three conciliation boards in Tonking were called upon to deal with a total of 113 disputes, of which only 15, or 13 per cent., were settled by compromise. During the same year the Saigon conciliation board, the only one in Cochin-China, dealt with 90 cases, of which only 23 were settled by conciliation. During 1932, the Tonking boards dealt with 135 petitions, of which only 30 were settled by compromise.. In Cochin-China, 95 disputes came up for discussion before the Saigon board, and only in 16 cases was a settlement reached. In Cambodia, the Pnom-Penh board examined 9 petitions, all of which were settled by conciliation. During 1933, the Tonking boards dealt with 138 disputes, of which 32 were settled by compromise. In Cochin-China the Saigon board examined 106 cases, of which 32 were settled by conciliation. In Cambodia the Pnom-Penh board dealt with 9 petitions, all of which were settled by conciliation. In view of the meagre results obtained by the boards, the Mutual Association of Commercial and Industrial Workers of Cochin-China demanded the institution of labour courts as courts of higher instance similar to those existing under the probiviral court system. The Governor-General decided that this suggestion was worthy of consideration. The General Labour Inspectorate was consequently asked to prepare a Decree authorising the establishment, under the name of " probiviral judgment offices ", of labour courts responsible for the settlement, by procedure similar to that of the of drawing lots. In practice, economic reasons have made it more and more difficult to compile for each board the four lists of 25 names (French employers, indigenous employers, French wage-earning and salaried employees, indigenous wage-earning and salaried employees), which must be drawn up each year for the purpose of drawing lots. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 119 probiviral courts, of industrial disputes between employers and workers with regard to which the conciliation procedure laid down by the Decree of 29 April 1930 had remained without effect. 1 The draft Decree, submitted on 20 November 1931 to the heads of the Local Governments (Governors or Senior Residents), the appeal courts, the Chambers of Commerce and Agriculture, and the mutual associations concerned, does not seem to have resulted in the adoption of a final text. Collective disputes. — As the logical sequence to the Decree of 29 April 1930 relating to individual disputes, a draft Decree for the conciliation and arbitration of collective labour disputes was submitted to the Grand Council of Economic and Financial Interests in October 1930. It must indeed be recognised t h a t hitherto the workers had no peaceful and legal means of getting their claims examined except by a stoppage of work, which was liable to throw them out of employment, and it was this omission that the draft Decree proposed to rectify. The text was transmitted for consideration to the French Colonial Office and to the Departments of Labour and Justice ; it was signed on 2 April 1932 by the President of the Republic, and promulgated in Indo-China on 7 June 1932. 2 The Decree of 2 April 1932 establishes the principle of compulsory conciliation of collective labour disputes and introduces optional arbitration. The Decree applies as soon as a dispute covers not less than one-fourth of the wage-earning or salaried employees in an undertaking or workplace, works or workshop of an undertaking, or one-fourth of any category of wage-earning or salaried employees engaged in an undertaking in work or duties of the same kind; it also applies to any dispute affecting not less than 10 wage-earning or salaried employees whose simultaneous stoppage of work is likely to hinder the operation of all or part of an undertaking. The labour inspector is responsible for taking the necessary conciliation proceedings, and in so doing he takes the title of conciliator. Each of the parties may refer a dispute to the conciliator by a simple petition drawn up in French and in the vernacular, which must state, at least briefly, the object of the petition and the supporting evidence. The conciliator is then required to proceed to the place affected. He notifies the employer concerned or his representative and summons the workers who are party to the dispute to appear before him in the first instance to appoint their delegates. The conciliator then summons both the 1 Compte rendu sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection générale du travail, 1931-32, p. 13. 2 Decree of 2 April 1932 organising in Indo-China a system of conciliation and arbitration in collective disputes between indigenous or assimilated salaried or wage-earning employees and their employers (promulgated on 1 June 1932 and amended by the Order of 19 December 1932 and the Decree of 23 December 1933). 120 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA employers and the delegates of the workers before him within not less than three days for the first hearing. The conciliator must endeavour to arrive at an amicable settlement of the dispute. The assistance of counsel for the defence is not allowed before conciliators. If a settlement of the dispute is reached, the terms must be recorded in the conciliation record, which must be signed by the parties and the conciliator. If a settlement of a dispute is not reached by conciliation, the parties may apply to the head of the Local Government for arbitration -, in this case the latter invites the employer or employers concerned to appoint two arbitrators and one substitute; the head of the Local Government himself selects the arbitrators of the wage-earning and salaried employees from a list drawn up every year by the Chambers of Commerce and Agriculture. The arbitration award is communicated to the justice of peace or magistrate or official acting for him in the district in which the place of the dispute is situated. The proceedings before arbitration boards are free of charge. The Decree analysed above also includes a number of provisions concerning the cessation of work in " private public utility services ". Any indigenous wage-earning or salaried employee in such services who ceases work, either alone or in conjunction with other employees, without having given notice not less than a fortnight nor more than a month before breaking his contract of employment, or who, having given such notice, ceases work before the expiration of the time-limit fixed, is liable to imprisonment for not less than six days nor more than six months and to a fine of not less than 16 francs nor more than 600 francs. The expression " private public utility service " includes private railway services, private postal services, undertakings which supply the public with water or light, private medical and sanitary services, and any services which the GovernorGeneral in Council declares to be permanent utility services for the purposes of the Decree. The Decree, in conclusion, also covers any " unlawful " collective cessation of work. By this is meant a cessation brought about for any purpose other than the settlement of a trade dispute occurring in the business or industry to which the persons concerned belong, and which is also such, or intended to be such, as to cause prolonged inconvenience to the public and consequently to compel the Government to follow a given line of conduct. The penalties provided in these cases are imprisonment for not less than six days nor more than two years, and a fine of not less than 16 francs nor more than 2,000 francs. An Order issued on 19 December 1932 completes the list of " private public utility services " given in the Decree analysed above. Another Decree, issued on 23 December 1933, states that the petition addressed to the conciliator may be drawn up in French or in the vernacular, whereas previously it had to be drawn up in both. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 121 The enforcement of the legislation relating to collective disputes has so far given very barren results. Only one collective dispute, which occurred between 28 free workers and the heirs of their employer, was submitted to the labour inspectorate in CochinChina during 1932-33, and in this case it was settled by a conciliation award. Up to the present the records of the General Labour Inspectorate make no mention of any fresh case in which recourse was had to this legislation. The Protection of the Workers' Health In this field the authorities have a twofold mission. In the first place, they must protect the health of the workers employed in public and private undertakings by the appropriate preventive measures, while in the second case they must take steps to avoid accidents as far as possible and to ensure their equitable compensation when they occur. A study will now be made of the various laws passed in this connection by the Indo-Chinese authorities, a distinction being made between the laws which apply to the whole of the colony and those referring to the various States of the Union. The mining industry, where accidents are particularly liable to occur, was regulated in the first place. Section 62 of the Decree of 26 January 1912 relating to mines obliges concession holders to notify the authorities without loss of time of all serious accidents occurring in the mines or their subsidiary establishments. Section 63 requires them also to observe all instructions issued by the authorities or the mines inspection service in the interests of safety. Dangerous, unhealthy, or noxious undertakings such as explosive works were regulated by a special Order issued on 5 March 1932, but it was the Decree of 19 January 1933 which first laid down in definite fashion the precautions to be taken to protect the workers against occupational diseases and injuries. In the detailed analysis of this Decree given below (cf. p. 124, " The Regulation of Conditions of Non-Contract Labour ") it will be seen how sections 18-28 protect the health and safety of the workers. It was naturally in Tonking, where practically the whole of the mining industry is concentrated, that the local administrative authorities introduced the most comprehensive regulations for the protection of the health of the workers. The Order of 7 April 1910 introducing regulations in connection with accidents in the 122 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA mines and quarries of Tonking stipulates that the provincial commissioner must be notified immediately an accident occurs; an official of the provincial administration is then sent to the scene of the accident to draw up a report. The Order of 17 November 1925 concerning the medical protection of industrial, mining, agricultural and other workplaces in Tonking embodies a number of provisions concerning recruiting centres, workers' dwellings, drinking water and food supplies, medical attendance, and industrial accidents. A first-aid post must be set up irrespective of the number of workers employed when the work is of a notoriously dangerous character. As a general rule, when the number of workers employed in the establishment justifies it, there must be an infirmary with a male dresser and an ambulance with a doctor attached; if there are more than 2,000 workers, arrangements must be made to have a doctor on the premises. Every accident, whether fatal or non-fatal, must form the subject of a medical report by a European doctor and a report by the employer. The cost of hospital treatment for sick and injured workers is borne by the employer, who must also at his own expense repatriate any worker who is permanently incapacitated. 1 In Annam, preventive measures for workers employed in the construction of the railways were introduced by the Order of 3 June 1922. This Onder defined the conditions governing the recruiting and housing of the workers, the workers' diet, and the isolation of the sick, but no reference was made to accidents. On the other hand, an Order of 29 May 1930 required the organisation of a medical service for workers employed on the Tanap-Thakek line. In Laos, the preventive measures embodied in the above-mentioned Order of 3 June 1922 have been declared applicable by the Order of 13 June 1932. In Cochin-China, finally, an Order issued on 28 August 1928 introduced regulations for the protection of the health of workers engaged in public works employing a total- of more than 50 coolies in the one undertaking. Here again the same standard regulations concerning recruiting, housing and the workers' diet are to be found. The regulations which have just been discussed only affect the compensation of industrial accidents in an incidental way. This important question, which arises both in connection with contract 1 The provisions of the Order of 17 November 1925 were recalled to the notice of local officials by a Circular issued on 18 April 1936 by the Senior Resident of Tonking, who at the same time announced the reorganisation of the medical supervisory service. WAGE-PAID 123 EMPLOYMENT and non-contract labour, and which affects European workers as well as indigenous workers, will be studied as a whole in the following chapter (Chapter III, §3). The Regulation of Conditions of Non-Contract Labour Replying early in 1928 to a questionnaire from the French Government concerning labour in French colonies, the General Government of Indo-China recognised t h a t the regulation of noncontract labour was becoming an increasingly urgent matter on account of the extension taken in the colony by commerce, agriculture and industry, and the large-scale works contemplated in connection with the improvement of economic equipment, as well as on account of the intellectual and social advance of the large working population, which, in addition to being intelligent, was led by a body of skilled and experienced workers. Two years later, in its annual report, the General Labour Inspectorate expressed the same ideas in the following terms: The European colonies nearest Indo-China, including India, British Malaya, the Netherlands Indies and the Philippines, all of which, it must be recognised, are older than Indo-China, are already in possession of well-defined legislation for the regulation of their labour, as is Japan, and even China, where a Labour Code was introduced a year or so ago. Indo-China cannot in its own interests remain outside this general movement of social progress. The impossibility of promulgating the metropolitan Labour Code in Indo-China, where the labour system entails the employment of Europeans only in managerial or supervisory positions and where the working masses are composed entirely of Indo-Chinese, necessitates the preparation of legislation special to the country. Such legislation must make allowance for local conditions of work and the mentality of the workers to whom it will apply. While including the necessary measures of social progress, it must also be inspired by that spirit of prudence which has to be used in guiding the social evolution of a people whose conditions but a few years ago were those of the middle ages, but which is endowed with a very alert mind, capable of rapid assimilation, quick to change under the influence of education and a widespread vernacular press, and accustomed by its communal life to the principles of combination and association. After having regulated long-term contract labour, which, on account of its nature and extension, had become an extremely urgent problem, the General Labour Inspectorate has now undertaken to study and solve the more pressing aspects 1of the question of non-contract labour, European and Native alike. The General Labour Inspectorate of Indo-China therefore began by preparing a draft Decree to regulate the conditions of employ1 Compte rendu 1930-31, p. 13. sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection générale du travail, 124 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA ment of children, young persons and women and the health and safety of workers in commerce and industry. This Decree, submitted to the Grand Council of Economic and Financial Interests in 1930, was accepted as a whole by that assembly, and transmitted to the Chambers of Commerce and Agriculture for detailed consideration. After thorough revision, the draft was sent to the French Colonial Office on 11 September 1931. On 19 June 1933 it was approved by the President of the Republic, and published in the " Journal Officiel de la République Française ". ' The main provisions of the Decree are analysed below: Part I deals with conditions of employment. Section 1 defines the scope of the Decree, which applies to factories, works, yards, laboratories, workshops, warehouses, shops and offices, whatever their nature, whether public or private, secular or religious, even when these establishments are carried on for the purposes of vocational instruction or are of a charitable nature; the only exceptions are establishments where none but members of one and the same family are employed, under the control of one of them, and indigenous handicraft workshops where not more than ten workers and apprentices are employed. In these various establishments, children may not be employed until they have attained the age of 12 years (Section 2); a medical examination may be demanded by the labour inspectors for children and young persons of 12 to 18 years of age, in order to ascertain whether the work on which they are employed exceeds their strength (Section 3). Boys under 15 years of age and girls or women under 18 years of age may not be employed for more than ten hours a day, interrupted by one or more rest periods, the total duration of which may not be less than one hour (Section 5). The same categories of children and young persons may not be employed in any night work, that is to say in any work between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. (Section 8); the nightly rest period for the same classes of workers may not be less than eleven consecutive hours; nevertheless, in case of urgent work, this period may be reduced to ten hours (Section 9). The cessation of work by women for eight consecutive weeks during the period preceding and following confinement may not be a ground for the termination of the contract for the hire of services, and any agreement to the contrary is null and void (Section 12). During one year from the date of confinement, women will be granted a rest period of twenty minutes in the morning and twenty minutes in the afternoon to nurse their children (Section 13). Girls and women may not be employed in underground work in mines and quarries (Section 14). In theatres and travelling shows, the employment of children under 12 years of age is forbidden; this limit is raised to 16 years for children employed in acrobatic performances or feats of strength (Section 15). Penalties varying from three months' to three years' imprisonment and from 16 to 200 francs' fine are laid down for parents or guardians who entrust their children, wards or apprentices, either gratuitously or for remuneration, to vagrants, persons with no visible means of support, or beggars (Sections 16 and 17). Part II of the Decree regulates the health and security of the workers. Detailed measures are laid down for the installation of various protective WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 1-25 and safety devices; they will be completed by Orders issued by the Governor-General (Sections 18-22). In addition, special provisions are introduced on behalf of women and children (maintenance of morality, provision of work likely to give rise to danger or imperil morality, provision of an adequate number of seats in stores or shops where women are employed) (Sections 23-25). Section 28 prohibits the use of lead, sulphate of lead, linseed oil containing lead, and any other special product containing lead, in painting operations of every kind, whether in the interior or on the exterior of buildings. Part III deals with labour inspection. Employers or heads of departments are required to post up in each workshop the main provisions of the Decree relating to the employment of children, young persons and women, and their hours for beginning and ending work (Sections 31 and 32). A complete list of the children brought up in each of the charitable institutions must be transmitted to the labour inspector (Section 34). The supervision or the administration of the Decree is entrusted to the Inspector-General of Labour, the labour inspectors and their assistants; district administrative officers or their assistants may also be authorised to supervise the observance of the Decree (Section 37); officials of the labour inspectorate have right of entry into all establishments covered by the Decree and may establish contraventions by reports, which are accepted as evidence in default of evidence to the contrary (Sections 40 and 41). Finally, Parts IV and V refer to penalties and the administrative provisions. Employers contravening the provisions of the Decree are liable to a police fine of 5 to 15 francs per person employed and, in case of a repetition of the offence, to a fine of 16 to 50 francs (Sections 42 and 43). As pointed out above, parents or guardians entrusting their children or wards to vagrants, persons with no visible means of support or beggars, may be punished by imprisonment of three months to three years and a fine of 16 to 200 francs (Section 45). According to Section 53, the special provisions relating to the protection of children, young persons and women apply to European and assimilated persons. The Decree will be put into operation six months after its promulgation (Section 55). At the same time, the GovernorGeneral of Indo-China will have power to issue Orders authorising exceptions to the provisions of the Decree in certain industries for a specified period, in order to enable these industries to make the changes in organisation and equipment which are required for the application of the Decree (Section 56). While expressing their appreciation of the remarkable effort which the promulgation of this Decree represented, a number of critics, especially in the Annamite press*, called attention to certain omissions in the new legislation. These critics pointed out in the first place t h a t the Decree did not apply to agricultural workers; while admitting that special regulations were justified by the special character of agricultural work of a seasonal nature and subject to climatic conditions, they expressed the opinion that 1 Cf. articles by Mr. LÊ-THANG in L'Annam Nouveau, 27 July, 7, 10 and 17 August, 3 and 17 September 1933. 126 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA the legislative authorities might have taken the opportunity offered them of including agricultural workers in some of the protective measures introduced by the Decree, and especially those relating to accidents and the protection of the workers' health. In the second place, they remarked that the Decree applied only to children, young persons and women, and that adult workers remained outside its scope. Finally, they called attention to a number of small omissions, including the facts that: (1) The minimum age of admission of children to industrial and commercial employment had been fixed at 12 years by the Decree, whereas the Washington Convention had established it at 14 years ; it was true that Asiatic countries had been put in a special class by that Convention, and the persons responsible for the Decree had probably had this in mind; at the same time difficulties were to be foreseen on account of the fact that civil registers were a recent innovation in IndoChina, and that the method of calculating ages differs from the European method. (2) The limitation of hours of work to ten in the day applied only to children under 15 years of age and to girls or women under 18 years of age ; it would seem to have been desirable to include women over 18 years of age in the same limitation. (3) The same was to be said of the prohibition of night work, which applied only to children under 15 years of age and to women under 18 years of age. Although, strictly speaking, a special system of working hours might be justified for Asiatic countries on the strength of the difference of physical endurance between Western and Asiatic workers, any such distinction seemed much more difficult to justify for night work, which impaired the health of women, whatever their race (especially when the alarming progress of tuberculosis in Indo-China was remembered). (4) No measure had been introduced in connection with industrial accidents or occupational diseases (for example, lead poisoning). (5) The Decree made no allusion to weekly rest, which was nevertheless a logical sequence of shorter hours. (6) Section 13 made provision for rest periods for nursing purposes; this provision would become a practical proposition only when day nurseries were established in the undertakings. (7) In order to ensure the efficacy of Section 12, which concerned the cessation of work by women for a period of eight consecutive weeks on confinement, it would seem necessary to provide such women with cash allowances. Although the Decree of 19 June 1933 appeared inadequate to the Annamite critics, the heads of undertakings employing noncontract labour were of opinion that the application of the Decree WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 127 would be a source of considerable difficulty for the undertakings, both on account of the aggravation of the economic depression and the special working conditions in the colonies. These undertakings therefore asked that the promulgation of the Decree in Indo-China should be postponed until more prosperous times. The main opposition came from the Cotton Spinning Company of Tonking (textile mills of Nam-dinh), which was particularly affected on account of the large number of women and children in its service (about 50 per cent, of the total number employed). The management of the Company asked the administrative authorities to carry out an enquiry into the possibility of applying the Decree of 19 January 1933 to its undertakings. The InspectorGeneral of Labour, who was appointed to carry out this enquiry, considered that there was good reason to apply to the mills of Nam-dinh and Haiphong the exemption provided for in Section 56 of the Decree, which empowered the Governor-General to authorise certain industries to postpone the application of the Decree for a specified period; the period proposed in this case was a maximum of five years. 1 However this may be, the promulgation of the Decree of 19 January 1933 was postponed for nearly four years, with the result that the administrative regulations which had been prepared in the various States of the Union were also postponed. As the regulations laid down by the Decree were applicable only to persons coming under the jurisdiction of the French courts, the dependent Governments considered it necessary to extend its provisions to all their subjects so as to have uniform regulations on the subject. It was with this object in view that the " Du " Nos. 17 and 18 of 26 May 1934 were introduced to regulate the conditions of non-contract labour of subjects of the Emperor of Annam living in Annam and Tonking. 2 For Cambodia a Royal Order regulating non-contract labour was signed on 12 June 1933. 1 In order to provide the reader with as complete and impartial an account as possible of the controversy raised by the Decree of 19 January 1933, the report submitted by the Inspector-General of Labour at the end of his enquiry is reproduced in an appendix. (Appendix II, Document 6.) 2 In the Order relating to Tonking, the penalties laid down were brought into line with those established by the Tonking penal code, and it was stipulated that the French and Annamite officials responsible for the application of these rules would only have a right of supervision over the undertakings and that the sanctions laid down were to be applied according to circumstances by the labour courts of first and second instance. 128 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Recent Developments in the Regulation of Non-Contract Labour From July 1936 onward, the political tendencies of the new French Government of the Popular Front did not fail to have certain effects on the social evolution of Indo-China, and in particular on its labour legislation. The official declarations concerning the metropolitan authorities' intention to carry out in oversea territories a policy calculated above all to raise the standard of existence from physical, economic and intellectual standpoints and the news of the establishment of a Committee of Enquiry to introduce widespread changes in the French colonial system with a view to the general improvement of social and political conditions of existence of the oversea populations, immediately gave rise in Indo-China to fresh hopes and new demands. Moreover, the three French Acts of 20, 21 and 24 June 1936 concerning the 40-hour week, holidays with pay, and collective agreements, had been made applicable by Decrees to the colonies, and an adaptation of the colonial legislation had therefore to be made. The first thought of the Indo-Chinese population was to prepare a list of demands for submission to the proposed Committee of Enquiry. For this purpose it was decided to convene an IndoChinese Congress, at which all organisations and parties, including the Indo-Chinese Communist party, were to be represented. A preparatory committee adopted a " list of demands ", which formed the following programme of labour protection: (1) Conditions of employment: (a) Age of admission to employment: over 12 years of age; (b) Hours of work: 40-hour week for miners and 48-hour week for all other classes of workers; (c) Prohibition of night work; (d) Compulsory weekly rest; (e) 15 days' rest a year with full wages; (/) Rest for pregnant women: 4 weeks after confinement, with payment of wages; (g) Annual holiday; (h) Right to associate and to vote; (i) Social welfare fund; (/) Savings fund; (k) Social insurance fund. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT (2) 129 Wages: (a) Minimum wages to be fixed by category of worker and by district ; (b) Wages to be paid in coin or paper money of legal tender; (c) All overtime to be paid; (d) Prohibition of deductions from wages; (e) 15 days' notice of dismissal, and dismissal allowances. (3) Suppression of company stores. (4) Industrial accidents: to entitle the victim or his heirs to an indemnity payable by the head of the undertaking. (5) Labour inspection: efficient inspection. Admission of IndoChinese to the inspection service on an equal footing with European inspectors.1 The administrative authorities for their part had also taken certain steps. An Order issued by the Governor-General on 13 July 1936 made provision for the appointment of a Committee to make suggestions to the Governor-General concerning the application in Indo-China of the new conditions governing relations between employers and employed and to make the amendments required to bring local legislation into harmony with the social laws recently adopted in France. The Committee, which was placed under the chairmanship of the Colonial Secretary of Indo-China, included representatives of the French administration and population, the indigenous administration and population, and of commerce, industry and agriculture. Its first task was to consult the Governors and Senior Residents. In Cochin-China the employers' group, convened at the initiative of the Chairman of the Saigon Chamber of Commerce, stated t h a t the introduction of collective agreements and the limitation of hours of work were impossible in most of the industrial and agricultural undertakings, but unanimously agreed to the principle of an annual holiday of 15 days with pay. After consulting the local administrative authorities, the Committee expressed its opinion on the adaptation of the new social laws to the special conditions of work in Indo-China in the following terms : Collective labour agreements are concluded in France after negotiations between the employers' and workers' occupational associations. Such agreements must contain clauses ensuring freedom of association, the appointment of delegates elected by the staff in undertakings employing more than 10 persons, minimum wages, notice of dismissal, the organisation of apprenticeship, etc. But, in view of the fact that in Indo-China there are no occupational associations capable of taking part in discus1 L'Annam nouveau, 8 October 1936. 130 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA sions on such important matters, and as hitherto there have been no co-ordinated relations between persons employed in the various occupations or groups of occupations, there can be no question of introducing collective agreements in the colony. This must not, however, prevent an effort being made in the spirit of the law to regulate, so far as possible, certain points such as notice of dismissal and minimum wages on the basis of local requirements and customs. As to the application of the legislation for the limitation of working hours, neither the Weekly Rest Act nor the Forty-eight-Hour Week Act has been promulgated in the colony. There can, therefore, be no question of applying the forty-hour week. Conditions in Indo-China are different, as the indigenous workers do not work so diligently as European workers, while large numbers work only at irregular intervals according to their needs. For these reasons the Committee recommends the gradual application of these measures by a series of stages. In connection with holidays with pay, it may be pointed out that as a result of the diversity of races and religions, public holidays are much more numerous in Indo-China than in France and that the Asiatic peoples have the habit of keeping all public holidays. The Committee therefore considers that the 15 days of annual holiday should be split up and that public holidays other than those officially recognised in France should count in the annual holiday as working days. 1 The Committee had confined its studies to the adaptation to Indo-China of the three social laws passed in France in June 1936. There still remained the question of the general regulation of conditions of non-contract employment. As stated previously, the Decree of 19 January 1933 governing non-contract employment and the protection of children, young persons and women had not yet been promulgated in Indo-China and its application was thus in suspense. On 15 August 1936 the Governor-General finally issued an Order to promulgate the Decree. A further Decree, issued on 13 October 1936, introduced certain amendments under which the limitation of actual working hours to 10 in the day which the Decree of 19 June 1933 had introduced only for boys under 15 years of age and for girls and women under 18 years of age, was extended to all wage-earning and salaried employees of either sex and of any age; as from 1 January 1937 hours were to be reduced to nine in the day, and from 1 January 1938 to eight in the day. In addition, the prohibition of night work, which the Decree of 19 January 1933 had introduced only for boys under 15 years of age and girls or women under 18 years of age, became applicable to all children under 15 years of age and to women without any age limit. Two days before the Decree of 13 October 1936 appeared in the " Journal Officiel de la République Française ", the Governor1 L'Asie française, November 1936, pp. 301-302. WAGE-PAIB EMPLOYMENT 131 General of Indo-China issued the Order of 11 October, which introduced the same stipulations regarding the limitation of hours of work and the prohibition of night work for all girls and women irrespective of age.1 This Order also contained prescriptions concerning: (1) weekly rest, which became compulsory on 1 December 1936 in industrial and commercial establishments of all sorts; (2) annual holidays with pay, which became the right of all workers, salaried employees and apprentices employed in industry, commerce or the liberal professions and which were to be fixed at a maximum of 5 days from 1 January 1937 and at 10 days from 1 January 1938. It was also announced that, on instructions from the Ministry for the Colonies, the Decree of 9 September 1934 relating to industrial accidents would come into operation on 1 January 1937, that Section 2 of the Decree of 15 January 1933 forbidding the employment of children under 12 years of age in industry and commerce was to be strictly applied, and that an enquiry would shortly be made in each province with a view to fixing minimum wages in conformity with the needs of existence. About this time, however, the character of the social movement thus launched was changed as the result of events which occurred in the latter months of 1936. In the first place, a certain want of unity became evident in the ranks of the Indo-Chinese working classes. It seems that the committees originally appointed to draw up the " list of demands " had been undermined by communist influences and as a result the more moderate elements rebelled. Personal and party squabbles, and the fact that the social movement was contaminated by politics, led to a real cleavage, and finally three communist leaders were arrested. In a speech to the Colonial Council of Cochin-China on 15 October 1936, the Governor, Mr. Pages, called attention to the excessive and demagogic character of certain demands. Meanwhile a more moderate tendency had arisen in Indo-China. Provincial councillors had met on 25 September at a " Congress of the Elected " and had adopted 40 resolutions which they subsequently forwarded to the Ministry for the Colonies. The resolution on the question of the adaptation to Indo-China of the protective labour legislation in force in France is reproduced below: 1 There is, however, a difference in the definitions of night work given in the Decree and in the Order, the Decree defining it as work performed between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., and the Order as work performed between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. 132 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Whereas the growth of the working population of Indo-China which has resulted from the progress made in the industry, commerce and agriculture of the country makes it imperative for the public authorities to take an interest in the lot of Annamite workers of all classes; Whereas, side by side with the small and medium-sized family concerns, large agricultural undertakings controlled by rich companies tend more and more to develop and employ large masses of labour; Whereas in Indo-China there is no legislation to protect the worker either socially or in his work and notably in the case of industrial accidents; Whereas the occupational risk is inherent in conditions of employment irrespective of any question of race; Whereas in Indo-China it is all the more imperative to compensate victims of industrial accidents because of the very low wages earned by the worker, which barely enable him to meet his family needs, while heavy taxation precludes any possibility of saving; Whereas the indigenous worker is all the more worthy of protection inasmuch as he is at the mercy of the employer on account of the absence in Indo-China of trade union legislation and probiviral courts which would enable him to defend his legitimate interests in a lawful and peaceful manner; Whereas an improvement in the workers' material situation would help to re-establish calm and confidence in the country, and whereas such improvement is a social and political necessity, whereof evidence may be found in the troubles which at certain times have led to bloodshed in Indo-China and which the economic depression, by notably reducing the standard of living of the indigenous worker, has done much to encourage; We urge most strongly that the Government should take the immediate measures necessary for the promulgation in Indo-China of the protective labour legislation in force in the metropolis, including the legislation on industrial accidents (Acts of 9 April 1898, 30 June 1899 and Decree of 1933) and the organisation of probiviral courts. 1 The employers on their side endeavoured to oppose the new social legislation through the influence of their representative organisations in France and their trade associations in the colony. Among other arguments, they maintained that it had been a great error to give the Indo-Chinese population unreasonable hopes which, it realised, might well lead to serious trouble. The adaptation of the French social laws of June 1936 to Indo-China should be carried out with the greatest prudence in view of the necessity of keeping export prices down in order to meet foreign competition. As to collective agreements, the system of recruiting workers through the Caïs made their application impossible in the colony. As regards the reduction of hours of work, it was essential to make allowance " for the mentality of the worker who, when he is paid for 4 days, does not work for the whole of the following week, and when he is paid for 10 days, passes the rest 1 La Tribune Indochinoise, 12 October 1936. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 133 of the month at home." 1 In any case, the employers were opposed to any legislation which might be promulgated by the French authorities without adequate consultation with the representative associations of employers in Indo-China. Finally, the employers pointed out t h a t the administration, which had imposed on them very strict and onerous measures for the protection of labour, was much less particular about the workers whom it employed in public works; it would therefore be better it they would fall into line with private undertakings in such matters before considering if additional measures could be introduced for all and sundry. 2 During the month of November 1936 the workers' demands, which up till then had scarcely got beyond the stage of theoretical discussion, suddenly became much more real as the result of strikes which broke out all over Tonking and Cochin-China. The reasons advanced by the strikers were t h a t the employers were not fully applying the legal reforms recently introduced in connection with hours of work and t h a t wages did not allow them to live, especially at a time when the devaluation of the currency had led to a steep rise in the cost of living. In the large majority of cases the strikers confined themselves to demanding increased wages and the whole movement took place in a calm atmosphere with the exception of a few attempts at violence against cais particularly hated by the workers. On 27 November there were 1,700 strikers, a number which had never previously been recorded in Indo-China. (In December, according to certain local papers, the number had risen to 50,000.) The most important of these strikes took place at Campha-Mine (Coalfields Company of Tonking) which alone affected 6,000 workers. After six days' stoppage, these workers obtained satisfaction for a part of their claims. Among other things, the Coalfields Company agreed to make a 10 per cent, increase on wages below 0.60 piastre, and to a minimum wage of 0.27 piastre; for women the increase was equal to 0.04 piastre and for children to 0.01 piastre. In addition to these increases, the workers obtained the following advantages, which prove the moderation of their claims: (1) the cost of oil and grease for the greasing of wagons would in future be borne by the undertaking; (2) half the price of tools, such as spades, shovels and picks would 1 Statement by Mr. MARCHEIX, General Director of the Coalfields Company of 2Tonking (Dépêche coloniale, 25 November 1936). Statement by Colonel BERNARD to the general meeting of the French Colonial Union on 1 October 1936 (La Quinzaine coloniale, 25 October 1936). 134 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA be met by the Company in case of loss; (3) workers would be entitled to work on all the working days of the month. In these various strikes the local administrative authorities generally played the part of impartial referee. * * The Ministry for the Colonies did not consider, however, that the provisions of the Decree of 19 January 1933, even as supplemented by subsequent measures, were comprehensive enough to ensure adequate protection for local workers or to give them the full benefit of the legislation introduced on behalf of wage-earning and salaried employees in France. After all, the January Decree did no more than regulate conditions of employment for women and children and establish a minimum number of health regulations for industrial and commercial undertakings. Convinced t h a t the time was ripe to endow Indo-China with a complete and homogeneous series of Native labour laws, the Ministry adopted on 30 December 1936 a Decree relating to conditions of employment of Indo-Chinese and assimilated persons, 1 the main provisions of which are summarised below: Compulsory labour is forbidden. As a transitional and exceptional measure recourse may be had to it in the conditions laid down in the Decree of 21 August 1930 and the Orders of 5 and 6 February 1932. Labour dues may always be commuted. Contract labour remains governed by the special regulations concerning it (Order of 25 October 1927 and subsequent amending legislation). Non-contract labour in Indo-China means any form of labour not included in the above-mentioned categories. Wage-earning and salaried employees, i.e., persons hiring their services against remuneration and in a position of economic dependence or subordination with regard to those who employ them, are divided into workers, servants and salaried employees. Chapter II introduces apprenticeship legislation in Indo-China for the first time. No child under 12 years of age may be employed as an apprentice; at 20 years of age the apprentice becomes a worker. In workshops other than craftsmens' premises the number of apprentices may in no case exceed one-third of the number of workers employed. All undertakings engaged in industrial or commercial operations requiring technical training and employing more than 30 skilled workers are compelled to employ a number of apprentices equal to one-tenth of the number of workers employed. 1 This Decree, very general in scope, covers the various forms of labour. Nevertheless practically all its provisions refer to non-contract labour; as for compulsory labour and contract labour, it merely refers to the previous regulations which it maintains. For these reasons it is thought that an analysis of the Decree will not be out of place at the present juncture. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 135 Chapter III of the Decree deals with the contract of employment. This is governed by ordinary law and may be drawn up in any form suitable to the contracting parties. It may be either written or verbal. The hire of services may be arranged only for a given time or for a given undertaking; the length of the contract is governed by local custom unless proof can be given of the existence of some other arrangement. Industrial, mining and commercial undertakings employing more than 25 workers must draw up establishment rules containing measures relating to the organisation of internal working conditions, discipline, health and safety, conditions of engagement and wages, etc. ; these rules must be countersigned by the labour inspector and posted up in the workplaces in French and in the vernacular. Fines are forbidden. The hire of services for an unspecified period may in all cases be terminated freely by either party. The unilateral termination of a contract may give rise to an action for damages. If a wage-earning or salaried employee takes a new place after terminating a contract unlawfully, the new employer is jointly responsible for any prejudice caused to the previous employer in the following three cases: (1) if it can be proved that he had a hand in enticing the worker away from his previous job; (2) if he engages a worker whom he knows to be bound by a contract of employment ; (3) if he continues to employ a worker after learning that the latter was still bound by a contract of employment. The cessation of work by a woman for eight weeks during the period of confinement may not be taken by the employer as a reason for terminating the contract of employment, and any agreement to the contrary is null and void. The Decree makes a distinction between the caï-sub-contractor, who concludes a written or verbal agreement with the main employer relating to labour, stores or work to be performed, and the ca'i-foreman who is paid by the employer to supervise the workers and apprentices or the execution of their work under the employer's order. The caï-subcontractor is required to treat workers in his employment in accordance with the provisions laid down in the Decree, and if the caï-sub-contractor becomes insolvent the employer is responsible for the payment of the workers' wages and other legal obligations. The name and address of the employer and the minimum rates of wages must be posted up by the caï-sub-contractor in,French and in the vernacular in all workplaces. All claims submitted to the employer by workers in the employment of the caï-sub-contractor must immediately be brought to the notice of the Labour Inspectorate. A list of the caï-sub-contractors must be kept in all mining, industrial and commercial establishments and in all workplaces. The general labour regulations are drawn up after discussion by the employers or their representatives and by the Labour Inspectorate representing the workers. These regulations must contain provisions relating to basic wages, annual holidays with pay, the organisation of apprenticeship and the methods of settling industrial disputes. If the representatives of the employers and the Labour Inspectorate fail to agree, the point in dispute must be referred to an arbitration board. As a rule the labour regulations are subject to revision every year. Compulsory minimum wages must be fixed in all industrial and commercial occupations for each class of person (men, women and children) and for the various districts, in accordance with the necessities of existence. Committees appointed by the Governors or Senior Residents and including employers' representatives, indigenous members of elected 136 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA bodies and the local labour inspector must meet annually to fix the minimum wage rates for each district; exceptionally, in cases of changes in the cost of living the committees may meet during the course of the year. Piece rates must be established so as to allow a worker of average ability to earn in a day of statutory length a wage at least equal to the minimum rate laid down for his district. Wages must be paid in legal currency at least once a month. In case of unwarranted delay in payment of wages the labour inspector, after first warning the employer concerned, may fix a time-limit for the payment of the wages due ; if the wages are not paid within such period the matter forms the subject of a new report which is submitted to a court of summary jurisdiction which may then order whatever measures seem necessary for the protection of the workers, including the appointment of a temporary administrator. In cases of dispute concerning the payment of wages the employer must prove that he has fulfilled his obligations. The wages of wage-earning and salaried employees constitute a preferential claim in accordance with the conditions laid down in section 2101 of the Civil Code. No deductions from wages may be made by the employer for equipment, except in connection with tools and instruments issued to a worker and found to be missing at the time of his departure, or in connection with stores and supplies entrusted to the worker and the use made of sums advanced for the purchase of such objects. Cash advances made to workers may be recovered by the employer only by means of successive deductions not exceeding one-tenth of the wages due. Company stores, i.e. stores in which the employer is interested in the sale or issue of goods to the workers, are allowed subject to three conditions, viz., (1) that the workers are not obliged to purchase goods at the store; (2) that the sale of goods does not give any profit to the employer or his representative; (3) that the accounts of each store are kept separately. Caï-sub-contractors are not allowed to run a company store, either directly or indirectly. The price of all commodities sold must be clearly shown in French and in the vernacular. The labour inspectors and supervisors have right of entry into company stores and may order them to be closed in case of contravention of the legal provisions. The recruiting of contract labour continues to be governed by the general or local regulations already established, while the recruiting of non-contract labour is regulated by Orders of the Governor-General. Non-fee-charging employment offices will be set up and organised in districts where the need for them is felt. Chapter IV deals with conditions of employment. All undertakings desiring to employ labour for commercial or industrial purposes must so inform the local Labour Inspectorate. Notification must also be given of any cessation of business, change of proprietor, transfer of premises, employment of children under 18 years of age or women, or the installation of motive power or mechanical plant. Children may not be employed in an industrial, mining or commercial undertaking before the age of 12 years. The labour inspectors may at any time demand the examination by a medical practitioner employed in any public service of children and young persons over 12 years of age but under 18 years of age who are already in employment, in order to ascertain whether the work on which they are employed exceeds their strength. If this is found to be so, the inspector may order their work to be changed or their dismissal from the establishment. In orphanages and charitable institutions in which elementary instruction is given, WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 137 manual or vocational instruction for children under 12 years of age may not exceed five hours a day. In industrial, mining and commercial undertakings of all sorts, the hours actually worked by wage-earning and salaried employees of either sex may not exceed nine in the day after 1 January 1937, and eight in the day after 1 January 1938. In underground work the hours of presence of each worker in the mines may not exceed nine hours a day up to 1 January 1938 and eight hours a day after that date. The reduction of hours of work entailed by this provision may in no case be taken as a determining cause for a reduction of wages. Orders issued by the Governor-General, at the request of the heads of the Local Governments and after consultation with the Chambers of Industry and Agriculture concerned, will establish the conditions of the limitation of hours of work by occupational classes and mention the cases in which permanent exemptions may be granted, as well as the measures for the supervision of working hours and rest periods. Any night work, i.e., work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., is forbidden for boys under 18 years of age and for girls and women of any age; the nightly rest period for these classes of workers may not be less than eleven consecutive hours. Temporary exemptions may be granted by Order of the Governor-General to certain specified industries in which the workers are employed in connection with raw materials or materials in preparation which are liable to rapid deterioration. Salaried employees, workers and apprentices employed in any kind of industrial, mining or commercial undertaking may not be employed on more than six successive days. Orders issued by the heads of the Local Governments will fix the classes of undertakings which may organise the weekly rest in rotation and the special exemptions to the weekly rest authorised in the case of skilled workers employed in continuous process undertakings. Undertakings working only at certain times of the year or using perishable materials may be authorised by the local Labour Inspectorate to suspend the application of the weekly rest. The rest period for women on confinement does not carry with it the right to wages. Women may nurse their children in the undertakings where they are employed for one year reckoned from the date of confinement; for such purposes they are entitled to two rest periods of 20 minutes each— one during the morning's work and one during the afternoon's work. All workers, salaried employees and apprentices employed in an industrial, mining or commercial undertaking or in a liberal profession are entitled, after one year's service in the undertaking or profession, to an annual holiday with pay of at least five days from 1 January 1937 and of at least ten days from 1 January 1938, An Order issued by the Governor-General after consultation with the Chambers of Agriculture will establish the methods of granting annual holidays with pay to workers in agricultural undertakings which seem to be entitled to benefit from these measures. Girls and women.of any age and boys under 15 years of age may not be employed on underground work. Children of both sexes who are under 12 years of age may not be employed as actors or supernumeraries in theatres, cafés, concert halls, circuses and travelling shows. Chapter VI of the Decree deals with the health and safety of the workers. The main provisions under this heading concern the fencing-off of power machines and certain parts of machinery and of transmission gear, lighting, the airing or ventilation of work premises, and the removal of smoke, dust or fumes, etc. In certain cases the employer may be required 138 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA to provide quarters for all or part of his workers. The employer must arrange at his own expense for the worker to have a supply of drinking water at the workplaces. He must also bear the cost of issuing supplies of quinine to the workplaces and in certain cases keep a male dresser or medical practitioner there. Orders will be issued by the Governor-General to define the various kinds of dangerous or unhealthy work which are forbidden for children and women. The use of lead compounds in painting wTork in the interior or on the exterior of the premises is forbidden. Chapter VII concerns industrial accidents. Accidents occurring in industrial, commercial or agricultural undertakings entitle the injured worker or his heirs to an indemnity payable by the employer, whether the worker is responsible for the accident or not, when incapacity for work lasts for more than four days. Workers who wilfully cause an accident are excluded from this provision. Within three months of the promulgation of the Decree, the Governor-General must issue an Order establishing the methods by which the accident provisions are to be applied. Chapter VIII deals with labour inspection. The administration of the Decree must be supervised by the Inspector-General of Labour, the labour inspectors and their assistants; in certain cases district administrative officers and their assistants may be authorised by an Order issued by the head of the Local Government to collaborate with the labour inspectors in the application of the Decree. In principle, the supervision of work in mines and quarries will be carried out by the mining engineers; this may also be done by the labour inspectors whenever the Governor-General deems it necessary. Officials of the Labour Inspectorate have right of entry into all undertakings covered by the Decree; they establish contraventions by reports which are accepted as evidence in default of evidence to the contrary; they will be authorised to represent the workers and salaried employees in any action brought against the employer, the parties concerned being entitled in such cases to legal assistance. The provisions of the Decree of 30 January 1929 investing the labour supervisors with simple police powers for the suppression of infringements to the contract of employment are maintained in toto. Chapter IX deals with penalties. In most cases infringements of the provisions of the Decree entail a fine of 1-10 francs and in the case of a repeated offence, 10-15 francs. These amounts are increased respectively to 16-50 francs and 50-300 francs for infringements of the provisions relating to the prohibition of fines, establishment stores and health and safety measures. Finally, any attempt to hinder an inspector in the execution of his duty entails a fine of 100-500 francs, and in the case of a repeated offence, of 500-1,000 francs. In the case of a number of infringements of the same kind, the fine will be multiplied by the number of workers affected by the infringements. Heads of undertakings are responsible before civil law for the sentences passed on their directors, managers or representatives. Chapter X deals with industrial disputes. For the settlement of collective disputes between employers and workers, the provisions of. the Decree of 2 April 1932 concerning conciliation and arbitration are maintained. For individual disputes, the prescriptions of the Decree of 29 April 1930 are maintained, but a Decree will be issued to simplify the procedure and the settlement of disputes not conciliated by the boards and referred to the competent courts. 1 1 Journal officiel de la République française, 31 December 1936. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 139 The text which has just been analysed was the object of violent criticism by the representatives of the employers' organisations from the moment it appeared. 1 Even before then, they had lodged a series of objections with the Ministry for the Colonies. On certain points the Minister had recognised the justification of the complaints, but on others he had considered that it was preferable to refrain from changing the text prepared by his.Department and had promised to send instructions to the Governor-General that, in applying the Decree, some account should be taken of the employers' observations. This method of proceeding was criticised by the organisations concerned in the following terms : " Such action would seem likely to put the Governor-General in a false position. The Decree will in fact be promulgated, but instructions will not be given. The people will hear only of the Decree, and the measures of adaptation which the Governor-General will be obliged to take may appear to them to be a violation of the Decree." 2 Among other things the criticism of the employers' organisations was directed mainly against the prohibition of fines which, in their opinion, might easily turn against the workers in certain cases, as dismissal would be the only penalty possible, even for very slight errors on their part. Moreover, by fixing 15 years as the minimum age for admission of boys to underground work, the Ministry for the Colonies had been more severe for Indo-China than was the case in France, where the corresponding age was 14 years. This inequality was all the more regrettable in view of the fact that Annamites were more precocious than Europeans (the Indo-Chinese undertakings had proposed an age limit of 12 years). Generally speaking, the group of Indo-Chinese undertakings had refused to give its support to the Decree as a whole as they considered that its " application, in the case of a number of other points, will be extremely difficult and harmful to the Colony ". 2 It may be well to point out that the Decree of 30 September 1936 will become applicable in Indo-China only on its promulgation in the Official Gazette of the Colony. 3 It appears likely that the Orders of the Governor-General which will give real effect to the 1 Especially at the joint meeting held in Paris on 12 January 1937 by the Committee of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Indo-China and the Indo-China section of the French Colonial Union. (Cf. La Quinzaine Coloniale, 10 February 1937.) 2 La Quinzaine Coloniale, 10 February 1937. 3 The Decree was promulgated by an Order of 27 January 1937 [Journal officiel de l'Indochine française, 3 February 1937). 140 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Decree will include certain concessions and modifications, and as a matter of fact the local administrative authorities have already said as much. Thus, in the course of a statement made in December 1936 to the Grand Council of Economic and Financial Interests of Indo-China, on the enforcement of the social laws to that country, a Government representative stated that : " These measures (limitation of hours of work, prohibition of night work for women and children, weekly rest and annual holidays with pay) introduce a new element in the economic system of Indo-China. They are embodied in legislation which must be enforced. As to the methods of application, the Chambers of Commerce are now being consulted. The Government will make allowances for the special conditions prevailing in Indo-China. The laws must be applied, but with prudence and moderation. They will be enforced by Government Orders which will be issued only after a detailed study of the facts." 1 A somewhat similar statement was made by the Governor-General of Indo-China to the Rubber Planters' Union of Indo-China: " There can be no question of applying the social laws by a system of rigid rules, but rather with the elasticity necessary to adapt them to local methods of work. . . . The Governor and the labour inspectorate recognise that it is only right to take account of the climate and actual working conditions, that the necessary adjustments must be made, and that the administrative authorities have never been too severe in such matters except when abuses are discovered. Moreover, the authorities have always the right to authorise exemptions to the existing legislation, and they have never failed to do so when it was felt that such exemptions were justified and not incompatible with the spirit of the laws. At the same time, in view of present circumstances and the necessity of applying methods more in keeping with the policy of the present Government of the metropolis, the planters will be well advised immediately to draw up a list of their desiderata as to the methods of applying the laws to agriculture, so as to be in a position to inform the local authorities of their point of view. The latter will endeavour to co-ordinate their suggestions with the instructions issued to them, as it is their earnest desire to satisfy everybody concerned." 2 1 L'Annam nouveau, 6 December 1936. Bulletin du Syndicat des Planteurs de Caoutchouc ember 1936. 2 de l'Indochine, 9 Nov- CHAPTER III VARIOUS PROBLEMS The present chapter deals with a number of problems which are common to the various forms of wage-paid labour and which are of particular importance for the understanding of the situation of the Annamite working class now in process of formation. These questions are wages, the cai system, workmen's compensation for accidents, labour inspection, and trade unions. § 1. — Wages This subject will be examined under the following headings: (1) components of wages; (2) wage rates and variations by occupations, regions and periods; (3) relation of wage rates to the cost of living. COMPONENTS OF WAGES As in other colonies, wages in Indo-China are generally made up of two main components: cash wages and remuneration in kind. In some cases the entire wage is paid in kind, as for example when an undertaking is set up in an uninhabited district with no resources, where it is necessary that the employer should provide both food and quarters. So far as non-contract labour is concerned, this matter has not been regulated by law, and it frequently occurs, in some parts of Annam and Tonking, that harvesters receive a quantity of paddy for their services. On the other hand, under the legislation relating to contract labour, which has already been discussed, the worker is guaranteed, in addition to a minimum wage, 750 grms. of dried rice a day (to which are added quarters, medical attendance and, on the expiry of the contract, the cost of repatriation and a lump sum payable under a deferred pay scheme). The employer is bound by the contract of employment to provide these advantages and facilities and he may be required to supply all the food required by the 142 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA worker if a stipulation to that effect is included in the contract. The legislation minutely defines the daily rations, which must correspond to at least 3,200 calories and must include a certain proportion of fresh foodstuffs. The composition of an adult worker's rations has already been described in the chapter on contract labour. In the 1930 statistics, 42,664 of thé 81,188 workers recorded were in receipt of a rice ration or a rice ration and quarters. In commercial and industrial undertakings, 16,079 workers received rice and quarters. It is thus seen that a fairly large proportion of the working class receive supplementary wages in kind. The cash part of the wage is paid partly in the usual way and partly in the form of deferred pay. Full details concerning the deferred pay scheme have been given in the chapter on contract labour. WAGE RATES AND VARIATIONS The law only regulates the payment of wages to contract workers. According to the Order of 25 October 1927, wages must be paid at least once a month, not more than 10 days after the expiry of the period for which they are due; they must be paid in IndoChinese currency in the presence of the employer or his representative. The same Order lays down the composition of the daily rations but does not state the amount of the minimum wage; in practice, however, any changes in wage rates must be approved by the Governor-General, so that, for contract workers, a minimum wage may be said to be applied. The outstanding feature of wage rates in Indo-China is their extreme variety in different occupations and regions. Official enquiries were carried out in 1931, 1932 and 1933 into the wages paid for indigenous labour in the principal areas of employment, and these enquiries produced much valuable and significant information. In order not to overburden the present text, the various tables showing the results of the enquiries are given separately, * only the general conclusions which these tables justify being given here. Variations by Occupations A study of the wages paid in the various occupations brings out the fact that the Indo-Chinese working class is not merely 1 See Appendix I, Tables 14-18. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 143 composed of unskilled labourers, but already includes various groups of skilled and semi-skilled workers. The two main groups, however, are the workers in industrial and agricultural undertakings, whose wages are based on day rates, and salaried employees and servants who are paid by the month. The lowest paid workers are the unskilled workers in industry and agriculture. In Indo-China the current wage of agricultural workers amounted in 1933 to 0.22 piastre 1 a day for men and to 0.16 piastre for women, when employed by indigenous employers; these rates were supposed to be increased by 0.02 piastre on the European concessions. In addition to these cash wages, the worker usually received two meals a day, which may be valued at 8 to 10 cents. For contract labour from Tonking and Annam employed in Cochin-China and Cambodia, the guaranteed minimum wage was reduced in May 1935 from 0.30 to 0.27 piastre for men and from 0.23 to 0.20 piastre for women, quarters and a daily ration of 750 grms. of rice being supplied in addition by the employer. 2 In the mines of Tonking the daily wage for labourers varies from 0.20 to 0.30 piastre; the average wage for labourers in the north of Indo-China amounts, however, to 0.35 piastre for men and 0.21 for women. For skilled labour, including masons, painters, printers, bookbinders, draughtsmen and specialised factory workers, the average wages during 1933 were as follows: 0.68 piastre for men and 0.25 piastre for women in the north of Indo-China; 1.25 piastre in the Saigon-Cholon district. The wages earned by cals, supervisors and foremen amounted on an average to 1.12 piastre. A considerable difference thus exists between the wages of the ordinary workers and those paid to foremen, whose earnings practically correspond to those of the lower middle-class. Workers paid by the month are comparatively well-off in comparison with day workers. In 1932 personal servants earned a monthly wage varying from 12 to 13 piastres for boys and congais, to 20 piastres for cooks and to about 30 piastres for chauffeurs. Office boys, store-men, shop assistants and watchmen were paid from 20 to 30 piastres a month. Office and commercial employees practically belong to the middle classes, their monthly remuneration 1 Until September 1936 the piastre had been stabilised at the rate of 10 French francs. 2 This reduction was to apply only to contracts concluded after that date, the rates fixed by older contracts remaining in force until their expiry. 144 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA amounting to about 50 piastres. (These figures, which are for the north of Indo-China, should be increased by 40-60 per cent, for the Saigon-Cholon district.) Variations by Region It may be seen from the figures quoted above that there is a considerable difference between wages in the north of Indo-China and those paid in the Saigon-Cholon area. The difference between Cochin-China and Tonking is particularly marked. In 1931 the wages paid in Saigon were twice as much as those current in Hanoï.1 This difference is explained by the fact that labour is abundant in the over-populated Tonking delta, whereas it is scarce in the southern part of the colony, while money is more plentiful in the rich State of Cochin-China than in the north, where every cent of the piastre has its value and where zinc coins of infinitesimal purchasing power are in circulation. Moreover, the great distance between these two working centres prevents any equalisation of wage rates. From a qualitative standpoint it may be said that in the north of Indo-China there is a large majority of poorly paid workers and a small number of skilled workers earning better wages; in Cochin-China, on the other hand, the higher paid workers practically form a sort of lower middle-class. Variations by Period 2 The index numbers indicate a general rise in wages from 1925 to 1930, both in the north and south of Indo-China. From 1930 onward, the curve falls and a decrease in wages may be noted, very rapid for Tonking (the index number—4925 = 100 — falling from 123 in 1930 to 93 in 1933 for skilled labour and from 115 in 1930 to 88 in 1933 for unskilled labour), and less rapid for CochinChina (the corresponding indices falling from 125 to 107 for skilled labour and from 123 to 100 for unskilled labour). The decline seems to have been specially sharp for the Tonking mines, where the average miner's wage decreased from 0.70 piastre (1930) to 0.45 piastre (1933), or by 36 per cent., while the wages earned by labourers fell from 0.39 piastre (1930) to 0.28 piastre (1933) or by 28 per cent. 1 Cf. Appendix I, Table 14 (Wages Paid in the Saigon-Cholon Area) and Table 15 (Workers' Wages in the North of Indo-China). 2 Cf. Appendix I, Table 17 (General Movement of Wages from 1925 to 1933). WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT W A G E S AND C O S T O F 145 LIVING It is difficult to estimate the levels of real wages in Indo-China, but some idea of the variations of real wages may be obtained by a comparison of the changes in wage rates with the changes in the cost of living. Such a comparison x brings out the fact that the rise in wages which took place between 1925 and 1930 corresponded with a very similar rise in the cost of living during the same period (wage indices increasing from 100 to 125 in Saigon and from 100 to 120 in Hanoï, and the cost of living in Saigon and Hanoï from 100 to 121). From 1930 onward the curve changed its course and a parallel fall took place both in wages and the cost of living. The general index number of the cost of living for the working class fell in Saigon from 121 in 1930 to 78 in 1935 and in Hanoï from 121 in 1930 to 83 in 1935. From 1931 to 1933 the fall recorded in the cost of living for the indigenous working class thus works out at 20 per cent., while during the same period the fall in wages, which at one moment amounted to as much as 28 per cent., generally fluctuated between 7 and 17 per cent. It might therefore be supposed that wages have shown a rather paradoxical rise in real value during the last few years, were it not for two facts which preclude any such supposition. In the first place the slump in business caused by the economic depression led to the dismissal of a fairly large number of workers and the young and less experienced were the first to go. The dismissal of the lower paid categories of workers had the result of maintaining the average level of wages in spite of the considerable reduction in the individual wages of the workers still in employment. The second consideration is that the parallel fall in wages and cost of living does not alter the fact that at no time, either in 1930 or 1936, has the budget of an Annamite worker ever shown any surplus and that it has always been impossible for the worker to save anything. Indeed, the main impression received from a study of wages in Indo-China is the extremely low rate of the usual wage, which may be estimated for 1933 at 0.53 piastre for male labourers and at 1.20 piastre for skilled workers in the Saigon-Cholon area and at 0.29 piastre for male labourers and 0.38 piastre for skilled workers in the Annam-Tonking area, the corresponding figures for women 1 Cf. Appendix I, Table 17 (Movement of Wages from 1925 to 1933 compared with the Cost-of-Living Indices for the Same Period), and Table 18 (Cost-of-Living Indices for the Indigenous Inhabitants in Hanoï and Saigon from 1925 to 1935). 10 146 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA labourers being 0.35 piastre in the Saigon-Cholon area and 0.21 piastre in the Annam-Tonking area. Low as they are, these figures still give an exaggerated idea of the real wages earned by the IndoChinese workers, as the workers earn money during only a part of the year, which sometimes does not exceed six months.1 Already much reduced by this semi-unemployment, the wage of the IndoChinese worker is frequently still further cut down by such regrettable practices as the payments which the worker often thinks it necessary to make to the cai to keep in his good graces, or the belated payment of wages or the making of undue deductions by the employer.2 And then again, there are the all too frequent opportunities open to the coolie to squander his earnings on drink, opium, gambling, etc. In point of fact all impartial observers recognise that the mass of Indo-Chinese workers are in receipt of abnormally low wages. " Generally speaking ", writes Paul Bernard, 3 " the living conditions of the masses are extremely miserable. The farmer ekes out a bare living from the land and is only able to satisfy his immediate wants. He is faced with starvation when the harvest is bad or when sickness or accident entails unforeseen expense ". The same author calculates that for 1931 the average annual earnings of a worker amounted to 44 piastres in Tonking, 47 piastres in Annam, 55 piastres in Cochin-China or Cambodia, which is an average of 49 piastres for the whole of Indo-China.4 These statements are borne out by the relative importance of the cost of food 1 " It has been calculated that the average income of an Indo-Chinese worker does not exceed 49 piastres a year. Now, the average daily wage of a labourer in 1931 was at least about 30 cents. These 49 piastres therefore represent no more than 163 working days a year. Consequently, even allowing for holidays, etc., each worker is actually employed no more than one day out of every two." (Paul BERNARD : Le problème économique Indochinois, 1934, pp. 23-24.) 2 The worker is curiously docile about the belated payment of his wages. Frequently, workers on the plantations receive no wages during a period of several months. Incidents like the following are quite usual in Indo-China : " 40 workers from the K.L.T. Company of Haly, under the guidance of a cai, have come to the Haiphong Court to complain that they have received no wages for six months. The total amount due to them is 1,000 piastres. To this amount must be added sums due to 60 Chinese workers, aggregating about 2,000 piastres ". (Courrier colonial, 15 March 1935.) 3 Le problème économique Indochinois, p. 25. 4 Without going as far as to compare these figures with the average annual earnings of a Frenchman, which for the same period were 6,200 francs, or for a worker in the United States, which were 12,500 francs, a basis of comparison is to be found in a fairly similar budget, namely, that of a Khammés, who is the lowest paid class of agricultural worker in Morocco. According to recent investigations, the budget of a Khammés family amounted to about 1,850 francs, or more than four times that of a Tonkinese worker. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 147 in the worker's budget: in the Annamite's budget, food accounts for three-quarters of the expenditure. Nor do these remarks apply to unskilled workers only, as may be seen from the following facts concerning the living conditions of an average printing worker in Hanoï: His wages amount to 10 piastres a month; he works 8 hours a day except on Sundays, when he is employed in the morning only. If he is unmarried and from the inland provinces he usually boards and lodges with a private family. The average price of board and lodging is 6 piastres a month. For this sum he is entitled to two meals a day, but not to breakfast. After paying his board and lodgings he has 4 piastres over. From this he must first deduct 50 cents a month for the payment of his personal tax and the various contributions which he must make to his village. Each month a thrifty worker will spend about 1 piastre for cigarettes and for rickshaws on days when heavy rain prevents him from going to work on foot or on a bicycle. The worker must also have clothes ; as may be guessed, his wardrobe is never very luxurious, but, such as it is, it must be renewed every two or three years and this costs him 20 piastres a time. Then there is a certain outlay for laundry, repair of clothes, the hairdresser, soap and amusements (an Annamite theatre from time to time in preference to the cinema, where the spectator must have a certain amount of education to understand the films). And when all is said and done, a worker who does not gamble, who has no debts and who lives an orderly life cannot save a cent. Moreover, very few workers have the whole of their wages to spend on themselves. The Annamite who is not married continues to have moral and financial obligations towards his family. Many of the unmarried workers must send a monthly remittance to their family. This is the duty of a good son and those who fail to observe this custom are liable to public contempt. If, however, the worker is married and has, say, two children, he lives in a state of dire poverty. The majority of such workers live in the outskirts of the towns where living is cheaper. They rent a room in a small house for about 3 piastres a month. For this price they obtain a room where it is just possible to put in two camp beds, a table and a few trunks. They must go short of everything, including food and clothes. Their children, when they are small, wear practically no clothes. From the age of two or three months they are fed on rice chewed by the mother, which gives them that swollen stomach which so astonishes French travellers. The wages of these workers are always inadequate and there is always a shortage of money in the household. Most of them fall into the hands of moneylenders. For one piastre borrowed they pay interest at the rate of 5 cents a day. When the loan is contracted just before the Têt festival, the rate of interest is doubled or trebled. The worker works only to pay his debts, from which he is never free. He borrows from Peter to pay Paul and the whole system is a vicious circle. If perchance he falls ill, he is faced with most abject poverty; and when there is no money in the household, tempers become sharp and there are continual disputes which often lead to blows. 148 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Is the picture thus painted of the existence of these miserable beings exaggerated in any way ? No, not at all. The figures given are exact and nobody can refute them. 1 The remuneration of agricultural workers hardly seems to leave a bigger margin. Mr. Paul Bernard gives the following information concerning the earnings of a farmer in Western Cochin-China: This is the case of a family of five members farming 5 hectares of land. Supposing an average yield of 1,600 kgs. per hectare, of which 50 per cent, goes to the landowner and 50 per cent, to the farmer, the latter receives for himself and his family 4,000 kgs. of paddy, which in 1931 were worth 128 piastres. To this amount must be added the extra money earned by active members of the family for the hire of their services during a part of the year, from which about 26 piastres would be received. This brings the total income of the family up to 154 piastres. It may be asked how with such a small income a family of workers is able to balance its annual budget . . . Expenditure seems to have been divided approximately as follows (on the basis of 1931 prices): Piastres Paddy, 250 kgs. a year per member 45 Meat, fish, salt, Nuoc-mam 33 Tobacco, benzine, betelnut, matches, tea . . . 25 Clothes 12 Housing 10 Holidays, medical attendance and sundries . . 22 Tools 7 Direct taxes 10 Total 164 This budget represented the average budget of a family of farmers in Western Cochin-China in 1931. It was then considered as a strict minimum which left the farmer no possibility of saving even in good years and which inevitably entailed privation in case of bad harvest, debts, sickness or any other misfortune.2 It must be admitted that there is something radically wrong with a system which to an ever greater extent imposes Western economic methods and increased requirements on the Indo-Chinese worker, but which at the same time tends to result in a constant reduction of his purchasing power. It has been affirmed that the wage reductions which have become more and more frequent during recent years have led to no discontent in the working population. This statement appears to be highly optimistic. A large number of the strikes which occurred between 1922 and February 1934 were caused by wage questions. Similarly, on the 1 V. N. P. : " La Vie d'un ouvrier typographe moyen à Hanoi " in La Revue Franco-Annamite, 1 September 1931. 2 Paul BERNARD: Le problème économique Indochinois, op. cit., pp. 22-23. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 149 plantations the reduction of labourers' wages has given rise to incidents and in some cases to bloodshed. 1 § 2. — The " Caïs " In order to maintain contact with the Annamite workers, the European employer in Indo-China, who is frequently ignorant of the Annamite language, must as. a rule employ indigenous intermediaries. Thé adjustment of the two elements of production —capital and labour—thus coincides here with the question of the contact between peoples " which is not always direct and which is, or was, very frequently ensured by liaison agents, with intermediaries engaged to form a link which could not otherwise have been formed ". 2 Such agents had moreover been used by traders representing commercial interests to establish contact with the peoples of Asia and Africa and it was therefore natural that they should be used as go-betweens in the introduction of industrial capitalism among the indigenous populations. 3 Experience shows, however, that the use of such intermediaries or cais has led in many cases to serious difficulties. This problem naturally varies according to the nature and the duties of the intermediary. In some cases the cai is appointed by the manager of an undertaking or company to carry out certain duties agreed upon in advance, but on his own account and on his own responsibility. He may be responsible for the engagement of the necessary workers, the organisation of the work, the payment of wages, etc. In this case the cai is really an employer and is known as a ca'i-subcontjactor. Sometimes the cai is simply required to recruit workers in the villages, and his job comes to an end when he has conducted the workers to the undertaking. In this case he is simply a recruiting agent. In other cases the cai continues to supervise the workers recruited 1 For example, on the M plantation wage reductions led on 16 December 1932 to serious incidents in the village of Dau-Trieng, when three Tonkinese workers were killed by the militia and four others seriously wounded. The reply of the Ministry for the Colonies to a question raised in Parliament in this connection showed that " the management of the plantation had exceeded its rights in wishing to impose on its labour wages lower than those contracted for; it had also falsely stated that the reductions had been authorised by the Governor-General. Legal proceedings have consequently been taken against the manager of the plantation." (Annales Coloniales, 7 June 1933.) 2 3 M. MAUNIER: Sociologie Coloniale, p. 87. André DUMAREST: op. cit., pp. 103-104. 150 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA. by himself or others, when he is really a foreman and responsible to the employer for the discipline of the workers under his orders. In still other cases, the cai may simply be responsible for providing and cooking food for the workers. Each of these four categories gives rise to certain corrupt practices which will now be described on the basis of information from official documents. "CAÏS" SUB-CONTRACTORS In instructions issued on 30 March 1932 the general manager of the Tonking Coalfields Company called the attention of the technical services to the following practices: Some of the sub-contractors deduct a scandalously high percentage from the price of each job and pay their workers a quite inadequate part of their earnings. This is a matter which should and must be taken up by the local managers, whose work is not completed when they have correctly calculated the cost of each piece of work. After allowing for what is due to the sub-contractor (wages, commission, profit, interest on loans, i.e. about 20 per cent, at most), they must always fix for each of the workplaces under their orders the proportion of the cost of the work which the sub-contractors must hand over to the workers. This is the more essential as it should enable a check to be kept on the prices actually paid for work, while it will put no excessive strain on the local managers who must see that it is done. It will then be sufficient for the local managers to make known by various and indirect means what they consider should normally be paid to the workers in the different workplaces in order to oblige the sub-contractors to remit the necessary amounts. In this way an end will be put to the extortions imposed on the workers, which are likely to undermine the normal working of the undertakings by compromising future recruiting operations. The indigenous foreman will, moreover, be able to render valuable assistance to the local managers by letting the workers know to what they are really entitled. The measures suggested above are more a matter for private initiative than for the administrative authorities. In a report sent to the Governor-General of Indo-China on 21 November 1932, the Senior Resident of Tonking stated that " any administrative measures taken in connection with the caïs sub-contractors imply official supervision over and above that established by the employer. This twofold supervision does not appear easy to arrange and very likely would be a cause of constant friction between representatives of the Government and the employers, who would see in it an attempt to undermine their authority. If well organised, constant supervision by the employer alone, whose interests are always at stake, should suffice from every point of view. The official regulation of this delicate matter therefore appears inopportune and WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 151 would not seem to be required in the future. It is certain t h a t with the constant improvement and development of the industrial equipment oft he colony, the cai sub-contractor would come to be replaced by the cai supervisor or cai foreman. I t is therefore not rash to suppose t h a t in some years' time the cai sub-contractor will have completely ceased to exist." RECRUITING "CA'ÍS" In the report which has just been quoted, the Senior Resident described the drawbacks of recruiting by cais in the following terms: The recruiting cais carry out their duties far from their employers and are able to give free play to their cupidity at the expense of the recruited workers and their employers. In many cases they are simply unscrupulous adventurers who do not hesitate to use the worst methods in order to attract the largest possible number of workers to the workplaces where they keep a hold on them by means of loans at exorbitant rates of interest. Among the dishonest practices common among the cais, the principal may be said to be that (1) they do not give the workers full details of the conditions of living and wages prevailing at the places of employment, and that they deceive them with promises which do not correspond to reality; (2) they pay very little attention to the working capacity of the persons whom they engage ; (3) they spend on themselves the money received for the recruits and make a profit on all operations with which they are entrusted (catering, transport, etc.). The result is that the workers arrive at the workplaces in a demoralised condition and therefore have some difficulty in settling down to a new life and different surroundings from those to which they were accustomed. The mass desertions which occur specially in mining undertakings would be less frequent and certain incidents might be avoided if the methods of recruiting were improved. Against abuses of this sort administrative action was possible. Obviously the first thing to be done was to exclude all bad or doubtful characters from the ranks of the recruiting agents b y forming a corps of " approved recruiting agents " and introducing a system of strict supervision over their work. Such was the aim of the authorities when they introduced regulations for the recruiting of contract labour by the Order of 16 July 1930. At the same time the authorities were not blind to the fact that the supervision of the recruiting of non-contract workers was likely to meet with much more difficulty and take much more time to establish than in the case of contract workers, as they had not the same means of supervision or the same possibility of inflicting penalties. But the difficulties to be overcome did not appear insuperable, and the Governor-General of Indo-China proceeded to 152 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA regulate the recruiting of non-contract labour in Tonking by an Order issued on 19 December 1934. 1 In the main, this Order reproduces the chief provisions of the Order of 16 July 1930 relating to the recruiting of non-contract labour. Every agricultural, commercial, industrial or mining undertaking in Tonking desirous of recruiting local labour through persons acting as intermediaries, whether such persons are in a service of the undertaking concerned or not, must previously submit to the Labour Inspectorate and the Police Department of Tonking, a list of all its employees or representatives responsible for the engagement of workers; this list must contain full particulars concerning the civil condition of the recruiting agents, and their photographs both full face and profile, so as to permit the establishment of identity cards. • Every recruiting agent must be provided with: (1) an identity paper; (2) a personal-tax card for the current year; (3) special authority from his principal or employer visa'd by the Resident. This visa may be refused in every case where the person concerned has been sentenced for fraud, false pretences or any other fraudulent act. The undertakings are bound to dismiss (or to abstain from utilising further the services of) the recruiting agents indicated to them by the administrative authorities as not offering a sufficient guarantee, either by reason of their antecedents or because they have been guilty of extortion when effecting engagements. The recruiting agents will be held personally liable for the conduct and methods of operation of any auxiliary staff employed by them. The sanctions laid down include simple police penalties. "CAÏS " FOREMEN It frequently happens that the workers recruited by the caïs appointed for such work by the head of the undertaking remain after their arrival at the workplace under the orders of the same caïs, who continue to act as foremen. The result of this arrangement, under which the cài is a sort of agent between the worker and the employer, is to weaken the protective effect of the labour regulations. The annual reports of the Labour Inspectorate frequently refer to assaults, sometimes followed by fatal consequences, committed by contract workers on the person of their cài. The causes of these incidents undoubtedly lie in the brutality and cupidity of the caïs. It would seem that the latter frequently persecute the workers so as to force them to offer a part of their monthly wages " in order not to be worried ". The same reports 1 Cf. Journal Officiel de VIndochine, 29 December 1934. The methods of applying this Order were laid down in a Circular sent by the Senior Resident of Tonking to administrative officers on 8 January 1935 (cf. Bulletin administratif du Tonkin, 1 February 1935). WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 153 also attribute the large number of desertions from the contingents of newly arrived workers to the " tendencies shown by the older workers and even by indigenous foremen to frighten new recruits, to persecute them and to impose excessively hard work on beginners ".1 Here again the measures to be taken to abolish such practices come better from the undertakings themselves than from the administrative authorities. Certain measures which are a matter of common sense have already been generally introduced : viz. strict supervision of the cdis by European supervisors, increased direct contact between the. employer and the workers as the result of a more common knowledge of the Annamite language among European employers, etc., but the best measure would certainly appear to be the elimination of the recruiting cdis by dealing directly with the workers as individuals. This could be done in two stages, the first being to establish the identity of the workers (too often the worker is absolutely unknown to the European and merely represents a number to him). The second stage, which is already completed'in some undertakings, is the direct payment of wages to the individual worker, which would enable him to free himself from the clutches of the cai. This is, however, not the place to discuss the details of such measures; but it may be noted that the tendencies shown by certain mining undertakings to strengthen the hold which the cai already has on the worker militate against the very desirable development of direct relations between the employer and his workers. In the Uong-Bi mines, for example, the whole system of employment, including recruiting and distribution of work, is left to the cdis. They report to the management with a gang of workerswhich they have themselves recruited. Wages are calculated for each gang and are paid to each worker individually, but a bonus in proportion to the aggregate wages of the gang goes to the cai. The Company has even asked the authorities to bind the workers more closely to the cai by authorising the conclusion of contracts of employment between the cai and the workers. Under such contracts the worker would be required to undertake to work for the cai for a given number of months and would be unable to leave the mine without the permission of the cai. The initial advance on wages would be made by the cai, which would allow proceedings to be taken against the workers who leave work without permission 1 Cf., for example, the Rapport sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection du travail en Cochinchine pour la période du 1er juillet 1933 au 30 juin 1934. 154 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA of the cai and without refunding the sum advanced. No information is available as to what steps have or will be taken by the authorities in reply to the proposal made by the Company. It seems difficult to imagine, however, that they can fail to perceive the danger of a suggestion which, by adding means of legal pressure to the formidable moral influence which the cai already has on the worker, would put the latter entirely in the hands of the foremen without guaranteeing the workers any of the advantages (food, medical treatment, etc.) which are considered as an indispensable counterpart of contract labour. "CAÏS " CATERERS Instructions, to which reference has already been made, issued on 30 March 1932 by the general manager of the Tonking Coalfields Company to the technical services, draw attention in the following terms to the abuses committed by the cais caterers and indicate the measures to be taken to abolish these abuses. In one of our centres the workers employed by the Company left after several days' work on account of the fact, unfortunately true, that the recruiting agents responsible for feeding them gave them barely three-quarters of the rice ration drawn in their name. The distribution of rice ration measures stamped with our mark which has been made by the technical management and announced to the workers should make this abominable form of extortion much more difficult to practise; it will be made still more difficult by the obligation imposed on the caterers to state their trade and to register on a special form. The local managers must always enquire into complaints made by workers against the caterers, verify the grounds of these complaints conscientiously and where necessary dismiss dishonest caterers. They must in all cases note the names of recruiting caïs who are wellknown for tampering with the food of the workers and arrange with Mr. Schuttig to have these caïs struck off the list of future recruiting agents, beginning with those who are merely labour commission agents and never appear in our works. Moreover, in all our centres, measures must be taken which, while not affecting output or upsetting hours of work, will enable the workers personally and individually to draw their rice rations from our stores. Every facility will be offered to workers who desire to see for themselves that the proper rice rations are issued. § 3. — Workmen's Compensation French workmen's compensation legislation has already been extended to a number of the French colonies. The principal measure is the Act of 9 April 1898, which deals with occupational risks, lump sum compensation and the institution of special guarantees and a simplified procedure for the injured parties. The compensation WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 155 arises out of the accident itself irrespective of whether this can be attributed to a fault, to chance or to unavoidable circumstances. From the legal standpoint the occupational risk is not the risk undergone by the worker but the employer's risk. Just as an employer must foresee and be prepared for wear and tear to his plant, so must he, given the complexity of industrial mechanism, make provision for accidents and injuries to his staff and the death of his workers—all of which constitute a contingent liability on his undertaking. Section 34 of the Act of 9 April 1898 stated that public administrative regulations would define the methods of applying the Act to the colonies. French legislation was extended to Indo-China by the Decree of 9 September 1934, which was promulgated in IndoChina by an Order issued by the Governor-General on 26 January 1935.1 This Decree, however, excluded indigenous workers and Asiatics placed on the same footing from the benefit of the Act, and made no reference whatever to occupational diseases, as the medical authorities consulted were of opinion that in the present state of science it was practically impossible to distinguish with any degree of accuracy between tropical diseases and industrial diseases. The result is that the Decree of 9 September 1934 covers only accidents affecting workers of French nationality employed in Indo-China, who number a few thousand all told, and alien workers covered under some system of reciprocity, who at most number a few hundred.2 The bulk of the indigenous workers thus remain outside the scope of the Decree of 9 September 1934 and their exclusion has given rise to protests and a certain amount of criticism. Dissatisfaction at this state of affairs has been expressed in local assemblies by the representatives of the indigenous workers, who continue to demand the extension of the Decree to all classes of the working population. When the draft Decree was approved in October 1929 by the Grand Council of the Economic and Financial Interests of Indo-China, the representatives of the people were given the assurance that the question of the extension of French legislation to indigenous workers would be given thorough consideration. 1 Journal Officiel de l'Indochine, 2 February 1935. The Act also applies to the inhabitants of Indo-China eligible for French citizenship, as a Naturalisation Order brings the person concerned under the civil and political laws applicable to Frenchmen, but statistics show that so far the number of inhabitants granted naturalisation papers constitutes an infinitesimal part of the total population (30 in 1932 and 55 in 1933). 2 156 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA A number of different authorities have supported this claim. In a legal study of the question, Mr. Guermeur, barrister-at-law in Saigon, comes to the conclusion that " it indeed seems that the moment has come for Indo-China to take a decision. The special legislation on ' industrial accidents is now so generally accepted that it is considered as part of the social and humanitarian plan which it is the duty of France to develop and extend in the territories which it governs and administrates. Should not Indo-China, the most important and richest of the colonies, be the first to give an example of progress and social development ? " In 1924 the French Colonial Institute began an enquiry in all the French colonies into the possibility of introducing workmen's compensation legislation there. In employers' circles (Chambers of Commerce, Chambers of Agriculture, trade associations, etc.) in Indo-China, these investigations brought to light two currents of"opinion, some being against the proposal and others, as witness a very conscientious report of the Saigon Chamber of Commerce, being favourable on the whole, subject to certain conditions. All the organisations consulted were, however, agreed as to the equity of the principle involved by workmen's compensation. But while Tonking and Annam considered that the practical difficulties were such as to justify the rejection of the proposal as a whole, the Chamber of Commerce of Cochin-China was for finding some means of removing the obstacles to the introduction of a scheme which it regarded with a favourable eye. Nor was this divergency of opinion astonishing, as Cochin-China, a county of direct administration, where settlers and the French administrative authorities have been in close contact with the population for a longer time than in other parts of the Indo-Chinese Union, is more advanced and public opinion is better prepared for the introduction of social legislation. The objections to the application of workmen's compensation legislation, as brought out by the enquiry of the French Colonial Institute, 1 fall into three main groups. There were in the first place moral objections based on the argument that the indigenous worker was not advanced enough to understand the moral implications of the legislation, and it was to be feared that he would be led by his natural laziness to seek fraudulent ways of obtaining the benefits and allowances. In the second place it was held that practical difficulties would certainly be experienced in drafting regulations to suit local con1 Chronique de l'Institut colonial français, 30 June, 15 and 30 July 1927. WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 157 ditions and in securing the observation of the multiple and rather complicated provisions of the legislation owing to the absence of registration of births and deaths, while it would be no easy matter to find insurance undertakings ready to take up the risks. Finally, a certain' amount of opposition was based on the fact that French settlers and manufacturers already paid accident compensation to their workers. Each of these objections is open to discussion. The practice of inflicting self-injury which the opponents of the scheme had invoked in France when the Act of 1898 was under consideration, requires courage and entails sacrifices out of all proportion to the desired result. Moreover, many of the Asiatic religions lay stress on the body being free from mutilation at the time of death and it may be assumed t h a t very few Asiatics would decide to offend against this rule. This, however, does not mean that some amount of evolution is not necessary to give the Annamite a conception of the value of human life, which he does not yet possess to a sufficient degree. In his book on " The Psychology of the Annamite People " Mr. Giran, a colonial administrator, states that the Annamite seems to live in a daydream and in a sort of semi-unconsciousness of his surroundings, so that it is not at all rare to see Annamites asleep on the railway track with their heads resting on the rails. As to the difficulties of application due to the absence of registration of births, etc., these are not insuperable and measures have already been taken to initiate such registration; this is a question of administrative organisation. Finally, the argument that European employers generally com- • pensate accidents to their workers without any legal compulsion would seem to be an additional reason to incorporate in the laws a practice admitted by custom. Why not regulate and generalise this system ? It seems strange that only well-disposed employers should be called upon to bear the cost of what is a common duty. At any rate the Chinese and Annamites owning factories, who generally avoid doing so, might well be called upon to follow the example given them by French employers. The scheme proposed by the French Colonial Institute as a result of its investigations is described below: As regards indigenous workers, it would seem best to proceed by stages in introducing general regulations applicable to all employers, Europeans and Asiatics alike, and to all Asiatic workers without distinction. To exclude alien Asiatics such as Chinese, for example, from the regulations, as proposed in certain circles, would militate against the fundamental idea of the scheme, as any such step would be tanta- 158 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA mount to putting a premium on the employment of Chinese in preference to Annamites and on Chinese industries employing Chinese labour. To begin with, the regulations, drafted after the necessary investigations, should cover industrial and agricultural employment generally, define and arrange for introduction of contracts of employment ensuring the reciprocal rights and obligations of employers and workers, provide for the identification of the workers, and secure their protection against accidents, limited at the outset to the injured party. This protection would consist in obliging the employer to notify all accidents and provide the necessary medical treatment in an institution approved by the authorities, so as to prevent the workers from going to indigenous quack doctors. It would appear difficult, on the other hand, especially as foreign Asiatics are mainly concerned, to prohibit the use of the hospitals of the Chinese communities which have been authorised by the French authorities. The injured party would be entitled to a part of his wages until he is cured or finally declared to be disabled. The actual amount payable to the injured person would be established after consultation with the Chambers of Commerce and the economic organisations concerned. The question of the compensation of the injured party, and more particularly of his dependants, in case of total or partial disablement or death, will be much more difficult to settle. The objections put forward in this connection are real ones, and abuses are really to be feared from a backward population with a mentality so different from that of our European workers. Finally, the identification of the dependants is bound to give rise to many difficulties. This state of affairs makes it essential, at any rate at the outset, to differentiate between permanent labour, which is easy to identify and which consists largely of technical workers and indigenous management staff with a mentality somewhat similar to our own, and mobile labour consisting of casual workers and labourers recruited to meet temporary requirements, who are difficult to identify, if not personally, at least as regards their dependants. The methods of compensating disablement or death should be different for these two categories. The former should be identified by a work-book which should supply fuller information than does the book at present in use and which, besides the usual details, should give anthropometric details, the curriculum vitae of the holder, and details of his civil status and that of his family. For this category there would be no harm in introducing measures based, in the main, on those adopted in France in connection with workmen's compensation. In the case of casual labour, the compensation should, in view of the difficulty of keeping track of the worker and his dependants, consist of a lump sum payment in proportion to the injury, which would be paid to the injured party and his dependent widow and children and fixed by the courts of law. It cannot be denied that this solution is imperfect, but practically speaking it is the only possible one under present circumstances. Naturally, this scheme would merely be the first step towards the introduction of regulations conferring on all workers without distinction the same right to compensation for industrial accidents. The regulations outlined above should be applicable, as at present, to all agricultural workers employed under a written contract and to workers in the mechanical trades, a list of which would be drawn up after consultation with the organisations concerned. They would WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 159 subsequently be extended progressively to all1 other classes of workers, following the procedure adopted in Europe. At the same time, it cannot be said that the public authorities have remained absolutely passive as regards workmen's compensation while awaiting the extension, total or by stages, of the Decree of 9 September 1934 to the mass of the indigenous workers. Attention has already been drawn to the measures introduced on behalf of contract labour by the Order of 25 October 1927. Section 38 of the Order makes provision for the extension of the contract for a period equal to the period of absence, when this is not justified by sickness or accident occurring in the course of, or arising out of, the employment of the victim. If the injury occurs in the course of employment the worker's rights to full wages hold good during the time spent in hospital. Section 52 states that in both cases the worker is entitled to receive his food free of charge from the employer, as well as medical attendance and medicines and a supply of food for his dependent children under 15 years of age who are living on the premises of the undertaking, all at the expense of the employer. But the aim of these measures, which, moreover, apply only to contract labour, is rather to provide for the maintenance of the worker's full wages during periods of absence due to an accident than for the actual compensation of the accident. As regards the compensation of accidents, two classes of measures are in force: (1) Non-contributory allowances granted as a result of private initiative or State action ; (2) Compensation claims made by the injured party on the basis of ordinary law. (1) Non-contributory allowances. — Some employers compensate workers injured in their employment by paying them a very small lump sum indemnity.2 Here, for example, are the measures laid down by the Tonking Coalfields Company: " Every injured worker is immediately admitted to and treated in one of the Company's hospitals. On leaving hospital he receives a lump sum computed at the rate of 0.05 piastre for every day spent in hospital. In case of permanent disablement he also receives an allowance of 20 to 100 piastres according to the degree of incapacity. As a 1 s Cf. Chronique de l'Institut colonial français, 30 July 1927. Cf. " Industrial accidents: Value of a human life—minimum 30 piastres, maximum 100 piastres", L'Annam Nouveau, 19 September 1935. 160 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA rule, all partly disabled and even completely disabled workers are given suitable employment as watchmen, messengers, etc. In a case of fatal accident, the Company pays the funeral expenses and grants the family an allowance which varies with its requirements." Furthermore, the sympathy felt by the public authorities for victims of accidents receiving no compensation from their employers was shown by the inclusion in the budget of the colony of sums to be used to help such persons. In this connection the following statement was made by Mr. Varenne, Governor-General, during his speech to the Government Council on 20 September 1926: " In order to provide immediate assistance for injured workers receiving no compensation from their employers, we have included in the estimates an adequate amount earmarked to provide assistance and allowances for victims of industrial accidents. This. amount will be placed at the disposal of the local administrative authorities and distributed between them according to requirements." It seems, however, that this measure has been discontinued during recent years as a result of cuts in the estimates due to the economic depression. (2) Claims under ordinary law. — A distinction must be made here between the case of an indigenous or assimilated worker employed by a European and that of an indigenous or assimilated worker employed by an indigenous or assimilated employer. Indigenous or Assimilated Workers in the Service of a European In accordance with the principle that French law is applicable when one of the parties is French or of foreign nationality (except, of course, an assimilated Asiatic), the injured person, whatever his nationality, is entitled to claim compensation from his employer only under the provisions of ordinary law embodied in section 1384, § 1, of the Civil Code, which was declared applicable in case of an industrial accident by the decision of the Appeal Court as established by the Order of the Civil Chamber of 27 February 1929 (D., 1929, 1, 129). Section 1384, § 1, protects the worker only against accidents due to objects for which the employer is responsible, and does not cover those which are due to other reasons. Indigenous or Assimilated Workers in the Service of an Indigenous or Assimilated Person In this case only indigenous law is applicable, and the following summary of its provisions shows that it has established, at least in certain parts of the Indo-Chinese Union, the injured person's right to compensation based on a conception similar to that at the base of the corresponding French legislation. Cochin-China and Annam. — So far, the civil laws of Cochin-China and Annam have not been consolidated (an Order issued by the Governor- WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 161 General on 5 December 1935 appointed a committee to prepare a draft civil code applicable to Annamites in Indo-China who are French subjects).1 Pending this codification, legal practice is based on the old Annamite code of Gia-Long, certain provisions of which, including section 58 concerning the liability of a person in respect of accidents caused by inanimate objects for which he is responsible, have sometimes been applied in order to obtain compensation for industrial accidents. Cambodia. — The Royal Order of 25 February 1920 promulgated a Civil Code in Cambodia and sections 827-834 regulate the compensation of industrial accidents. Under these regulations masters and employers are required to compensate their servants, salaried employees, workers, wage earners, and apprentices for accidents occurring in the course of, or arising out of, the work for which they were engaged. If the incapacity caused by the accident is only temporary, the employer is required to pay the cost of the treatment given to the victim, as weil as the cost of his maintenance, provided that the latter does not exceed the amount of wages earned. If incapacity is permanent the employer must pay an indemnity to the worker unless he arranges to retain the worker in his service and the worker consents. If the accident is fatal the funeral expenses are paid by the employer, who must also pay an allowance to the dependent members of the deceased's family, provided that such allowance does not exceed the wages of the deceased. No allowance is payable if the employer arranges to maintain the dependants of the victim and the latter consent. Disputes concerning the amount of the allowance are settled by a court competent to deal with indigenous affairs. In dealing with cases of permanent incapacity the court must make allowance for the loss of capacity incurred and the amount earned by the victim in daily wages, and, in case of a fatal accident, for the degree of consanguinity of the victim's dependants, so as to effect the necessary reduction in the amount of the allowance. Laos. — Sections 197-201 of the Laotian Civil Code provide for two methods of assessing workmen's compensation, according to whether the accident was or was not the consequence of an operation or dangerous work for which no special remuneration was laid down to offset the risk. If the accident is caused by dangerous work, the liability of the employer is regulated as follows: in the case of death or permanent total incapacity, the victim or his dependants are entitled, according to their situation, to an allowance amounting to 100 piastres for officials, 80 piastres for an employee of the administration or a skilled worker exercising a remunerative trade, and 50 piastres for all other workers. These allowances are reduced to one-half or to one-quarter of the stated amount when the victim's working capacity is reduced, even permanently, by 50 or 25 per cent. In case of temporary incapacity, the person liable in case of accident is required to pay as damages to the injured party the cost of the treatment entailed and in addition, throughout the whole period of incapacity, full wages in the case of an official, 0.55 piastre a day in the case of an employee of the administration or a skilled worker, and 0.25 piastre a day in the case of all other persons. 1 Book I of the Civil Code of Annam was promulgated on 13 July 1936. il 162 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA AU the above-mentioned allowances are reduced by one-half if the injured person is under age and has undertaken the operation or dangerous work with the authorisation of his parents. Among other classes of work, the Civil Code classifies the following as dangerous: scaling of tall trees, going down wells or underground caves or passages, diving into a deep or rapidly flowing part of a river, the capturing of wild animals, the training of untamed animals, pursuit of criminals, etc. When, on the other hand, the accident is not the result of dangerous work, but is nevertheless incurred in the course of, or arising out of, paid employment, the employer is required, in case of death or permanent incapacity, to pay to the victim an allowance equal to one-half of the corresponding indemnity established for injuries caused by dangerous work. In case of death he must also pay the cost of burial or cremation. If the accident results in minor injuries, the employer must provide the injured person with medical attendance and food throughout the period of temporary incapacity. Finally, in no case is the employer responsible for accidents resulting from unavoidable circumstances. Tonking. — Industrial accidents are regulated in Tonking by sections 726-729 of the Civil Code, which was promulgated in 1931 for use in indigenous courts. In case of accidents incurred by their servants, salaried employees, workers, wage earners, and apprentices in the course of, or arising out of, their employment, the employer is liable only if the accident is not due to a gross mistake or imprudence on the part of the victim, the onus of proof being on the employer. In case of temporary incapacity, the employer must pay the cost of the treatment given to the injured person and provide for his maintenance throughout the period of invalidity, provided that the cost of maintenance does not in any case exceed the amount of wages earned by the injured party. If the incapacity is permanent the employer must pay an allowance to the injured party unless he arranges to retain him in his service and the worker consents. In case of fatal accident the funeral expenses are paid by the employer, who must also pay an allowance to the dependent members of the deceased's family, provided that such allowance does not exceed the wages earned by the deceased. The court fixes the amount of the allowance in case of permanent incapacity, on the basis of the loss of capacity incurred and the amount of daily wages earned by the victim and, in the case of fatal accident, in accordance with the degree of consanguinity of the victim's dependants and their requirements.1 § 4. — Labour Inspection In a country like Indo-China, where the workers are not organised and are therefore unable to take any adequate measures to protect their interests, the part played by the labour inspectorate is of 1 Guy MARCILLE: L'extension à l'Indochine de la législation métropolitaine des accidents du travail, 1936, pp. 146-152. WAGE-PAID .EMPLOYMENT 163 essential importance. Thé first labour inspectorate was set up in Cochin-China in 1918 by Mr. Sarraut, Governor-General. Subsequently, local inspectorates were established in Tonking by an Order dated 30 April 1926, in Annam by an Order of 10 June 1927 and in Cambodia by an Order of 10 October 1927. It was only on 19 July 1927 that the General Labour Inspectorate was set up with jurisdiction over all Indo-Chinese territory. It will be seen therefore that the local inspectorates preceded the General Inspectorate, this being a logical outcome of the economic development of the country in which the two outstanding features were the mass cultivation of the para-rubber plant in Cochin-China and the mining industry in Tonking. The General Labour Inspectorate may be said to be the general staff of the whole organisation. Its competence extends to noncontract labour, contract labour and compulsory labour everywhere in Indo-China. It is responsible for the management and centralisation of the whole scheme. Its duties are threefold, viz., (1) co-ordination of the measures for the regulation of labour, savings institutions and social welfare throughout Indo-China; (2) supervision of the movement of labour and operations connected therewith; (3) inspection of the various services dealing with labour and undertakings of all kinds in which labour is employed. Insurance companies, capitalisation societies, the Deferred Pay Office and, more generally, all savings institutions have been placed under the supervision of the General Inspectorate (Orders of 19 July 1927 and 4 August 1933). Instead of merely directing social and labour policy from a distance, the General Inspectorate may proceed to make all the necessary enquiries on the spot, but in practice it very rarely undertakes local enquiries, which it generally leaves to the local inspectorates. The local labour inspectorates are required to investigate conditions of employment, the regulation thereof and in general all questions relating to the conditions of employment of indigenous and alien.labour in commercial, industrial and agricultural undertakings situated in their respective areas. They supervise the observance of the regulations respecting labour employed in these undertakings and carry out all enquiries concerning labour which the chief officer of the local administration may instruct them to undertake. It is expressly laid down that the labour inspectors in the various countries of the Union are not to act under the authority and the responsibility of the General Labour Inspectorate but under that of the heads of the Local Governments. 164 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA This policy finds its justification in the fact that while it is quite possible to draw up general regulations for the whole of IndoChina, it must also be possible to vary the methods of application in the various countries of the Union to meet the requirements of the different races and the customs of their populations. The inspector of Cochin-China has been given somewhat wider powers than his colleagues. Whereas the latter act as reporting officers and must confine their activities to supervising labour and making reports to the Senior Resident, the inspector of CochinChina draws up reports on all his inspections and forwards a copy to the Governor, the provincial commissioner concerned and the planter, a fourth copy being sent to the Attorney-General when legal sanctions have to be taken. Since 1928 the same system has been in force in Cambodia. Since 22 July 1930 the authorities have been authorised to appoint assistant inspectors in countries with an organised labour inspectorate, and the Governor of CochinChina has made use of this power since that date in order to make the supervision of labour more efficient. In Cochin-China and Cambodia, where large contingents of contract workers are employed, the labour inspectors are assisted by labour supervisors appointed under the Order of 25 October 1927 relating to the protection of contract labour. The organisation of a corps of labour supervisors was authorised in Cochin-China by the Order of 5 January 1928. Stationed in the centre of the settlement areas, the labour supervisors act as guardians of labour and supervise the discharge of the mutual obligations of employers and workers, explain their rights and obligations to the workers, investigate complaints and audit and approve all books and registers concerning the workers and more especially the workers' deferred pay accounts. They have the right to make inspections whenever they consider this desirable, subject to previous notification of the employer and have the right of entry to all premises to which contract workers have access. At the outset, provision was made for the appointment of 11 labour supervisors in CochinChina and 4 in Cambodia. These officials, who to some extent resemble the labour inspectors in France, are bound to visit at least twice a year all establishments which employ workers engaged under a contract and to draw up reports on infringements of the regulations. These duties imply considerable experience of the Annamite worker's mentality and language, and the supervisors are therefore recruited from existing staff, such as assistant administrative officers or heads of administrative posts attached to WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 165 large undertakings. Nevertheless, a specialist in labour supervision, speaking the Annamite language, has been appointed in Cochin-China and has rendered good services there. A Decree of 30 January 1929 invested the labour supervisors with simple police powers for the suppression of certain infringements (unjustified refusal to obey the employer, unjustified failure to carry out work, refusal or failure to go to the infirmary, unjustified absence of over 24 hours). The penalties inflicted are those of the ordinary police courts: a fine of 1-15 francs and 1-5 days' imprisonment, either of these penalties being inflicted on first offenders, while the penalty of imprisonment is compulsory in case of a repeated offence. An order issued by the Governor-General on 16 January 1932 amended the Order of 19 July 1927 establishing the General Labour Inspectorate, so as to enable all officials and officers dealing with labour matters to send, for purposes of information, a copy of all reports and documents directly and without delay to the GovernorGeneral through the General Labour Inspectorate, without prejudice to transmission, where necessary, by administrative channels. This measure, which was introduced to ensure that the GovernorGeneral would receive the necessary information on conditions of employment in the most rapid manner possible, has already given good results, in view of the promptitude with which information on labour questions of great importance during the economic depression was received from all quarters. Such was the organisation of the services of the labour inspectorate until August 1932. But as a result of cuts in the estimates the services were reorganised by the Order of 4 August 1932. The General Labour Inspectorate became the First Bureau of the Department of Economic and Administrative Affairs and thereby ceased to be an independent institution. The new arrangement of the services, as completed on 30 June 1935, may be seen from the following table : In Tonking: 1 assistant administrator of the civil services performing, in addition to his duties as chief of the Fifth Bureau of the Senior Residency, those of local labour inspector, and 1 assistant chief of section of the civil services, acting as chief of the Workers' Emigration Supervision Office in Haiphong. 166 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA In Annam: 1 first-class administrator of the civil services acting as inspector of political and administrative affairs and labour inspector for the provinces of North and Central Annam; 1 administrator of the civil services acting as inspector of political and administrative affairs and labour inspector for the provinces of South Annam. In Indo-China: 1 first-class admin- InCochin-China: 1 first-class administrator of the civil services peristrator of the civil services forming, in addition to his duties acting as inspector-general of as inspector of political and adminlabour and director of economic istrative affairs, those of local and administrative affairs, aslabour inspector, assisted by 1 sisted by a chief of section of assistant labour inspector, 1 wothe civil services acting as head man labour inspector and 4 labour of the First Bureau (General supervisors. Labour Inspectorate) of the Department of Economic and In Cambodia: 1 first-class administrator of the civil services Administrative Affairs. performing, in addition to his duties of inspector of political and administrative affairs, those of local labour inspector, assisted by 4 labour supervisors. In Laos, no local labour inspectorate has so far been established. An Order of 22 December 1932 required the inspector of political and administrative affairs to carry out the -duties of local labour inspector in addition to his own work. Subsequently, as the first-class administrator of the civil services who carried out these double duties was not replaced, the chief administrative officer of the Gammon province was entrusted with the duties of labour supervisor for all mining undertakings situated in his area. It wrould seem that the cuts in the estimates, which led to a reduction in the staff of the various local inspectorates, have resulted in an unfortunate decline in the activity of these services. 1 § 5. — Trade unions The trade union movement in Indo-China has hardly yet begun to take shape, first, because the formation of a wage-earning class 1 We read, for example, in the Annual Report of the Tonking Labour Inspectorate for the period 1 July 1933-30 June 1934: " The attachment of the labour inspectorate to the Fifth Bureau has resulted in greatly reducing the sphere of activity of the labour inspector, whose time is mainly taken up by his duties as chief of the Bureau of Economic Affairs; his tours of inspection have thus been reduced to those which are strictly necessary ". WAGE-PAID EMPLOYMENT 167 is relatively recent and still includes a very small part of the population, and, secondly, because such permanent organisations as trade unions are not yet permitted by law. In this connection it may be noted that the Trade Union Act of 21 March 1884 and the Trade Associations Act of 1 July 1901 have not yet been extended to the Colony. 1 Moreover, in Indo-China, the right to strike is closely limited by the system of penal sanctions introduced by the labour regulations. So far as contract labour is concerned the position is as follows: the Order of 11 November 1918 introducing labour regulations for agricultural workers in Cochin-China provides for penal sanctions in case of breach of contract by the worker. These sanctions were made applicable to all countries of the Indo-Chinese Union by section 95 of the Order of 25 October 1927 concerning the protection of labour and were finally approved by the Decree of 18 February 1928. The text of section 65 of the Order of 11 November 1918 includes the following clause: Any indigenous or assimilated Asiatic worker who, after signing a contract of employment with an agricultural undertaking, leaves the undertaking without justification and for reasons not specified in the present regulations, either individually or as a result of a plan arranged with other persons, shall be liable to the penalties laid down in section 416 of the Penal Code. Under section 416 of the Penal Code any worker or employer who hinders the free exercise of the freedom of labour or industry by means of fines, prohibitions, prescriptions and interdictions imposed as a result of a concerted plan is liable to punishment. In other words, the law punishes the blacklisting of an undertaking or the prohibiting of workers to go there for purposes of work, whether on account of the conditions of labour applied there or because of the employment of non-trade unionists, as well as the blacklisting of a worker whose dismissal is imposed on the employer under the threat of a strike. This clause, which was cancelled in France by the Act of 21 March 1884, is still in force in Indo-China. As to non-contract labour, it has already been noted t h a t section 30 of the Decree of 2 April 1932, which introduced a system of conciliation and arbitration for collective disputes in Indo-China, punishes by imprisonment of 6 days to 2 years and a fine of 16-2,000 francs, or by one of these penalties, for any collective stoppage of work which does not tend to settle an occupational 1 Cf. in "Conclusions", pp. 267-268: "The Problem of Trade Unionism". 168 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA dispute or which is likely to bring pressure on the line of conduct adopted by the Government by hindering services useful to the public. These penalties are applied, moreover, without prejudice to any sanctions which may be imposed in application of sections 414, 415 and 416 of the Penal Code. In addition, the guilty person or persons may be expelled from the country for two to five years. So says the law. But, when the facts are studied, it is seen t h a t a movement of solidarity among the workers has been expressed to some extent during recent years by collective stoppages of work which in some cases assumed fairly large proportions. As already stated, about 100 strikes occurred between 1922 and February 1934. Most of these strikes were due either to a reduction in wages, a refusal to increase wages, or the severity of the cais and employers. The number of these strikes is not very large, but, when the agricultural character of Indo-China is remembered, it seems undeniable that they are a sign of an increasing feeling of cohesion among the workers. 1 1 The number of strikes increased greatly during the last few months of 1936. See above, Chapter II, § 2, pp. 104 et seq. : " Recent Developments in the Regulation of Non-Contract Labour ". PART III INDEPENDENT WORKERS CHAPTER 1 HANDICRAFTSMEN Before the French occupation, the craftsman played an essential part in the Indo-Chinese communities. These communities were predominantly agricultural, and then, as now, the cultivation of rice was the basic economic activity of the country; and as there was very little division of labour, and the requirements of the inhabitants were few and easily satisfied, every peasant was at the same time, to some extent, a craftsman. He could make all that he required for his personal needs. All the work was done in accordance with traditions established in the course of centuries, and sometimes in accordance with religious rites, and the technique was so simple that a very short period of training was sufficient. In addition to these rural craftsmen, however, there was a body of more definitely specialised craftsmen, whose existence was due to the need for greater technical skill or the localisation of the raw materials in particular geographical areas (the making of parasols, coffins, hammocks, pottery, tools, etc.). Another group of skilled craftsmen, of higher but equally ancient standing and equally bound by tradition, existed in several of the towns, where their work was closely connected with certain religious or social activities. It was. the artistic industries, particularly flourishing in Cambodia, which were carried on by these craftsmen, who were either monks or retainers of the aristocracy or of the King, or independent persons. It will be necessary to consider the influence of the French occupation and modern developments on these three groups of craftsmen. 170 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA § 1. — Rural Craftsmen The settlement of French colonists had practically no influence on the life of the rural population, which continued to live in the same kind of houses, to wear the same kind of clothes and to use the same kinds of tools and utensils as formerly. The houses are of mud or wood, covered with thatch; the clothes are of cotton or silk, cut in a simple and unchanging style; the utensils are few and the furniture rudimentary. The peasant builds his hut himself or with the help of his neighbours ; he does without flooring of wood or tiles and he assembles the bamboo framework 'without nails. The women spin, weave and dye cotton and silk and make the clothes for the family. The people make their own coats of bamboo leaves to protect them from the rain, and their hats of latania leaves to keep off the sun. They also make their own agricultural implements, or, if they are fishermen, their own oars, tackle and nets. It may be said that the rural crafts still remain in existence, unchanged, and that for many years to come the mass of the population will continue to follow traditional custom as regards clothing, housing and food. The people are too poor to adopt any other mode of living or to purchase any commodities of European origin. § 2. — Specialised Craftsmen The small craftsman plays a very important part in the economic life of Indo-China. Until the French Protectorate was established, he supplied practically the whole requirements of the indigenous population as regards manufactured articles.1 A considerable degree of industrial specialisation had grown up ; there was very little of this in Cochin-China, but it would seem to have been widespread and of long standing in the deltas of the north, where it was encouraged by the excessively dense population.2 It is very difficult to determine the number of craftsmen 1 The value of the imported manufactured articles, as shown by the statistics of the French Customs in Annam from 1874 onwards, was extremely low: in 1880 the imports through Haiphong amounted to 6% million francs, of which about 3 million represented manufactured articles (Commercial Report of the French Consul in Haiphong for 1880, Central Records, Hanoï, Amiraux. File No. 13-1212). 2 Practically all the information given in this section concerning specialised crafts refers to the Tonking delta, where they have been particularly carefully studied. Cf. for example, P. GOUROU: Le Tonkin, op. cit., and Les paysans du delta tonkinois, 1936; ROBEQUAIN; Le Thanh-Hoa: Etude géographique INDEPENDENT WORKERS 171 at present engaged in these village industries, for there are very few of them who are craftsmen and nothing else. Most of them own land, which they continue to cultivate themselves; they consider their industrial work as merely a makeshift, and as soon as they can they acquire additional land and devote themselves entirely to agriculture. Of the 6y2 million Annamites in Lower Tonking it is estimated that 200,000 devote the greater part of their time to a family industry, and perhaps 800,000 engage in such activities for at least a few weeks of the year. " The Annamite craftsman is intelligent, skilful, fond of his trade and often proud of his work, but he is ready to interrupt it at any time to take part in religious festivals or in the rice harvest. In some occupations particularly, he is an interesting character, who bears a certain resemblance to the master craftsman or journeyman of ancient times in France." x The Annamite craftsmen are not in a position of social inferiority and they do not form castes; their traditions and methods of work can best be understood by a study of Chinese handicrafts. The first feature to be noted is that these small-scale industries in Tonking are village industries: each family does not manufacture the articles it requires, nor does each village have representatives of the different trades; certain villages specialise in certain industries and very often they restrict themselves to one single branch. Each village sells its products to others and purchases the articles which it does not manufacture but which are produced by other villages. There is therefore a certain degree of economic specialisation. These industries are carried on almost entirely without proper equipment ; the workers may have a very few tools or a few rudimentary looms, but they cannot afford to buy more advanced equipment. A further characteristic is the great lack of organisation. The craftsmen are too poor, or too thriftless, to accumulate stocks of raw materials or manufactured articles, or to calculate their costs of production. They do not form associations to try and obtain better conditions for the purchase of their raw materials or the sale of their products. Very often the whole process of manufacturing an article is divided up between different villages: one d'une province annamite (2 vols., 1929); V. DÉMANGE: "Les petits métiers du Tonkin" in Bulletin économique de VIndochine, 1918; BARBOTIN: " L a poterie indigène au Tonkin" in Bulletin économique de VIndochine, 1912. 1 L. DELIGNON: "L'artisanat indochinois", in Le Monde colonial illustré, November 1936. 172 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA village may manufacture bamboo baskets, but another village makes the covers for them. In the silk industry it is not always the same village which cultivates the mulberry trees, breeds the silkworms, reels the cocoons and weaves the silk. This division of labour is far from being an indication of an advanced degree of industrial civilisation; on the contrary, it reveals the poverty of the people, who are unable to continue the whole process of manufacture, but are obliged to sell their work very quickly so as to obtain enough to live and to purchase additional raw materials. Sometimes the distribution of industries throughout the country would seem to be purely a matter of chance. For instance, the people of Lake Thi make conical hats out of latania leaves collected in the mountains and brought down the Red River; as they live some distance from that river, very heavy transport work is involved, yet these people sell the bamboos which grow round their huts to the craftsmen of Ninh Xe, a village on the river bank which makes other articles. It would appear that these crafts were generally started by some man who came from the north—from China into Tonking, from Tonking to Annam—and settled in some village, either by chance or at the invitation of the local mandarin. This man trained a number of workers ; the village obtained a special privilege from the Court, which amounted to a monopoly, for, if the same industry were started in any other village, violent protests were made by those who had been granted the privilege. There was thus no real competition and it was therefore impossible for the less favourably situated villages to be eliminated for the benefit of those in a more favourable situation. In short, this system paralysed the operation of economic laws. If one tries to classify these village industries in their order of importance there is little doubt that textiles must take the first place, closely followed by basket work. The manufacture of cotton cloth, which is subsequently dyed brown and used for the ordinary clothes of the Annamites, is declining in importance, but the silk industry, on the other hand, is flourishing. The breeding of silkworms is being carried out by more and more improved methods under the direction of the competent authorities.1 1 Many faulty methods still exist, however, and these are often curiously linked up with indigenous superstitions: the Annamite believes that the spirit of the silkworm is particularly cunning and touchy; it has certain inexplicable aversions (for instance, a pregnant woman or a person returning from a funeral must never approach silkworms). (P. GOUROU: Le Tonkin, p. 153). INDEPENDENT WORKERS 173 Many of the cocoons are bought up by European spinning mills, but most of the output is still spun in the villages and is woven into fabrics for which there is a demand : ordinary satin, ciré satin, silk, crepon and muslin. Basket work is also extremely common. Everyone knows how to weave a certain number of articles out of strips of crushed bamboo, rushes or rattan. There are, however, many villages in which the workers have acquired special skill in the manufacture of certain more difficult articles, such as bamboo baskets and furniture, carrying equipment for porters, conical hats, coats made out of leaves, etc. The wood industry provides the peasant with the elementary furniture which is all that he requires: chests, tables and camp teds. The manufacture of tables for altars is quite important; these are made of soft wood which is easily worked but which offers little resistance to insects. Inlaid work with motherof-pearl is tending to decline. In connection with woodwork, mention may be made of lacquer work, at which the Annamites make very skilful use of the fine materials supplied by their mountains. Weaving, basket work and woodwork are the branches of industry that are most widespread; they provide a livelihood for large groups of workers in practically all the deltas. Pottery is more concentrated; certain villages with a widespread reputation have workshops requiring the investment of a considerable amount on the part of the owner. These workshops produce various types of receptacles: jars for water or brine, teapots, bowls, vases,. lime pots for betel chewing, and small coffins in which the bones of the dead are placed two or three years after the funeral. Villages of metal-founders or tinsmiths are very rare. Blacksmiths move from place to place throughout the delta to offer their services and sell their products. Tinsmiths use petrol tins as a source of raw material. A few tinfoil beaters and copper and bronze founders and engravers may also be met with. Certain work which is so simple that it can easily be carried out during leisure time, when there is no work in the fields, is often left to the women and children. For example, the making of certain religious articles (blocks of bamboo or paper, which are offered to the gods and to spirits) is scattered over innumerable family workshops which often work far into the night, by the flickering light of an oil lamp, during the periods immediately preceding important religious festivals. 174 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA In Cambodia the most important indigenous industries are the working-up of products obtained from fish, the reeling and weaving of silk (in particular the weaving of the garments known as sampots), pottery (especially in Kompong-Chnang), boat-building and certain artistic crafts such as wood-carving, goldsmiths' work and the making of jewellery. The silk of Cambodia is of excellent quality, comparable with that of China. In Laos, indigenous industries are very little developed, for the needs of the inhabitants are very slight. With few exceptions, there are no workers engaged in any given trade connected with the building of houses, the manufacture of utensils, the making of hunting and fishing gear or of spinning equipment, the dyeing or weaving of materials, or any other activity connected with housing, furniture, clothing, household articles, etc. Summing up, it may be said t h a t in this country of Indo-China, which was essentially agricultural and knew no foreign trade, the inhabitants could conceive of no industrial life other than t h a t of isolated workers working for a small group of direct customers. " The Annamite has so far no conception of the modern idea of industry, which requires the presence of a man of outstanding capacity and the accumulation of a certain amount of capital. Up to the present, the only form of industry he knows is a kind of caste, consisting of craftsmen but not really of industrialists; certain villages, for example, manufacture silk and others engage in inlaid work and have done so for centuries, but this concentration in a single village of individuals engaged in the same trade has not led to the formation of large undertakings; every family works separately and the presence of two or three workers in any house is very exceptional. " 1 The ancient handicrafts which have been briefly described above have remained practically unchanged since 1880. This is particularly true of the Tonking delta, which sells and purchases very little, and is practically self-supporting. 2 At the same time, the settlement of the French in Indo-China was bound to bring about some change in the position of the specialist craftsmen. On the one hand, their production and their technical methods were changed to meet the needs of the new European customs: the cabinet-maker now makes not only the traditional camp 1 2 P. PASQUIER: " L a province de Thaï-Binh", in Revue indochinoise, 1904. During 1928 the average value of the foreign trade per head of the population did not exceed 125 francs for Northern Indo-China; the corresponding figure for the South was almost four times as large. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 175 beds and chests but also tables, chairs, sideboards, and cupboards; the cobblers make boots and shoes as well as native sandals; the tailors cut trousers and jackets; the weavers produce silk, tussore, and sponge cloth fabrics. In the second place, new crafts have sprung up: hatmaking, fine basketwork, trunk making, and the manufacture of luxury articles of straw. In all the larger towns there are watchmakers, printers, and photographers. Some of the new industries already export on a large scale, as, for example, the lace and embroidery industry, which provides thousands of women in the villages of Tonking with a livelihood. In the third place, the more educated Annamites living in the towns have become customers of these more up-to-date craftsmen, so that the latter get profits of which they could not formerly have dreamed; gradually these craftsmen have developed into a bourgeoisie, and the authorities encourage this trend in a variety of ways (by granting honorary titles, the rank of mandarin, etc.). Side by side with this evolution, which was naturally-beneficial to the traditional craftsmen, a double danger soon appeared, which threatened eventually to lead to their extinction. On the one hand, the gradual westernisation of indigenous life, which changed the requirements of the local customers, rendered certain traditional forms of production unnecessary, and on the other hand the imports of manufactured articles to Indo-China threatened to kill the production of similar articles by craftsmen. It may be worth while to consider to what extent the craftsmen of Indo-China have so far escaped this dual danger. There can be no doubt that certain village industries are already tending to disappear; imported cotton and silk goods are steadily taking the place of the strong local fabrics which were woven practically everywhere, but for which certain villages had acquired a wellmerited reputation. Similarly in the manufacture of mats; the large-scale Chinese factories are proving serious competitors to the small craftsmen.1 Other industries, such as basketmaking, blacksmith's and tinsmith's work, pottery, and the manufacture of religious articles, have shown greater powers of resistance. Very careful enquiries would be necessary in order to obtain an exact idea of the situation. " In Tonking no definite effect can yet be said to have resulted, because many of the small industries produce 1 Of the three thousand looms for the weaving of mats in the neighbourhood of Phat-Diem in the province of Ninh-Binh some 2,500 belong to small craftsmen, but have been working only two months in the year; the two Chinese factories in the same district are working continuously and produce the bulk of the output. (P. GOUROU: Le Tonkin, p. 154.) 176 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA articles which are only for local use and are not provided by largescale industry." 1 The continued existence of the craftsmen depends on the continuation of the present agricultural and family system, and when the latter has been replaced by an industrial form of economic development the decline of the crafts will be much more rapid. Every writer agrees that this evolution should be delayed as long as possible. From the economic point of view they emphasise the important part played by the crafts. " Indo-China has become the best customer of Canton for raw silk, purchasing about 500,000 kilograms a year. Certain weaving centres in Annam have 500 looms consuming more than 200 kilograms of silk every day. In the province of Ninh-Binh there are 3,000 looms for weaving mats and 2,500 of those belong to small craftsmen. In the province of Ha-Dong lace-making employs 5,000 women workers in 121 villages." 2 The social and political dangers are equally great. " The economic factor is closely linked up with the social and the political factors, and everything affecting the first is bound to react on t h e other two . . . The example of India shows that the ruin of village industries is disastrous for the prosperity of the country concerned and also for the reputation of the country under whose protection it is." 3 " The hundreds of thousands of craftsmen throughout Indo-China living in close connection with the rural population are a factor making for stability and calm. They have no overhead expenses and their equipment is rudimentary, so that they can produce cheaply and thus meet the requirements of their customers, whose purchasing power is low." 4 Periods of economic change are always hard for the workers. Professor Sion points out in his book UAsie des moussons that the most serious accusation which indigenous publicists make against the western countries is not so much that they conquered or exploited Asia as the fact t h a t they brought about an economic revolution without considering the inevitable social and moral consequences. 5 " Although the decline of the smaller handicrafts is far advanced and would seem to be irreparable in such a country as India, is it necessarily inevitable in Indo-China, or could it not at least be 1 2 3 4 P. L. P. L. GOURON: Le Tonkin, pp. 169-170. DELIGNON, op. cit. GOUROU: Le Tonkin, p. 169. DELIGNON: op. cit. 5 M. ECKERT: L'artisanat indigène au Tonkin (Report to the International and Intercolonial Congress of the Native Development Society, Paris, 1931). INDEPENDENT WORKERS 177 delayed ? Some people, of course, would wish to hasten on the movement on the grounds that progress cannot be held up, but is it necessary to deprive thousands of people of their means of livelihood in order to secure doubtful advantages for future generations ? Surely we ought at least to provide them as rapidly as possible with some other means of livelihood and not leave the matter to time and chance." x It would seem that in such a country as Tonking there are three principal measures which could be taken to protect and maintain the traditional crafts. The first would be to re-adapt the craftsmen and guide them into new forms of production rendered necessary by the gradual westernisation of the country, while at the same time improving their equipment and their technical methods. The second would be to promote the marketing of the resulting output, either by a more rational organisation of the process of buying and selling or by increasing the potential customers by a carefully calculated wage policy. The third method would be to help the crafts by the provision of appropriate credits. The first of these methods is the one which the authorities in Indo-China have so far adopted. In this connection special reference must be made to Mr. Crevost, who deserves the credit for having perfected certain of the older industries and introduced new technical methods. To give some idea of the benefits that may result from the establishment of new types of handicrafts, it may be mentioned that in one village in which Mr. Crevost introduced the weaving of rattan about 1906 the wealthiest individual at that time had an annual income of 40 piastres (100 gold francs), whereas three years later the village received an order to the value of 27,000 piastres from one single firm. Official action to promote village industries is facilitated by the love of gain, which is very strong among the Annamites, by their dexterity, and by the great quickness with which they learn new types of work. On the other hand, these efforts are often impeded by certain characteristics which have been mentioned above: the desire to retain a monopoly, thriftlessness, and inability to form organisations. 2 The manufacture of packing cases of rushes was begun in 1 2 ROBEQUAIN: L'Indochine française, p. 169. The reality of these obstacles may be shown by an example: in 1925 Mr. Crevost introduced the manufacture of bamboo hats in the village of Quatre-Colonnes (Dong-Ngac); some time after the craftsmen received an order for hats at 0.35 franc each (Java hats of slightly lower quality could be bought at 0.30 franc). But the first hats that were manufactured were 12 178 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA 1902 and gave employment to 4,000 workers in the south of the delta by 1930. It was also under official auspices (on the initiative of Mr. Crevost) that the weaving of rattan was introduced about 1906 for the making of baskets, plates, and boxes. Mention may also be made of a small industry for the making of mats and brushes out of coconut fibre imported to Tonking from Southern Annam, and the manufacture of hats out of sola, an aquatic plant, the bulbous pith-like roots of which were used in India for this purpose; when Mr. Crevost discovered that this plant existed in Tonking in 1904 he began the manufacture of hats, and since then the plant has been properly cultivated in the province of Hung-Yen, and many small workshops for the manufacture of hats exist in Hanoï, Haiphong and Nam-dinh. The manufacture of rattan furniture has also developed considerably since 1912. The introduction of the lace industry is another marked success; the first attempts were made in 1901 and now the work is carried on by 5,000 women in 121 villages in the province of Ha-Dong, by 700 women in 6 villages in the province of Nam-dinh, and by 40 women in 5 villages in the province of Ha-Nam. The volume exported in 1927 was 18 tons, representing a value of 4,600,000 francs.1 This re-adaptation of craftsmen, which is in the first instance a task for the authorities, can be greatly facilitated by the help of private undertakings. French industrialists in the country " often give the craftsmen the benefit of their experience, advise them as to changes in their equipment, suggest products which they should purchase, and help them in selling their output. In return, the craftsmen can teach the Europeans certain manufacturing processes and certain special tricks of the trade. The making of black ciré satin is a striking example." 2 At the same time, this policy of protecting and developing the crafts must have the support of the mass of the population. " Only intelligent action on the part of the Annamites themselves can bring about sold in the streets of Hanoï at as much as 2 francs each, and therefore the craftsmen refused to supply the order at the agreed price. The result was that the order was withdrawn and no others were given, but they preferred to remain idle rather than work at a price which they wrongly considered to be below the real price. They failed to realise that the price obtained for their products in Hanoï was due to the sudden craze of certain ladies of the European colony for this new article and that the sales obtained from this source would be very small. The number of workers fell from 40 to 8. (P. GOUROU: Le Tonkin, pp. 167-168.) 1 Ibid., pp. 164-169. 2 L. DELIGNON: op. cil. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 179 any considerable results. The Government can carry out extensive enquiries to determine what districts are best suited for the maintenance and development of certain industries, what articles already manufactured can find the best sale throughout the world, and what new articles might be manufactured in Tonking, but it is for the natives themselves to undertake the internal organisation of production. That is an undertaking which would be profitable and at the same time of value to the community as a whole and should therefore prove attractive to young men anxious to further their own interests and those of their country." 1 The question of markets comes immediately after that of technical re-adaptation; the authorities have not so far made any very effective efforts in this direction, except in the rather special field of finding markets for the artistic crafts, to which reference is made below. The most effective work so far done in this connection forms part of the indirect policy of increasing the purchasing power of the population, and the reader may therefore be referred to what was said with regard to wages. Similarly, nothing has so far been done to promote the crafts by the organisation of a special system of credit. In this direction the authorities in Indo-China would be well advised to study what has been done in protectorates such as Tunis. § 3. — Artistic Crafts 2 Indo-China is a country with an ancient civilisation, partly Hindu and partly Chinese in origin, and it has long had an art of its own. The Hindu source inspired Cham and Khmer art and the monuments of Angkor testify to the perfection which it reached outside India. The Chinese source is at the basis of Annamite art, which reached its highest perfection in the imperial palaces and tombs of Hue and in the pagodas of Tonking. The era of creative work on a large scale ended in the fourteenth century 1 2 P. GOUROU: Le Tonkin, p. 170. On this subject the reader may consult with advantage: M. GOURDON: La protection de la vie locale en Indochine (Report submitted to the International and Intercolonial Congress on Indigenous Communities, Paris, October 1931); G. GROSLIER: L'artisanat au Cambodge (Report to the same Congress); Idem: " L'enseignement et la mise en pratique des arts indigènes au Cambodge " (Extract from Bulletin de l'Académie des Sciences coloniales, Vol. XVI); Idem: " La psychologie de l'artisan Cambodgien " (Arts et Archéologie khmers, Vol. I); Idem: " La reprise des arts khmers ", in Revue de Paris, October 1925. 180 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA for Khmer art and at the end of the eighteenth for Annamite art, but the decorative arts continued to flourish in Cambodia, Laos and Annam; the sculptors, inlay workers and bronze workers of Annam and the weavers and goldsmiths of Cambodia have kept alive up to the present day the aesthetic traditions of the two races. The settlement of the French in Indo-China naturally made a profound change in the conditions under which the minor arts were carried on. At the outset their influence was definitely unfavourable and in Cambodia, more especially, Western influence meant the complete collapse of the traditional technique. The main causes of this decadence can readily be understood; the chief was the disappearance of the local clientèle and the second was the contamination of traditional forms by European taste. The local aristocracy quickly adopted Western customs and therefore abandoned the products of indigenous handicrafts; furniture and clothes were bought from the importer. The cost of living rapidly rose, motor-cars arrived, and very soon the Cambodian aristocrat or the Annamite mandarin had not enough money to maintain a staff of goldsmiths, actresses and weavers. These people were, moreover, no longer necessary. The clergy followed the same- course, adopting reinforced concrete for the building of new pagodas and abandoning the habit of carving and lacquer work for the monasteries. At the same time the people as a whole deserted their looms and bought fabrics from the importer; very soon they preferred a bicycle or a phonograph to a canoe or a- guitar of rare wood inlaid with ivory. Between 1900 and 1920 this artistic decline, especially in Cambodia, progressed so rapidly as to be a complete catastrophe. A Circular of the Senior Resident in Cambodia of 13 July 1917 instructed all the Residencies to make a census of all known craftsmen engaged in any of the artistic industries. The replies showed that in all the provinces there were only 130 craftsmen, most of whom were obliged to engage in agriculture in order to earn a livelihood. In 1917 there were only 32 craftsmen making a meagre living from their art in Pnom-Penh, the capital of the Khmer Kingdom. When the School of Cambodian Arts was established, it was impossible to find in Pnom-Penh a single Cambodian who knew how to make the traditional dyes and could teach others to do so ; an old woman of sixty-five had to be brought from the interior to teach this craft. Only a single lacquer worker could be found and it was impossible to revive the art of niello INDEPENDENT WORKERS 181 work, which had been common at the end of last century, because there was not a single craftsman acquainted with this branch. Indigenous art had almost died out because it could find no customers. It is true that at the same time a new group of customers sprang up, consisting of indigenous officials, Frenchmen living in the colony, and large numbers of tourists. The influence of these new customers, however, merely hastened on the decadence of the traditional arts by substituting their artistic tastes for those of the workers themselves, thus giving rise to astonishing mixtures of French and indigenous art. This was the period of Tonking embroidery based on European patterns, and of Henri II sideboards decorated with phoenixes and dragons. It should be noted, moreover, that these would-be patrons of the arts wished to acquire artistic objects cheaply; they stayed only a short time in the colony and were always in a hurry, and this did not give the workers sufficient time to produce perfect workmanship. The rise in the price of raw materials, such as silk, ivory and mother-ofpearl, led the craftsmen to use products of inferior quality or doubtful substitutes. They even went so far as to import European products, including silk from Lyons and aniline dyes—a practice which reduced still further the artistic value of the local products. Serious efforts were necessary if the lost ground was to be retrieved. The first step was taken by private associations, which tried to pick out the best products, to encourage the output of similar work, to bring it before the public at periodical exhibitions, and thus to educate both the buyer and the producer. Special reference may_be made to the work of the Colonial Fine Arts Association in Saigon and of the Franco-Annamite Fine Arts Association in Tonking, both of which organise an annual academy of selected works of indigenous art. The Government of the colony was not slow to follow their example. As far back as 1907, an Inspectorate of the Fine Arts was established in Indo-China and schools of applied art were set up in the various provinces. In Cochin-China there were the three schools of Giadinh, Bienhoa and Thudaumot, the first of which concentrated on designing, the second on pottery and bronze, and the third on wood-carving and cabinet-making. In Tonking the School of Applied Arts in Hanoi trained bronze workers, cabinet-makers, inlay workers and lacquer workers. In Pnom-Penh the School of Cambodian Arts revived the arts of the engraver, the sculptor and the weaver. A body of French teachers and native supervisors was gradually built up. 182 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Museums containing the finest specimens of the work of the past were established in the capitals so as to educate the pupils and artists in the aesthetic traditions of their race. These included the museum of the French Far-Eastern School in Hanoï, the Khai-Dinh Museum in Hue, the Blanchard de la Brosse Museum in Saigon, and the Albert Sarraut Museum in Pnom-Penh. The major arts of painting, sculpture and architecture were promoted by a School of Fine Arts attached to the Indo-Chinese University in Hanoï. It had a section for decorative arts, and undertook not only the artistic training of students but also the training of indigenous teachers of drawing and applied arts who would subsequently teach those subjects in other schools. The next step was to make the products of these revived arts more widely known. Many local exhibitions were held in IndoChina, and the exhibitions organised in Europe during the past fifteen years have provided favourable opportunities for presenting indigenous work to the public. Great successes were obtained at the Colonial Exhibition in Marseilles, the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris, and the Colonial Exhibition at Vincennes. This propaganda infused new life into the local arts and the number of workers increased considerably. French industrialists took a generous interest in the spread of this exotic art. The value of the embroidery, art fabrics, bronzes and carved or lacquered furniture exported already runs into many tens of millions. A new branch, t h a t of lace-making and linen embroidery, was introduced to the country some thirty years ago, and now provides a livelihood for thousands of workers. There was a risk t h a t the traders who discovered this new branch might exploit the isolation of the craftsman so as to bring down prices and induce him to work rapidly and ignore the finer points of his art. Attempts were made to prevent this from occurring. In Tonking the Governor of the Province of Hadong brought together a number of craftsmen in the town of the same name and opened premises for the exhibition and sale of their work. In Hanoï Mr. Crevost organised a sales office in the Maurice Long Museum. The most complete system was that established in Cambodia under the enlightened guidance of Mr. Georges Groslier, artist and art critic. The main features of the system may be outlined in Mr. Groslier's own words: In its desire to deal with an extremely critical situation, the French Protectorate established the Department of Cambodian Arts in 1&18. In that year a small nucleus of workers produced only 68 articles, worth INDEPENDENT WORKERS 183 3,889 piastres. When this group had been reconstituted and trained, they were able to sell 4,434 articles, of a value of 59,620 piastres, in 1930. The number of craftsmen in the whole of Cambodia in 1918 was 130, whereas by 1930 there were 600 in Pnom-Penh alone. Let us consider the reasons for the steady development of this reconstituted body of craftsmen. In the first place they are educated and trained according to the demand for their work. In the second place the Arts Department is careful to keep the number of trained workers slightly below the demands of the customers, in such a way as to ensure equal prosperity for all the arts. This prevents unemployment and gives the output a scarcity value. In the third place it has been decided that the School of Arts should not be a State manufacturing service, but should restrict its activities to the training of craftsmen, and not sell their work to the public; otherwise it would be much too strong a competitor for the independent craftsman. In order to enable these three fundamental principles to be put into effect, the output of the independent craftsman had to be brought before the purchaser in a sales office. At the same time the economic soundness of the scheme had to be ensured by constant artistic and commercial supervision. A sales office was therefore organised by the Arts Department. The craftsmen produce their goods; the office purchases them, pays the maker by the hour and offers the articles for sale. In other words, the office is the customer of the craftsman. It buys, of course, from independent craftsmen just as freely as from former pupils of the School of Fine Arts. It was necessary to centralise and organise in a strong but elastic framework, sufficiently unobtrusive to be almost unnoticed by the workers, this growing body of craftsmen scattered over the country, working as their fancy dictated and varying from day to day in their enthusiasm for their work; the interplay of orders and deliveries had also to be organised. It was in 1920 that craftsmen were first organised in what are known as the Cambodian Guilds. This title was quite well known in the Far East by 1921 or 1922, but no official recognition was given in the form of statutory rules for the Guilds until 1927, when a Royal Order was issued on 27 April, and an Order of the Senior Resident on 23 April. The Guilds had already been in existence for five years and had delivered 18,327 articles, of a value of 248,556 piastres or more than 3 million francs. This meant that the rules were drawn up in the light of experience and were not a blind attempt to regulate a completely new development. The experimental years had proved three things: (1) that the guilds should not have a monopoly; (2) that they could not be organised on administrative lines because there was no administrative framework into which they could be fitted; (3) that the authorities could in no circumstances engage in trade or take the place of craftsmen who legally were capable of engaging in trade, although in practice unable to do so. The authorities of the Protectorate therefore recognised the Cambodian Guilds as a civil association, and one clause of the rules placed them under the artistic and technical supervision of the Arts Department. The association undertook to promote indigenous arts and crafts in the forms and subject to the conditions laid down in the rules. In return 184 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA the Protectorate provided it with premises for exhibitions and with advice. A brief summary of the rules may be given. Indigenous crafts are divided into five guilds: (1) sculpture of all kinds, cabinet-making, lacquer work and gilding; (2) architecture and the illumination of manuscripts; (3) goldsmiths' work; (4) artistic iron work; (5) weaving. Each guild is represented by a craftsman freely appointed by the members. These five leaders of the guilds (who are not paid for their services) form the committee of management, which is in constant touch with the Arts Department. None of the members of the committee has any authority over the workers, nor does he enjoy any privilege. When the committee meets, it has complete powers and it can decide •» all matters concerning wages, the judging of competitions, the exercise of supervision, etc. The Director of the Arts Department intervenes only as a last resort, to give a casting vote if necessary. Any craftsman may be registered as a member of the Cambodian Guilds without fee. He is not obliged to accept orders from the sales office, and he is free to work directly for any customers whom he may discover for himself. On the other hand, he may offer work to the office which has not been ordered ; if it is good the office purchases it and pays the craftsman immediately. The rates of remuneration are known to all, and the accounts are kept in the form prescribed by the legislation. The books are open to inspection by the craftsmen, who can at any time discover at what price their work was resold, to whom and at what date. It is thus clear that the craftsmen are organised only in so far as they wish to take advantage of regulations which impose no obligations on them. The only condition is that their work should be of good quality; it can be delivered when the craftsman wishes and according to his own requirements. The sales office varies the quantity of its orders according to the season and the demand, and it may accumulate stocks or merely accept what is offered to it. Sometimes it urges or even pesters the craftsmen to produce more; at other times it leaves them free to produce what they wish. The economic movement which is thus regulated must obviously have behind it a flexible financial system with adequate capital. The office of the Cambodian Guilds sells all that it purchases and retains a percentage fixed by the committee of management and known to all the members; this percentage varies from 10 to 15 at different periods and goes to constitute the Guild Fund. Such,, in outline, is the present position of the crafts in Cambodia. The description given should show that they have been reconstituted in their ancient form. If one leaves out of account the fate of the artistic object after it has been purchased by the Office, the position will be found to be the same as in the past. The workers still work for a master who is at the same time a protector, the office having taken the place of the former aristocracy. The craftsman is no more a merchant than he was in the past, nor has he been asked to give up his old habits or to develop faculties which he does not possess. He does, however, enjoy the advantage of not being obliged to work except when he INDEPENDENT WORKERS 185 requires to earn, and he is free to choose what he wants to make, which was not the case under his former masters. Moreover, he now works in his own home.1 I t may be asked whether this attempt to revive the traditional arts in Tonking and Annam as well as in Cambodia is likely to lead to a far-reaching and lasting artistic renaissance. It is impossible to predict what the developments of these arts will be, but there is every ground for hope. The new craftsmen are progressing towards forms of expression in which the study of nature is harmoniously combined with the methods of interpretation inherited from their Chinese and Annamite masters. A new art would seem to be springing up, released from forms that had become outworn through excessive use by earlier craftsmen, and yet no mere imitation of Western art. The elementary rules of design, the laws of perspective and the principles of colour have been transformed and brought closer to those of the West, b u t the inspiration still remains purely local, the methods of expression are still faithful to the aesthetic conceptions of the Far East, and the personality of the artist is gradually making itself felt in an art which was hitherto impersonal and anonymous. It may therefore be concluded that French influence, which was undoubtedly prejudicial to native arts at the beginning, has revived them and opened up new paths in which the artistic worker can develop an independent existence. 1 G. G R O S L I E R : L'artisanat au Cambodge. CHAPTER II THE PEASANTS The importance of the peasants in Indo-China will be understood when it is remembered t h a t the whole internal economic system of the country is governed by the production of rice, which is still almost entirely in the hands of the indigenous inhabitants. In Tonking rice growing covers practically the whole agricultural area of the delta in rainy seasons and from 60 to 70 per cent, in dry seasons. In other States of the Union it is by far the most important indigenous crop. Its relative importance is therefore incomparably greater than that of wheat in France. More than six million hectares are laid out in rice fields, and of the rice produced some 60 million quintals provide food for the inhabitants and 15 millions on the average constitute the main export of the country. The dominant position of rice can easily be explained. The soil of the deltas, which are marshy in character, is excellently suited for rice and very unsuitable for any other crop. Moreover, as a result of the system of planting out rice very little seed is required. Rice also provides a foodstuff which can be more easily digested than other similar vegetable products. Good crops can be obtained with very little manuring. Rice is easily prepared and can be stored without difficulty. It is an article of daily consumption in the country and it is also an export commodity for which there is a very large market. The preponderance of agriculture in Indo-China can be clearly seen from the following figures : up to the present the total number of wage earners in all agricultural, commercial and industrial undertakings is scarcely more than 220,000, whereas practically all the rest of the population, amounting to more than 18 million persons, is agricultural. Certain writers have sometimes doubted whether this enormous mass can really be described as peasantry. The Annamite peasants cannot be said to form a social group with any conscious unity such as is implied by the use of the term " peasantry ". The idea of a peasant class can develop only in a country that is socially much more advanced than Indo-China; this idea arrives at a compar- INDEPENDENT WORKERS 187 atively late stage and differentiation is never so marked in agriculture as it is in industry. In Annam the scarcity of means of communication, the great vitality of each small village community, the family nature of agricultural work and the particularist tendencies of certain districts such as Upper Annam, are all obstacles to the development of a sense of solidarity among the peasants, which is necessary to make of them a distinct social order. We should therefore speak of the peasant mass rather than of the peasantry. 1 It is somewhat difficult to reconcile this interpretation with certain recent events and in particular with the troubles t h a t occurred in Indo-China between May 1930 and June 1931, which would seem to indicate the existence of a real social class all suffering under the same abuses and making a collective demand for improvements. There was a definite peasants' revolt—a real jacquerie. The village records, the registers of births and deaths, the survey records and the taxation rolls were all destroyed by the farmers, who thought that in this way they could free their land from all encumbrances. Moreover, it will be shown later in this chapter that the economic development of Indo-China has transformed many of the peasants into a proletariat and has led to the formation of large estates (latifundia) to the detriment of family holdings. In this way a real peasant class is gradually being formed and can already be said to be more or less homogeneous. " Attempts have often been made to define the French peasant. The task is difficult, not so much because of diversity of origin as because of the variety in their types of life. To describe the Annamite peasant is easier, and it is possible to give a picture of an average type which is a real and very common type." 2 The peasant mass is not only homogeneous, but is also the social group which most strongly resists the course of evolution. The peasant, both in Tonking and in Cochin-China, is still very superstitious and is afraid of mountains; he still lives on the monotonous plains of the delta, engaging in rice growing as did his ancestors, and both his working conditions and his type of life remain unchanged. The following pages will be devoted to a study of the present situation of the peasants as conditioned by the traditional rules of land tenure and the economic and social development of the colony under French influence. The main principles for a policy for the protection of the peasants will then be outlined. 1 André D U M A R E S T : op. cit., p p . 243-244. M. R O B E Q U A I N : " Le paysan a n n a m i t e ", in Les Cahiers de 1930. 2 Radio-Paris, 188 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA § 1. — Situation of the Peasants The system of property in the Annamite countries results from the organisation of the commune and the family. In theory, the Emperor alone owns all the land. He transfers possession of the land to those who cultivate it and pay the land tax, but the land may be taken back if it is left lying uncultivated for a long time and if the tax ceases to be paid. ID practice the ruler very rarely made full use of this right, especially during the last century, and the person who works the land has always enjoyed the prerogatives of a real proprietor, such as the right to use, sell and bequeath the land. The village community, which is the basic administrative unit of the empire, is a very strong corporate body. It owns part of the land constituting its territory. " The land used for pagodas (huong hoa) is unassignable and of small area; other parts have been acquired by the village either by gift or by purchase for some given purpose: these form part of the private land of the community. The largest area consists of land originally granted by the State to the village with the right of usufruct. This communal land is distributed in equal shares and according to their qualifications to each member of the collective association which constitutes the village." x The land which does not form part of the property of the village is divided up among the registered members of the community. Each head of a family possesses authority and prerogatives in his own farm which are comparable to those of the paterfamilias of ancient days. His power is limited, however, as regards the administration of his property by restrictions similar to those applying to communal land. He may not dispose of the family huong hoa, the income from which is devoted to the purposes of ancestor worship; this land is essentially family property which cannot be transferred but must be handed on to the eldest son unless the latter is guilty of some offence considered as filial impiety. The remainder of the land is divided up in equal fractions among all the male children, irrespective of whether they are the children of wives or of concubines. The fact that the registered members of the community are obliged to perpetuate the worship of their ancestors and to care for their tombs makes it very difficult to acquire land in prosperous 1 Pierre PASQUIER: L'Annam d'autrejois. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 189 districts. The head of a family who becomes insolvent and is dispossessed of his land in the community prefers to remain there as a share farmer or under some other system rather than to «migrate to some more fertile district; in order to remain in his traditional home he is prepared to accept all .the exactions of money-lenders, of purchasers who leave him the option of repurchase and of extortioners of every other kind. Those whose names are not on the village register do not possess any land of their own. They merely have the right to use their share of the village land which is distributed every three years. These persons and any strangers constitute a floating population from which are recruited the craftsmen, the workers for industry and public works and some of the agricultural workers for the concessions. Many of these people lack the moral backbone provided by tradition and they are more ready to listen to subversive propaganda than are the persons living on the land of their ancestors. One of the characteristic features of the Annamite regulations governing land is the great uncertainty of ownership. This is due in the first place to the constant changes that take place in the land itself, which " appears and disappears under the chance influence of some water course or flood, there being no definite boundary between the land area and the water area " 1. In theory, the right of ownership is determined by an entry in the dia bo or village land register introduced by the Emperor Gia-Long as a basis for the land tax. But much of the value of this system as a means of proving rights of ownership has been destroyed by the negligence of the indigenous authorities responsible for the register, the absence of cadastral plans, the impossibility of setting up boundary marks and the fact that there is no possibility of acquisitive prescription based on length of possession. When any dispute arises, proofs to the contrary are admitted, and this means innumerable and interminable lawsuits. 2 The next point to be considered is how this land system developed under the influence of French penetration and recent economicevolution into the existing agrarian system. It should be noted that the present system varies considerably from the north to the south of Indo-China, as regards both the distribution of land and the methods of cultivation. 1 2 Pierre PASQUIER: L'Annam d'autrefois. Cf. P. VIEILLARD: Le paysannat Indochinois (Report to the International and Intercolonial Congress on Indigenous Communities during the Paris International Colonial Exhibition of 1931). 190 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA In the deltas of Tonking and Annam, the Annamite custom of dividing property equally among all the children—except for the huong hoa, which the eldest son receives in addition to his share—has led to the subdivision of the land to a steadily increasing extent. In the Tonking delta 62 per cent, of the heads of farming families (which number six persons on the average) have less than 36 ares of rice fields for their subsistence and 30 per cent, have less than 180 ares. 1 There are on the average 12 parcels of land to the hectare and there are as many as 14,000 parcels within the boundaries of some populous villages. 2 In the plains of northern and central Annam, at least 65 per cent. of the families have only 50 ares or less, made up of tiny patches of land scattered over the territory of the community. The average area of holdings is larger in southern Annam, which is less populous and where more people earn a livelihood by fishing. The method of direct, family cultivation is the general rule throughout the north of Indo-China. A few details as to the forms of cultivation used by different classes of farmers are given below. The very poor peasant possesses nothing but a few ares of rice fields, scanty equipment for tilling the land, a pig, a few poultry and no savings of any kind. He works the land with his family, hires out his labour to neighbouring landowners and works as a wage earner during the agricultural slack season. To him and his family rice is a luxury, which enters into their diet only immediately after the harvest; for the rest of the year they are underfed. In a bad year he has to borrow in order to buy food, and once he has got into debt he is soon ruined. The smallholder (1 to 2 hectares). — If he has no ox, cow or buffalo, he hires one for the year or for each working period. During the plantingout and harvest periods, mutual assistance is given: the smallholders give their services to each other by the day in return for payment in kind. Those who help in this way receive their food; wage-paid labour is rarely employed. The medium-sized farmer (7 to 18 hectares). — This is a social group which loses caste if it performs manual work. These farmers have some slight education; the younger ones speak French and are expected to spread a knowledge of modern technical methods of rice growing. They take an interest in the yield of their own lands, realise the value of improvements and are above superstition and slavish adherence to 1 2 An are =100 sq. metres, or about 4 poles. In the province of Bac-Giang the Forestry Service wished to lease 2y2 hectares of the upper rice fields as a nursery garden and it was obliged to negotiate with 76 landowners for this purpose. The number of cultivated parcels of land in Tonking has been estimated at 17 millions, and in the province of Nam-Dinh the Survey Service recorded 1,882,000 parcels in an arable area of 128,000 hectares; this is larger than the total number of parcels in CochinChina and Cambodia. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 191 routine. Unfortunately, they are often more anxious to obtain some honorary post than to promote agriculture. Tenant and share-farmers. — Share-farming, in which the harvest is divided up in a specified proportion between tenant and proprietor, is comparatively rare. The payment of rent in kind or in cash is becoming increasingly common. On the large concessions the proprietor employs a manager, overseer or bailiff, who supervises the tenants or share-farmers. These intermediaries make life hard for the small farmer, for they rob their employers with one hand and practise usury with the other. 1 It might be thought that the system of small ownership in Tonking was so widespread that there was no danger of a proletariat coming into being, but certain close observers have noted disturbing developments in this direction. The delta is certainly essentially a district of smallholders, but their exact proportion is far from clear. There can be practically no doubt that large holdings are very rare and that medium-sized holdings which enable the proprietors to live in comfort without doing any manual work are of ridiculously small area to our way of thinking (a few hectares, or even one hectare only) ; in addition there are swarms of tiny holdings of a few thousand or even a few hundred square metres . . . But these general truths require to be confirmed by material evidence. It must be borne in mind that the apparent proprietor is not always the real one: the owner may have made over his land to a money-lender, who allows him to remain on the holding in return for an annual payment; he appears to be a landowner but he is really only a tenant. Thus, openly or secretly, large holdings are acquired; the rates of interest are high and inevitably favour the expropriation of smallholders, who find themselves obliged to borrow . . . The free play of economic forces naturally leads to the expropriation of the owners of small properties.2 In Cochin-China the system of land distribution is entirely different, there being a preponderance of very large holdings: 45 per cent, of the rice fields form estates ranging from 50 to several thousand hectares; 42 per cent, are in farms of from 5 to 50 hectares, and only 12.5 per cent, are smallholdings of less than 5 hectares. There are fewer holdings in the whole of CochinChina than in certain provinces of Tonking such as Bac-Ninh, which has 1 % millions. Of the 6,690 landowners with holdings of over 50 hectares in the whole of Indo-China, 6,300 belong to Cochin-China. As in the north, holdings of less than 10 hectares are usually worked by the owner himself. Those above t h a t size (i.e., the great majority) are divided into parcels, generally of from 5 to 1 R. DUMONT: "Les possibilités d'amélioration de la culture du riz dans le 2delta du Tonkin ", in L'Annam nouveau, 26 August 1934. P. GOUROU : Le Tonkin, pp. 117-118. 192 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA 10 hectares, and handed over to a kind of tenant farmer, known as tâ-dien. The td-dien must first clear and level the ground, supplying the necessary implements himself. He must also build a shelter for himself, dig drains and irrigation channels and begin cultivation. Meanwhile, he and his family must live. The lessor therefore becomes a moneylender, granting his tenant small advances of cash and of paddy, at interest of from 100 to 200 per cent. Nor is that all: if the tenant can manage without asking for advances, he is compelled to accept them on pain of being turned off the land. If he needs buffaloes, the proprietor lends them to him at an annual rate of interest equal to half the value of the animals. The operation of bringing the land into cultivation provides the owner at the same time with an opportunity for exploiting the tenant by usury. Thus, after the harvest, two-thirds or even three-quarters of the rice must be handed over to the proprietor in payment of the rent and repayment of the advances. The td-dien is also exposed to another usurer— the Chinese who sold him implements, cotton goods and dried fish on credit. What is left him for the maintenance of himself and his family ? Generally he is obliged to sink still further into debt. In spite of his toil, which increases the area under cultivation year by year and provides a magnificant unearned increment on the Indo-Chinese paddy exports, the small 1tenant farmer of Cochin-China remains in a poverty-stricken condition. In Cambodia, the family holding is the rule. Most of the inhabitants are smallholders, cultivating an area of less than a hectare along the river valleys, or between 1 and 5 hectares in the interior. Tenant and share-farming are very rare and there are few day labourers in agriculture. Mutual aid is highly developed, and it is quite common to see about ten yoke ploughing or harrowing the same rice field, but there is no communal land distributed periodically. In Laos and the Mois districts, which are sparsely populated and where there is an abundance of unoccupied land, strict rules of land tenure were much less necessary than in the countries mentioned above. Every type of ownership is to be found: the 1 Cf. L'Asie française, November 1927, p. 347. There is almost unanimous agreement as to the wretched situation of the td-dien in Cochin-China, but certain writers (e.g., Mr. Paul BERNARD in Le problème économique indochinois, p. 9) point out that poverty is not absolutely universal among them and that the landowners plead justification for the high rate of interest on the advances to the tâ-dien on the ground that they are entirely helpless if the tenant absconds. The following is an official expression of opinion. " The tâ-dien class deserves consideration in the same way as does every class of wage earner, but at the same time landowners must be protected against dishonest tenants who pocket the advances made to them and make no return at harvest time. It must not be forgotten that these tâ-dien work for only a few months in the year; the rest of the time they are completely idle and usually spend their leisure gambling. To regulate their relationship with their employers is therefore a complicated problem." (Speech of Governor-General Pasquier in the Government Council of Indo-China, 28 October 1930.) INDEPENDENT WORKERS 193 tiny holding cultivated successively by father and son, ownership being confirmed merely by custom ; areas belonging to a community, certain parts being temporarily cleared by fire and then abandoned again (rays) ; strips of forest or of grassland which are roughly developed for a time as tribes migrate from place to place. It will thus be seen t h a t agriculture in Indo-China has gradually evolved—by different methods in different districts, but with similar results—to a position in which there are two very distinct elements: on the one hand the large and medium-sized landowners—Annamite or French—who exercise their influence through the authority of the mandarins, the local councils and chambers of agriculture, etc., their associations, the press and the credit system.; on the other hand the working masses: smallholders, tenant-farmers, share-farmers, wage earners, all more or less subject to the other group—in short, the nhaqué. According to certain writers, the policy followed by the French authorities in Indo-China with a view to winning the support of an élite among the inhabitants has actually aggravated this disequilibrium. In Cochin-Çhina the " client " policy of basing French domination on the support of a minority for which the best land, ample credit and influential positions were reserved, and concentrating entirely on the large-scale development of the rice fields, led to the establishment of a plutocracy of large and medium-scale landowners holding about 80 per cent, of the rice fields, while the masses of the proletariat live on very low wages or are systematically exploited by money-lenders and by the proprietors of their holdings. In this Colony, which has such an abundance of land, this policy brought into existence the most serious problem with which the authorities have had to deal—that of the land, which has now been brought to a head by the determined and sometimes violent demands of those who are excluded from ownership. It has, moreover, deprived the Government of the best and most extensive territories, in which it would have been easy to organise smallholdings and thus1 relieve the over-populated regions of Tonking and Northern Annam. Whatever may be the extent of the responsibility of the French authorities for this situation, one fact is clear: the very numerous rural proletariat which has grown up as a result of the overpopulation in the north of Indo-China and of the development of huge estates in Cochin-China constitutes a social danger and an active force in the country which is at present being wrongly used. All observers are agreed on this point: Speaking generally, the masses live in the greatest poverty. The farmer lives on his land and that is all he can hope to do; at best he 1 Yves HENRY, General Inspector of Agriculture for the Colonies: "La Question Agraire en Indochine", La Dépêche Coloniale, 16 December 1936. 13 194 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA can merely satisfy his most immediate needs. The problem of starvation faces him as soon as the harvest in any year is less satisfactory than usual, or as soon as any unexpected event, such as illness or an accident, involves him in unforeseen expenditure. 1 The following description by one who spent several years in Cochin-China reveals the difficult situation of the peasants in t h a t country : The root cause of all these troubles lies in the traditional system of credit. It is not peculiar to Indo-China, and indeed it explains in great measure the backwardness of agriculture and the social stagnation in large parts of the Far East. The lack of forethought of the Annamite or Cambodian peasant is at once deplorable and pathetic. Thrift is not one of his virtues ; there is nothing corresponding to the French peasant's " woollen stocking ": Family celebrations or village festivals provide frequent occasions for spending the little that the peasant possesses and often more than he possesses. He is generous in fulfilling the rites of ancestor worship and in honouring the divinities whose statues fill the temples or pagodas and the many spirits which haunt the country districts and threaten poor humans, for it is wise to take every possible precaution. Even before the harvest a large proportion of the rice is sold ; long before the following harvest has been threshed out the daily ration has to be cut down and the family is obliged to live on less appetising dishes, such as sweet potatoes or other tubers, maize and beans. Even the smallest shellfish are sought for in the rivers, lakes or sea ; the peasant wears himself out by hawking produce from market to market and hiring out his services for starvation wages. It is in the teeming deltas of the north that life is most difficult. It is true that one no longer sees the horrible famines described by missionaries of earlier days, when corpses were scattered about the water courses and roads, while famished hordes pillaged the fields and houses and women sold their children for a few bowls of rice. Nevertheless many families still find it very difficult to live through the period between one harvest and the next. The average quantity of rice consumed by the Annamites in these deltas is estimated at 95 kgs. a year—which is far from adequate. Many small landowners possess, in addition to their tiny field and their rudimentary hut, only a few rough tools, a pig and some hens, worth a few piastres in all; most of them have no draught animals and cannot afford to hire any. The inhabitants of Cochin-China are fewer in number, better distributed, and generally adequately fed, but even amongst them many live from hand to mouth—not only the agricultural workers but also the " tâ-dien ", who often have no animals and have to borrow rice during half the year to keep themselves alive. The moneylenders do a flourishing trade among these improvident masses. Most fortunes are founded on moneylending. The normal rate of interest is between 2 and 3 per cent, per month, and it is often higher. It is therefore not in the creditor's interest to have early repayment, and he tends to encourage the peasant in his carelessness, postponing repayment of the debt year after year; the interest is paid in the form of a fraction of the harvest, which may be handed over in kind or immediately converted into cash. When the yield is not sufficient for this purpose the land itself provides security for the claim. The Annamite rarely agrees to give up for good the land in which his ancestors are 1 Paul BERNARD, op. cit., p. 25. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 195 buried and which will enable his children to fulfil the necessary rites towards his own spirit, but he is prepared to sell it subject to a clause guaranteeing the possibility of re-purchase. Many holdings are thus alienated in point of fact and the small landowners spend long days of labour solely for the benefit of their creditors. Very often tenant farmers and share farmers are also heavily in debt, and in Cochin-China interest charges frequently represent a third of the price for which the rice is sold. The loans reach the farmer through several intermediaries and in this way the rice fields are crushed under a load of debt. 1 § 2. — Protection of the Peasants The main outlines of a wise policy for the protection of the peasants in Indo-China can clearly be deduced from the situation as described above. The first aim of such a policy must be to improve the conditions of land tenure, and this could be done in two ways: first by removing the uncertainty of title deeds to property by a system of registration and survey, and secondly by enabling the largest possible number of those who at present hold no land to acquire some. The situation of the peasant might then be improved by increasing the productivity of the soil, and this is the purpose of the extensive hydraulic works (dredging and the construction of dykes and irrigation systems) which have been one of the most striking successes achieved by the French in Indo-China. The results obtained by improving methods of cultivation in the narrower sense have perhaps been less marked. The third, and by no means the least important point in any systematic programme for protecting the peasants would be a campaign against usury, the main weapon in which would be the organisation of agricultural credit at moderate rates. Here again much has been done by the French authorities, and it will be necessary to consider below whether they have completely achieved their aims. IMPROVEMENT OF CONDITIONS OF LAND T E N U R E The Government of the Colony has been trying for a long time to establish individual land ownership on a stable basis by gradually introducing a normal system of land tenure which would do away with the existing uncertainty of title deeds and enable cheap credit to be given against good security. The administrative measures of the French authorities brought about a clash from 1 Ch. ROBEQUAIN, L'Indochine française, op. cit, pp. 145-148. 196 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA the very beginning between the Annamite system of land tenure, based on the dia bo, and the legislation concerning mortgages, which would seem to be the only method of ensuring the preservation of real estate. 1 During a long period of transition the two systems existed officially side by side, and this gave rise to innumerable problems which proved very difficult of solution. The Decrees of 21 July 1925 instituted a Land Register as a basis for the new regulations in Cochin-China and in the French towns in Tonking, Annam and Laos. In each of these places special procedures were laid down for the change from one legislation to another. In Annam, Tonking and Cambodia the transition was guaranteed by local systems for the preservation of cadastral records very similar to the procedure of registration, but without the same legal force. In Tonking in particular the task was rendered extremely difficult by excessive subdivision of the land resulting from over-population, by the unwillingness of the peasants to leave their own district and by other economic circumstances. At the same time a cadastral survey was made. This extensive task, which was begun as soon as the French authorities intervened, was entrusted in Cochin-China, Tonking and Cambodia to special services which now have very highly specialised staffs and the most up-to-date equipment, including the use of aerial photographs. In Annam the work is carried out, mainly on a provincial basis, by the different Residents. In view of the variety of the measures taken and the methods employed it is difficult to give comparable figures for the different countries. In 1931, 15 million holdings had been surveyed in Tonking; in Cochin-China 3,610,000 hectares out of an arable surface of 5,120,000; in Cambodia 120,000 hectares in three provinces, and in Annam 140,000 hectares in five provinces.2 It is the official policy of the French authorities in Indo-China to enable the largest possible number of those who have no land to acquire smallholdings by granting them concessions in the 1 Mr. Paul BERNARD (Le Problème Economique Indochinois, pp. 223-224) wonders whether the introduction of the mortgage system in Indo-China has been a benefit: " The Annamites have no knowledge of the system of mortgages and definitive sales were not practised ; as their lands practically always include the tombs of their ancestors they obviously wished to prevent the spirits of their ancestors from being disturbed, as would be the case if the land was transferred, and they were afraid that they would be followed by the curses of their ancestors if they irrevocably gave up any property transmitted by them." According to this author the legislation concerning mortgages " was certainly one of the causes of the excessive indebtedness of farmers and the cornering of the land by a few individuals ". 2 P. VIEILLARD, op. cit. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 197 vast areas which are still undeveloped in the west and south of Cochin-China and in the hinterland of Annam and Tonking. Frequent reference has been made to this policy in official speeches and declarations, but when one comes to consider the extent to which it has been realised it must be admitted that the results are very slight compared with what still remains to be done. It was shown above how the agricultural development of CochinChina, more or less with the assistance of the authorities, had led to the creation of an agrarian plutocracy and the dispossession of smallholders. In Tonking the authorities, after making a survey of the unoccupied lands which could be developed in the uplands and near the coast, made several efforts to promote land settlement by establishing new villages, but up to the present these efforts have broken down because of the religious beliefs and customs of the people. This question will be discussed at greater length in the following chapter, which deals with the problem of land settlement in Indo-China as a whole. In Cochin-China the authorities had an excellent opportunity of organising a redistribution of property for the benefit of hose who owned no land during the years 1930-1932, when the degree of agricultural indebtedness became acute. Some brief details of this situation must be given. The rise in the price of rice from 1924 to 1930 had led to feverish speculation in Cochin-China. The landowners had had six years of exceptional prosperity which they expected to last for ever and they spent their unexpected gains on insufficiently planned extensions or land improvements, on the purchase of expensive machinery, in the reckless building of houses, etc. The style they kept up, the cost of sending their children to France, the establishment of undertakings having no connection with the production of rice (transport and public works), and finally gambling accounted for the rest of their profits. The inevitable result was ruin, and this is what overtook Cochin-China. The situation is not peculiar to Cochin-China, and economic history teaches us that the indebtedness of the producing and landowning class periodically reaches a level beyond which repayment becomes economically and socially impossible, even if ordered by a court of law.1 It was calculated that on 31 December 1932 the total indebtedness of the Cochin-China rice fields was somewhere between 50 and 55 million piastres. It should be noted however that this indebtedness affected only a certain number of large landowners constituting an insignificant proportion of the total population living on the land.2 1 Cf. André To UZET'.l'Economieindochinoise et la grande crise universelle. The question has been dealt with in a masterly study by Mr. P. DE FEYSSAL: L'endettement agraire en Cochinchine. Hanoï, Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient, 1933. 2 Of the 2,662 landowners who appealed to the Agricultural Loan Service for assistance in the settlement of their debts, which represented in all 35,600,000 piastres of indebtedness on 400,000 hectares of rice fields, 655 between them owed 28.700,000 piastres on 200,000 hectares. 198 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA The indebtedness of the rice growers in Cochin-China revealed a complex and serious situation: overlapping of all kinds of commitments, only very few of which were contracted with banks or European agricultural loan societies, the majority and the largest sums being borrowed from " chettys " or from other Annamite landowners ; rates of interest and conditions of repayment which might be justifiable in periods of extreme prosperity but were unthinkable during years of acute depression; security which had lost its value as a result of the collapse of stock exchange quotations and of the difficulty, cost and simultaneous occurrence of so many seizures. The authorities considered that it was part of their duty to release the rice growers from the burden of debt which was crushing them, and in any case to act as a referee between debtors and creditors so as to persuade the latter to accept certain sacrifices and grant certain facilities for payment, as was in any case essential in their own interests, and to help the former to pay off immediately the first annuities of their debt once it was satisfactorily consolidated. This was the purpose of the Decree of 29 April 1932, which established a service for long-term agricultural loans in Indo-China. The establishment of this service was made possible by an Act of 26 April 1932 authorising the GovernorGeneral of Indo-China to guarantee loans up to a maximum of 100 million francs. On 7 October 1932 an agreement was entered into with two local establishments which had specialised in supplying credit on mortgage to use the funds advanced by the Agricultural Credit Bank of France and to carry out the necessary operations. By October 1933 loans to the amount of 30 million francs had already been granted. Some landowners, however, were too heavily in debt to have any chance of working off the amount they owed ; it was therefore necessary to make provision for extensive changes in the ownership of the land, with all the consequences that these changes might involve; the Land Settlement Office was set up by a Decree of 22 April 1932 to avoid the dangers which might occur in the course of these changes. The Decree of 22 April 1932 provided t h a t up to 1 January 1934 the Governor-General might be represented at sales by auction and purchase rice fields which had been seized. As far as possible, and whenever the former owners seemed worthy of a reasonable degree of confidence, the Land Settlement Office was to entrust them with the management of their former property under conditions whereby they could again become the owners of the land if they worked hard and acquired savings. The Office was intended not only to stabilise conditions in agriculture but also to fulfil an important economic and social function. It was intended to take advantage of earlier circumstances and improve the fundamental structure of the country by a redistribution of land. A systematic plan would have permitted the large estates to be divided up, smallholdings to be extended and villages to be established for land settlement. In point of fact, the Decree of 22 April 1932 would seem to have borne no fruit. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 199 It must be frankly admitted that the authorities in Indo-China showed a lack of constructive imagination in this matter. Perhaps the task was too extensive to be carried out with the means at their disposal. The Land Settlement Office did not appear in the front line of the campaign against the depression, but remained behind dealing with the legal aspects of the question. Possibly it was the wiser course, because the proposed remedy was one of those which products a feverish condition in the patient. The authorities are not at the moment equipped to take action in such a delicate matter as the management of rice fields and in such a serious question as the reorganisation of the whole system of land ownership. It restricted its activities to more modest ends, and its prudence has met with success.1 DEVELOPING THE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE SOIL One of the most effective means of increasing the output of Annamite agriculture is a system of public works destined either to reduce the risks of rice growing resulting from the defective or inadequate distribution of water or to increase the area which can be used for the cultivation of rice. In this direction the French authorities have achieved a considerable measure of succss. Dredging 2 Apart from the eastern district extending from the Annamite frontier to Eastern Vaico practically the whole of Cochin-China is low-lying. A few canals were dug by the Chinese and the Annamites. As early as 1860 Cholon was the centre of a very inadequate and neglected network of rivers. The naval authorities and also the civil Governors improved and extended it considerably. From 1894 onwards it was realised that the canals were of great direct importance for agriculture: they could be used for draining land which was unfit for cultivation because of excessive submersion; the action of the tides, which could advance through the land thus reclaimed, could be regulated and used either for irrigation or for the evacuation of excessive water according to requirements. The Public Work Service drew up extensive programmes which were gradually extended to the whole of Cochin-China.8 A few figures will serve to show the extent of the work undertaken. The average volume of soil excavated annually by dredging increased from 824,000 cubic metres during the decade 1890-1900 to 7,233,000 cubic metres in the period 1920-30. In 1930 the total volume was as much as 165 million cubic metres, and the 1 8 André TOUZET: op. eu.; p. 376. Cf. Mr. GASPARD: " Les canaux et la navigation fluviale en Indochine " in Congrès de l'outillage économique colonial et des communications, 20-25 July 1931 (International Exhibition, Paris, 1931); idem: Dragages de Cochinchine (Saigon, 1930); Charles ROBEQUAIN: L'Indochine française, op. cit., pp. 137 et 3seq. Charles ROBEQUAIN: op. cit., pp. 138-139. 200 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA significance of this figure can be appreciated by comparing it with the total volume of soil excavated in the construction, enlargement and maintenance of the important Canals of Suez and Panama : 260 million cubic metres for the former and 210 millions for the latter. These three figures, which are more or less comparable in size, indicate the important place which the French dredging operations in CochinChina must take among the great works of modern civilisation. . Thanks to this work the area used for the cultivation of rice in Cochin-China rose from 376,000 hectares in 1868 to 2,400,000 in 1930. The average expenditure did not exceed 40 francs per hectare, and the increase in the capital value of the soil was more than three times the expenditure. Exports of rice from CochinChina increased from 133,000 tons in 1868 to 1,286,000 in 1913 and about 1,800,000 in 1929. Apart from this important influence on agricultural production in Cochin-China, the canals have done valuable service in promoting the circulation of commodities, so that they serve both for production and as means of communication between the people settled along their banks. The fleet of launches, which numbered 59 in 1908, had risen to 191 in 1930, most of them being owned by Annamites or Chinese. Dredging, which has extended towards the west and the south, has had to pass over the Rattan Plain (Plaine des Joncs). This basin, which covers 500,000 hectares near the frontier of Cambodia, falls towards the south to less than 1 metre above sea level. It provides a livelihood for only about 50,000 inhabitants. It will be extremely difficult to drain its alum-bearing soil and the basin will probably long remain an almost deserted area lying to the north of the richest rice fields of Cochin-China. Extensive as has been the work of dredging, it can by no means be considered complete. The existing network of canals is said to be insufficient, as many of the principal arteries have not been connected up by transverse canals which would have permitted the whole of the area to be completely drained. Moreover, it is said that the canals meet the requirements of shipping much more than the agricultural needs of the country; the rice growers often complain that the opening of new canals has increased the salinity of certain land or inundated or dried up other land, so that in some cases the work undertaken has profited one district at the expense of others.* 1 Paul BERNARD: op. cit., pp. 85-86. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 201 Dikes 1 The problem in Tonking is not, as in Cochin-China, that of reclaiming new land for cultivation but rather of stabilising and increasing the output from soil which is naturally productive. The Red River is in flood between June and October, which is the period of the main rice crop known as " tenth month rice ". The cereal cannot stand submersion for 5 days. As, on the other hand, an increasingly large area had to be protected against periodical flooding in order to maintain the excessive population, it was found necessary to build a tremendous system of dikes—a feature entirely unknown in Cochin-China. The supervision of these ramparts was always one of the main cares of the Annamite mandarins and peasants of this district. There were however gaps and weak points in the system. Disastrous flooding was frequent before the French authorities intervened; after 1910 breaches in the dikes still caused cruel famines. It was really only after the terrible floods of 1927 that a comprehensive programme was drawn up and put into effect to strengthen the dikes effectively. They were rearranged, extended and reinforced by coverings of puddled clay and stone packing; the largest are now 7 metres wide at the top, the level of which is higher than any known flood, being as much as 13.30 metres in Hanoï. This work necessitated the excavation of a tremendous volume of soil: 40 million cubic metres between 1915 and 1930, and an expenditure of about 12 million piastres up to 1 January 1931, not including the labour provided in the form of labour dues before 1924. In spite of its amount there can be no doubt that this expenditure will very soon be recovered. Irrigation The damage done by drought in Tonking and Annam, although less striking than the effects of flooding, is even more disastrous. The rains are badly divided, and—what is worse—vary considerably from one year to another. The Annamite, who understands the benefits of irrigation, spends a large part of his time and labour 1 Hydraulique et irrigations en Indochine. Report submitted by Mr. Normandin to the Congress on Colonial Economic Equipment and Communications (20-25 July 1931); Charles ROBEQUAIN: L'Indochine française, op. cit., pp. 140 et seq., Paul BERNARD: op. cit., pp. 86, 337; Pierre GOUROU: Le Tonkin, pp. 71 et seq. 202 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA in carrying water to his rice fields from the small streams and ponds, which are quickly exhausted. French engineers are now carrying out a vast irrigation scheme in Tonking. In the higher land, which constantly suffers from a shortage of water, the problem is met by building dams so as to raise the level of certain rivers, after which part of the water can be led to the fields by a system of canals arranged as may be most convenient according to topographical conditions. In this way the waters of the Song Thuong and the Song Cau in the northern part of the delta have been harnessed at the point at'which they leave the mountainous region. When the water cannot be used by the force of gravity, pumping is adopted, as has already been done in Son Tay (Tonking) ; when the electrification of the Northern delta, which is at present being carried out, is completed the number of pumping stations can be increased. The irrigation schemes working in the plain of Tonking so far cover only about 10 per cent, of the areas suitable for cultivation. Extensive works are at present being organised in the over-populated districts of the central delta, just below Hanoï. A considerable fraction of the funds available for loans are being used for this eminently desirable purpose. The deltas of Annam, which so often suffer from drought, have not been neglected. The most extensive irrigation scheme in Indo-China is that of the Song Chu in the Thanh Hoa Province, which was completed in 1928 and which fertilises an area with 50,000 inhabitants. The Song Ba irrigation system in the Phu Yen district was inaugurated in 1932. Others are in course of construction or have been planned for the deltas of the Nghê An, Ha Tinh, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Phanrang. 1 There is reason to believe that as a result of this irrigation work Tonking will be able to increase its output of rice by 300,000 tons annually. There is, however, some doubt whether these hydraulic works for the benefit of agriculture will pay. It has been calculated that the new irrigation schemes will cost as much as a hundred piastres per hectare in Tonking and from 120 to 150 in Annam, which means—making allowance for the annual interest on the loan and the repayment of the capital—a total annual charge of from 8 to 12 piastres per hectare in the districts irrigated by gravity and from 12 to 18 piastres in the districts irrigated by pumping. On the other hand, the increase in the value of the paddy harvest will probably not exceed 14 piastres at the rates quoted for 1934. The system of irrigation therefore cannot be developed indefinitely without a risk of involving the country in an excessive degree of indebtedness. 2 * 1 8 Charles ROBEQUAIN: L'Indochine française, op. cit., pp. 144-145. Paul BERNARD: op. cit., pp. 88 and 337. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 203 The next point to be considered is the work of the French authorities to raise the standard of living of the peasants by improving agricultural methods. The first idea was to introduce practical agricultural education, which did not exist in the country. It cannot be said that the efforts, made in this direction really reached the masses. The Annamite peasant does not believe that agriculture can be learned in school, and those who go to the agricultural school go for the definite purpose of ceasing to be peasants. An agricultural school does exist in Cochin-China.1 The authorities also introduced school gardens, which have helped to bring about a revival in indigenous agriculture by arousing the curiosity of the pupils and their interest in the land and by spreading among the masses of the peasants ideas which are likely to bring about a considerable increase in the yield from the land. Agricultural hints in the form of pamphlets distributed to the indigenous authorities have also been issued, and these authorities are required to see that the advice is followed and to take advantage of every tour round their territory to combat defective methods of agriculture which are still employed. This is only the beginning of a method which must be generalised and intensified if it is really to reach the bulk of the peasants. The technical agricultural and cattle-rearing services have been somewhat more successful in some of their forms of propaganda, such as the use of improved equipment (ploughs, irrigation appliances, etc.), the distribution of selected seeds, plants or cuttings (rice, maize, mulberry trees, fruit trees, etc.), the establishment of fixed or itinerant centres for seed selection, campaigns against plant diseases, agricultural and livestock shows, the encouragement of certain special crops, the introduction of improved varieties, etc. In particular, propaganda in favour of the rearing of silkworms, to which attention has been constantly paid since the beginning of the century, has had a very good influence on the development of the local silk industry. The efforts of the authorities must be devoted more particularly to increasing the production of rice. The dual aim must be: (1) to increase the output of the rice field so as to reduce the cost of production; (2) to improve the quality of the grain and thus increase the selling price. Both tend to increase the value of the rice output and to produce general economic stability. Among 1 It was reorganised in accordance with a Circular of 20 February 1936 (cf. Bulletin administratif de la Cochinchine, 5 March 1936). 204 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA the rice-growing countries of the Pacific, Indo-China is practically the last as regards average yield: 12 quintals per hectare as compared with 18 in Siam, 15 in Java, and 34 in Japan, although there is no a priori justification for such a low output in the nature of the land or the hydraulic resources. The inferiority is due to a lack of three things: selected seeds, agricultural equipment and intensive fertilisers. Moreover, from the point of view of exportation the rice grown in Indo-China is seriously handicapped because of the absence of standardisation; innumerable varieties provide different sorts of paddy which reaches the rice mills without any discrimination. It must be admitted that serious efforts have been made in these various directions by the authorities and by private initiative. Mention has been made above of what has been done with regard to dredging, dikes and irrigation. The use of modern methods of cultivation has also spread considerably in recent years,1 although the efforts made in this field do not seem to have been very successful and have in any case slackened considerably since the depression set in in 1930. The fall in the prices obtained for rice has often shown that the cost of equipment was out of proportion to the increased output obtained. Moreover, the conditions of rice growing in Indo-China are not very favourable to work with machines; during the rainy season the soil is so loose that machines get bogged, and in the case of holdings that are far from urban centres the problem of the maintenance and repair of machinery raises serious difficulties. The use of motor ploughs would scarcely seem to be desirable in Cochin-China except on large holdings in districts where livestock is expensive and is difficult to keep alive. Similar disappointments have been met with in the use of fertilisers, and in this direction also scientific experiment is required. What is particularly necessary in connection both with agricultural machinery and with fertilisers is the organisation of credit simultaneously with any attempt to introduce modern technique.2 1 The weight of the mechanical tractors imported was 256 tons in 1929, 346 in 1930, and 53 in 1931 ; the imports of agricultural equipment amounted to 886 tons in 1929, 403 tons in 1930, and 81 in 1931. 2 Side by side with the attempts made by the authorities to improve the position of the peasant, there have been efforts to improve the situation of the " tâ-dien " who are unable to earn a sufficient return for their labour when the selling price of rice is low. Very interesting steps are at present being taken in the Province of Rach-Gia in Cochin-China to deal with the situation. The authorities thought that if they could guarantee the " tâ-dien " stability in the holding of his land they would be able to overcome his natural INDEPENDENT WORKERS 205 In order to deal with the various problems connected with rice growing in Indo-China the authorities set up a Rice Office in 1929.1 This institution has a certain number of very definite aims, the chief of which are: to draw up an agricultural map and establish experimental fields, to study fertilisers, to reduce the risks of cultivation and in particular to consider the measures to be taken to prevent the inrush of salt water, to prevent flooding, to combat diseases, to stamp out rats, to improve the quality of crops, to select seeds and to improve the equipment used in agriculture. The Office is a public establishment recognised under civil law, with an administrative board and two advisory councils, one for the north and the other for the south, comprising the most representative persons engaged in agriculture, commerce and industry. It is well supplied with experimental fields and laboratories and has in addition an office for studying agricultural hydraulic work. The question arises whether the Rice Office, which began its work on 1 January 1931, has so far justified the great hopes placed in it. It is admitted that after the thankless period of preparatory study the institution achieved appreciable results, more particularly in the field of propaganda. Tributes have been paid to the technical skill of its staff. On the other hand, it is pointed out that the funds and material means at its disposal were insufficient to enable it to achieve definite results. It is urged that its efforts should be seconded by other institutions working for the improvement of agricultural conditions in each locality and also by credit institutions to provide the necessary funds for these improvements. Practically every year the work of the Rice Office is discussed by dislike of settling on a piece of land where a single bad harvest may bring him into difficulties with the owner. Instead of being terminable after the harvest, the proposed new contracts are drawn up for several years, during which the owner of the land undertakes not to increase the rent. In addition he provides the tenant free of charge with materials to build a house, hires him a pair of buffaloes, and grants him the right to fish and to sell his catch. If the farmer so desires he can also obtain an advance of the paddy necessary for sowing and for living, the price charged being approved by the authorities. If the harvest is lost the " tâ-dien " will not have lost his rent or the cost of hiring the buffaloes. In return for these advantages he undertakes to develop the land entrusted to him. If any dispute arises between the landowner and the " tâ-dien " the matter, is submitted, not to the ordinary courts, but to the " Notables " or to the Chief of the Province, to be settled by arbitration. More than a thousand of these contracts are said to have been signed already and a corresponding number of Annamite families have thus been established in the Province of Rach-Gia. (L'Asie française, January 1936.) 1 Cf. Decree of 10 April 1930 concerning the establishment of a Rice Office and the Order of 30 July 1934 concerning the administrative and financial organisation of the Rice Office of Indo-China. 206 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA certain members of the Grand Council of Economic and Financial Interests, which finally decided in favour of continuing the experiment. 1 The authorities in Indo-China have not only tried to improve the cultivation of rice but have also set up a specialised institution, the Institute of Agricultural Research, to deal with the crops grown at higher altitudes—rubber, tea, coffee and cinchona bark— which interest more particularly the French settlers. This Institute was set up in 1925 and has gradually developed by linking up local agricultural centres. It has two groups of laboratories: one in Hanoï for Northern Indo-China and one in Saigon for the centre and south, as well as three important experimental stations, one at Giaray-Ong-Yem for the crops growing at low altitudes—rubber, kapok, cocoa—and two others in the Upper Donai and the Bolovens range for crops growing at medium or high altitudes (coffee, tea and cinchona bark). These two institutions were different parts of a specialised service comprising all the official activities for promoting the general interests of agriculture in Indo-China. The service was abolished in 1932, but it would doubtless be desirable to re-establish it as a whole. T H E CAMPAIGN AGAINST U S U R Y : AGRICULTURAL CREDIT In the Far East credit plays a much more important part in indigenous agriculture t h a n in Europe. It is the basis of production or the working up of produce and of all bargaining. The 1 The Chamber of Agriculture of Cochin-Ghina, however, unanimously adopted the following resolution at its meeting of 5 November 1936: " The Chamber of Agriculture, " Considering : " That the Rice Office set up in 1931 has so far achieved no practical results as regards improving the quality of rice; " That the present faulty organisation and methods employed will merely accentuate the retrogression already noted by the organisations concerned ; " That the authority exercised by the administrative board is nil; " That the responsibility of the management towards the Government and the elected assemblies is greatly reduced by the existence of this administrative board, which nevertheless exists only on paper; " That the present stations are definitely inadequate from the point of view of supplying producers with selected seeds; " Expresses the hope: " That immediate and complete reforms will be carried out in the administration and organisation of the Rice Office; " That it should no longer be autonomous ; " That extensive stations should be established in each district and should engage in cultivating the same varieties of rice." INDEPENDENT WORKERS 207 sums involved may be large or exceedingly small. The rates of interest are practically always excessive and for that reason credit is one of the causes of the permanent poverty of the mass of the peasants and the chief obstacle to progress. Annamite agriculture requires a great amount of credit because it consists essentially in the growing of rice by irrigation and because the Annamite farmer has little taste or opportunity for saving. Any system of cultivation which depends on irrigation involves the investment of capital in dikes and canals, which are exposed to destruction at any moment in the deltas of rivers such as the Mekong or the Red River. The requirements of the Annamite peasant as regards money have been summed up as follows: (a) Agricultural requirements: After a normal harvest the very small holder can live only for two or three months, after which he must borrow in order to keep himself alive until the next harvest. A small landowner who has no appreciable working capital borrows money with which to prepare the soil, plant out the rice and undertake other operations in connection with his farm. After a bad harvest, the fraction of the population which does not emigrate borrows money in order to eat. The demand is then very acute and urgent and the interest charged mounts to exorbitant rates. (b) The cash requirements not connected with agriculture are due to excessive expenditure in connection with some celebration : marriage, death, birthdays, promotion to the rank of mandarin, the traditional ceremonies connected with the festival of Têt, etc., or with the payment of taxes, especially after a bad harvest. Mention should also be made of the sums lost at games of chance, which have such an attraction for the Annamites. 1 It may therefore be said t h a t the Annamite peasant suffers from a permanent need of money all through his life. The question then arises from whom he can borrow it. Before the French authorities provided farmers with cheap credit by establishing Native mutual agricultural credit funds, agricultural credit was granted solely by certain Annamites who had large estates or by the " chettys " or Indian bankers. Even after an official credit system had been set up by the authorities, the Annamites still borrowed from the old sources. The sphere of activity of the credit funds was restricted by the fact t h a t they could grant loans only to landowners and only on the security of the land, so t h a t a large number of small farmers who did not own their lands or of landowners whose land was already encumbered had still to appeal to the money-lenders. Moreover, during the years of prosperity preceding the economic depression, the landowners had utilised 1 R. DUMONT, op. cit. 208 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA all the possible sources of credit simultaneously in order to finance the innumerable extensions of their holdings. Some description may be given of those from whom the Annamite peasant normally borrows. He applies, in the first instance, to some compatriot, a large Annamite landowner whose fortune is often based on lending out money at excessive rates of interest. It should be noted that this type of large landowner is peculiar to Cochin-China, where the owner of an estate cannot conceive of the possibility of cultivating rice in any other way than with the help of share-farmers to whom he makes advances and who refund these advances and pay their rent in the form of produce. Thus the landlord is relieved of the immediate worries of farming and generally lives in the capital of the province or even outside the province, where he can use his spare time to pursue his dream of wealth by every .means which seems likely to prove profitable. He is not merely a rice grower; he owns an oil mill, a rice-husking works, a sawmill, lime kilns, house property and sometimes even a rubber plantation or a theatre. 1 When these landowners invest their money in extensions of their property, they usually consider that the main profit which they are likely to reap from their new land is not so much the rent, which they will often be unable to collect, but rather the investment constituted by the advances which the share-farmers are obliged to accept. The Annamite creditor usually considers a loan as a means of acquiring property under very favourable conditions . . . The loan and the rate of interest are calculated in such a way that the agreed annual repayments exceed the amount that can be paid out of the produce of the land, which is naturally the security for the loan. On the other hand, the amount of the loan is less than the value of the security, so that when a debtor who cannot repay his debt in any other way hands over the property in payment, the transaction is a very successful one for the creditor, who has acquired the land cheaply—the sole purpose and ultimate aim of the operation . . . It is extremely difficult to convince Annamite creditors of the need for sacrifices or concessions; they want the land and they distrain upon the debtor as soon as they can.2 This explains why the rates of interest generally practised in Indo-China seem incredible to the Western mind. Formerly the legal Annamite rate was 3 per cent, per month. French legislation restricted the rate to 8 per cent, per annum, but the legislation 1 2 P . DE F E Y S S A L , op. Ibid. cit., p. 47. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 209 is frequently n o t observed a n d it seems to h a v e m a d e little c h a n g e in t h e s i t u a t i o n . For small sums, the rate is generally from 3 to 5 per cent, per month, and it may be as much as 10 per cent.—that is to say, the fantastic rate of 120 per cent, per annum or even more. I t is not unusual to find the nhaqué, especially when taxes fall due, contracting loans at the rate of 3 per cent, per day or 90 per cent, per month. 1 I n Indo-China, as in m o s t of t h e Asiatic c o u n t r i e s , u s u r y is t h e n a t u r a l consequence of t h e social d i s e q u i l i b r i u m : In this country, with its depressing climate, the individual is constantly seeking after t h a t rest and inertia which have been exalted by his religious beliefs and which are reputed to be the ideal attitude for the wise m a n ; the use of opium provides him with an ideal means of practising physical immobility while retaining untrammelled freedom of dreams. At the same time, the low standard of civilisation, the absence of any form of protection for the weak such as exists when everyone is imbued with a certain religious morality and has a sense of being directly affected by social legislation, together with the slowness of material progress, make it very difficult, for anyone who has no land, no property and no money to " earn a living ". The poor are entirely at the mercy of the rich, accept any conditions, refuse no obligations and are entirely subject to the domination of the stronger party. They live entirely from hand to mouth and therefore require advances of money, grain and food. The rich m a n provides these advances: he rents land, lends the farmer enough to live on until the harvest at rates which may seem incredible and iniquitous to a Frenchman but which in this country seem normal, acceptable and even favourable, although they m a y be as much as 48 per cent, for even a very small sum. In the case of small loans granted to a person who possesses nothing at all, it is normal to pay back three times the amount of the loan. Thus a person who owns property is not required to make any effort at all, since the poor cannot refuse to slave throughout their lives and even to lose their lives in the service of the person who provides them with the means of subsisting. 2 T h e o t h e r t y p e of m o n e y - l e n d e r t o w h o m t h e A n n a m i t e farmer a p p e a l s is t h e " c h e t t y " or I n d i a n b a n k e r . A c c o r d i n g t o Mr. P . de Feyssal, t h e r e w e r e in Cochin-China in 1933 m o r e t h a n 300 of t h e s e , w o r k i n g in a b o u t 100 s e p a r a t e e s t a b l i s h m e n t s . T h e following details on t h e w o r k of t h e " c h e t t y s " are given b y t h e same writer : The " chetty " is essentially a trader in money, and the profit at which he aims is the money to be earned on a loan. He rarely speculates on anything else; he is rarely a trader in commodities. Nor does he invest money in any local business; all his profits return to India . . . 1 Pham HUY-LUC: " For the suppression of usury " in L'Annam Nouveau, 13 December 1936. It was also stated by Colonial Councillor Nguyén-PhánLong at the meeting of the Colonial Council in Saigon on 12 October 1933 that the rate for small loans at that time was 5 per cent, per month. 2 P. DE FEYSSAL, op. cit., pp. 23-24. 14 210 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA The " chetty " is a most finished master of his craft. He understands. moreover, the art of disguising, under an appearance of conventional correctness, the more heart-breaking features of his illegal operations. The rate of interest seems moderate, at least from the point of view of the customs of the country, being 12 per cent. But this interest is added to the capital and the total sum is shown in the receipt for the loan. This total is divided into ten equal fractions, to be repaid one at a time, and the result is that the actual rate of interest may easily be double the figure indicated to the borrower. This is merely the simplest and commonest of the methods by which the borrower, who never succeeds in paying off his debt, is compelled throughout his life to provide the " chetty " with a livelihood . . . For reasons of prudence as well as on grounds of pride, the " chettys " have always refused to accept any obligation to keep regular accounts in a European language or in Arabic numerals; thanks to the faulty drafting of certain legal texts and the absence of sanctions, they have so far succeeded in dodging this obligation and escaping punishment from the courts, with the help of their legal advisers and certain sharp practices . . . . The " chettys " boast of always being correct in their dealings ; they have minor legal officials in their service and, by getting the law on their side, they are practically always sure of obtaining favourable decisions which are legally unassailable. When they feel in danger, however, they do not hesitate to distribute generous subsidies so as to arouse what is wrongly called " public opinion " in their favour. In reality they always consider themselves as aliens, entirely cut off from the people they exploit by their conviction of racial, religious and natural superiority. They take the fullest advantage of French legislation whenever they can, but they are clever enough never to accept its jurisdiction for themselves and, with the help of skilful legal advisers, they have been able to establish a privileged situation which they strengthen by constant appeals to the British consuls, to whom they are careful never to refuse payment of income tax. 1 When they became the masters of Indo-China, the French were naturally aghast at the situation of the Annamite peasant, who was so burdened with debt as to be in reality a serf. They found also t h a t this condition was an obstacle to the economic development of the country. Two things were necessary to improve the situation: on the one hand, to combat usury directly by reducing the rates of interest on loans and, on the other hand, to combat it indirectly by providing the Annamite peasants with official credit at moderate rates. The direct campaign was not as successful as might have been hoped. The first measure taken was a Decree of 17 July 1926, the purpose of which was to restrict considerably recourse to imprisonment for debt in the case of commercial matters affecting the inhabitants dealt with in civil courts; in future, imprisonment of this kind was not to be automatic but could be imposed only 1 P . DE F E Y S S A L , op. cit., p p . 26-31. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 211 a t the express request of the creditor when the debtor had obviously acted in bad faith. The authorities then tried to restrict the rates of interest by the Decree of 17 May 1934, which fixed the legal rate of interest at 5 per cent, and the maximum rate which could be accepted by agreement at 8 per cent. The usurers, however, were able to get round this legislation by indicating on the acknowledgement the amount of the loan together with the interest. In order to p u t an end to this practice, a Decree of 9 October 1936 stipulated t h a t private contracts concerning loans of money required the approval of an official, who must satisfy himself (1) t h a t the signatures had been properly exchanged ; (2) t h a t the money had been counted ; and (3) that the sum transferred, without any deduction or commission, was exactly equal to t h a t mentioned in the document acknowledging the debtor's obligation. This legislation was supplemented by a Decree of 2 December 1936 whereby interest illegally charged may be recovered out of the normal interest still due and subsidiarily out of the capital amount of the claim. The same text provides t h a t a moneylender who infringes the provisions of the legislation is subject to a fine of from 100 to 5,000 francs and, in the case of a repetition of the offence, to imprisonment of from six days to six months and a fine of from 500 to 10,000 francs. I t is to be hoped t h a t this legislation will help to make matters more difficult for the money-lenders. There can be no doubt, however, t h a t the most effective means of protecting the Annamite farmer is to provide him with credit at a moderate rate so t h a t he has no need to have recourse to money-lenders. That is the purpose of the official institutions for agricultural credit, the history of which must be briefly outlined here. Indigenous Mutual Agricultural Credit Societies in Cochin-China Mutual agricultural credit has existed in Cochin-China for some time, since the first Order authorising the establishment of indigenous mutual provident relief and loan funds for agriculture in Cochin-China dates back to 12 June 1907 and the Order concerning the formation of indigenous agricultural syndicates in Cochin-China was issued on 8 November 1912. It was not until after the war that the system of mutual credit really developed. Fifteen associations and funds were set up between 1918 and 1926. In 1929 the last three provinces of CochinChina which so far had no agricultural credit funds were supplied. There are now 20 in the colony, being one for each province. They have about 13,000 members and administer credits to a total of 12 million piastres. Their organisation and rules were finally laid down in the Order of 28 January 1928. Membership of the agricultural syndicates is open, on payment of a small annual contribution of one piastre, to all farmers, men or women, 212 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA working an area of one hectare or over, irrespective of whether they are the owners of the land or merely using it under any system. Members of these syndicates may all be affiliated to a mutual credit society if they take up not less than one share of 10 piastres. These shares constitute the capital of the society and enable it to meet its initial establishment and working expenses from the outset. The formalities for obtaining loans are as cheap and as simple as possible: every application must be accompanied by certain documents and accepted by the provincial committee. An acknowledgement of the debt is then signed and is stamped by the chief of the province, after which the sum is paid out by an official of the Treasury. Members may obtain loans ranging from 1,000 to 8,000 piastres, repayable in annual instalments over five years and guaranteed by security in the form of agricultural property (under the Decree of 22 March 1919). Loans not exceeding 500 piastres for a period of not more than one year may be obtained on personal security or on an agricultural warrant. The rate of interest is restricted to 12 per cent. ; it must be reduced to 10 per cent, as soon as the society is on a sound financial footing, and in any case not later than the fourth year of its activity. The mutual agricultural credit societies of Cochin-China, although they do not own much more than a million piastres, had loans amounting to 12 millions, in round figures, outstanding at 31 December 1929. The difference had been met by the Bank of issue, which is required to discount the acknowledgements signed by the borrowers and which does so quite willingly because of the guarantee given by the Colony. It will be seen that, during the transitional period, the system amounts to financing agriculture not by means of a specialised body which can procure permanent resources by means of a loan, as in an ordinary agricultural credit society, but by utilising the resources of the Bank of issue. The risks of the operation are borne by the budget of the Colony. The sums distributed in this way have led to a tremendous increase in the area of land cleared for rice growing and, at the same time, have brought down the rates of interest charged by private lenders. The farmers, attracted by the unexpectedly low rates charged for the money placed at their disposal, quickly realised the advantages to be gained from dealing with these institutions. They took full advantage of the system, either to improve and extend their methods of cultivation or to purchase the seed or livestock they required. The economic depression, however, created very serious difficulties for the agricultural credit funds and the volume of loans outstanding increased to an alarming extent from 1929 to 1932, with the result that some of the societies had to appeal to the Government of Cochin-China for advances amounting to 63,000 piastres in 1931 and about 170,000 in 1932. Apart from the depression, it is alleged that the societies were badly organised and badly managed. It is clear that they were left too much to their own devices. In September 1931, therefore, an Agricultural Credit Inspectorate was set up as an independent service responsible for exercising constant and vigilant supervision over all the operations of the mutual agricultural credit societies. In 1932 a Central Fund for Mutual Agricultural Credit was set up by an Order of 5 August; it is an organisation of a definitely administrative character, responsible for investigating the situation and for granting all future loans in excess of 3,000 piastres. It must also ensure uniformity of policy and exercise the necessary supervision over the managers of the various societies, who seemed too much inclined to think that, in periods of depression, credit societies could be changed into charitable relief societies. INDEPENDENT WORKERS People's Agricultural Credit Systems 213 in the Protectorates I t was difficult to extend to the whole of Indo-China the mutual agricultural credit system set up in Cochin-China. The people in the rice-growing regions of Northern Annam and Tonking were so poor t h a t it would have been impossible to find t h e nucleus of relatively well-to-do landowners required for setting up agricultural syndicates similar to those in Cochin-China. Moreover, in Cochin-China the land had t o a large extent been surveyed before the mutual credit system was established, so t h a t the entries in the land register gave the lenders all the necessary guarantees, whereas in other parts of the Union land registration was far from having reached this stage, and where no registry existed the only guarantee of the authenticity of title deeds to land was a certificate signed b y the mayor and mandarins of the villages. In the various protectorates, therefore, a different system was introduced, based on t h a t existing in t h e Netherlands Indies—the People's Agricultural Credit Scheme—to administer the credits granted to m u t u a l aid societies set up under Annamite or Cambodian legislation. 1 The system comprises in theory three grades of agricultural b a n k s : communal banks, provincial banks and a central fund. The communal banks do not so far exist, b u t their place is taken provisionally b y communal committees of mandarins, which are responsible for examining and transmitting applications for loans. The central fund has not yet been set up. All t h a t exists at present is the intermediate grade of provincial banks which began work immediately with the help of funds borrowed from the Bank of issue and of subsidies from the budget. In 1929 these banks, with 60,000 piastres of capital and reserves, granted loans up to a total of 1,967,000 piastres. Thirteen provincial banks existed at the end of 1930, six of them being in the delta of t h e Red River, four in A n n a m and three in Cambodia. From the legal point of view these provincial banks are companies with variable capital governed by the provisions of the Civil Code and subject t o t h e local legislation. They are administered b y a manager assisted b y an indigenous board. Membership can be acquired on payment of 10 piastres. Loans at a minimum rate of 12 per cent, per annum are granted on personal security or on the security of movable property or real estate; the loan m a y not be for a period of more t h a n 18 months and may not exceed 500 piastres in amount. The aggregate capital provided by the 10 piastres paid by each member is quite small. The reserve fund to be constituted b y the profits of the banks will probably grow only very slowly because of t h e comparatively low rate of interest. In the last resort therefore the loans to farmers are granted out of the budget of the Colony, either directly or with the backing of the Bank of issue. As a result of the depression the loans granted are even more tightly tied up than in Cochin-China, because the steady fall in the quotations 1 This system was introduced in Indo-China by an Order of 4 September 1926. An agreement entered into with the Bank of Indo-China on 6 September made provision for a special account being opened with the Bank for all funds placed at the disposal of the people's agricultural credit scheme by the Colonial authorities. The organisation and working of the scheme were defined in an Order of 21 July 1927, amended on 10 December of the same year. An Order of 19 December 1927 established a system of advances on the security of agricultural land, without loss of possession, similar to the system existing in Cochin-China. 214 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA for rice and other products considerably reduced the borrower's ability to repay. Although as a general rule the banks exercised great moderation in recovering their claims, many borrowers took advantage of the depression to avoid their creditors, although they could quite easily have met their obligations. The banks were therefore obliged to ask the provincial authorities to exercise a certain moral pressure. This pressure was not always effective because the indigenous authorities, many of whom were notorious usurers, were often able to influence the Resident and persuade him to adopt a tolerant attitude which was prejudicial to the interests of the bank. During 1932, however, the amount outstanding was reduced by 500,000 piastres from the repayment of loans, while at the same time 9 new banks were opened and provided with the necessary credits. A central supervisory body, the Mutual Agricultural Credit Office of Indo-China, was found indispensable for reorganising the work of the agricultural credit banks and was established in 1933.1 This new institution, which is a body corporate enjoying financial autonomy, will be responsible for the management and the distribution, between the various French mutual agricultural credit funds and the indigenous provincial agricultural credit funds which are to be set up, of the capital and discounted credits, all of which will pass through its hands. It is to be hoped that in this way the financial situation of the people's agricultural credit scheme will soon become satisfactory. This brief survey of the agricultural credit systems in IndoChina and of the difficult situation resulting from the economic depression reveals the chief faults of the scheme as so far organised. (1) The first defect would seem to have been the excessive independence of the various organisations—indigenous mutual agricultural credit societies in Cochin-China and provincial banks in the protectorates. These bodies were obviously left too much to their own devices and the result, more especially in the case of the provincial banks, was that very different methods were adopted and that it was therefore very difficult to supervise their commitments. The collaboration of the mandarins and the communal committees was not helpful to the banks, but rather the reverse, for these mandarins often exercise an undesirable activity as intermediaries between the banks and the borrowers. (2) From the very outset there was an alarming discrepancy between the capital of these credit organisations and the loans they granted ; the societies or banks, knowing that their operations were guaranteed by the Colony, took as a basis for their lending operations not their own resources but those of the Bank of issue. The result was that when the depression brought repayment to 1 Decree of 20 May 1933, to establish a Mutual Agricultural Credit Office for Indo-China and to regulate the organisation and working of the agricultural credit system, supplemented by an Order of 30 August 1934 concerning the administration and financial organisation of the Office in question. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 215 an almost complete standstill these bodies found themselves in a very awkward situation, having no reserves. (3) In most cases the credits granted did not reach the small producer, who was the most deserving person. The GovernorGeneral himself deplored this situation in the following terms: If only most of the loans had been granted directly to the needy nhaqué or the poverty-stricken tà-dien ! The depressing fact is that the credit facilities so far granted have had no psychological or economic effects. It has indeed proved almost impossible to bring these advances within the reach of the small farmer, the lâ-dien or nhaqué, except through the large or medium-scale landowners. These persons charge exorbitant rates of interest for their direct loans or for guaranteeing loans, so that the small farmers get no benefit from the advantageous rate of interest offered by the rural credit funds . . . All the efforts made by my administrative officers to improve the situation of these poor people are therefore brought to naught; any attempt to lower the cost of production of rice by reducing the interest on loans is doomed to failure in advance. The large and medium-scale landowners charge a tremendous commission, equal to the difference between the interest charged on loans by the rural funds and the rates at which they lend money directly or which they charge for standing security. Their maleficent influence prevents any direct contact between the authorities and the rural masses.1 (4) Agricultural credit as so far organised in Indo-China has not really been based on mutual aid. The indigenous mutual agricultural credit societies were kept alive by Government support only and not by means of the savings which they were intended to encourage. After twenty years of effort the farmer is still as incapable of saving to refund a loan as he was before. Hë may no longer be the victim of the " chetty ", but he remains in debt to an even more powerful creditor—the Government. When a mutual agricultural credit scheme is really based on the principle of mutual aid, those who grant the loans are at the same time the beneficiaries and this involves mutual supervision which provides a guarantee against possible abuses. That guarantee is nonexistent when the operations of the mutual credit funds are guaranteed by the Government. There is no longer any joint sharing of the risk. It is merely a question of funds being placed at the disposal of individuals by the State, which only too often fails to investigate the way in which those funds are used. This raises the whole question of the development of the spirit of mutual aid in Indo-China, to which further reference will be made in the conclusions. 1 Address by Mr. Pierre Pasquier to the Grand Council of the Economic and Financial Interests of Indo-China on 25 November 1931. CHAPTER III INTERNAL SETTLEMENT At the beginning of this study, details were given concerning the distribution of the population of Indo-China, the outstanding features of which are the congestion of the Tonking delta and the fact that the areas still awaiting development are in the southern part of the Union. These details bring out the importance of internal settlement in Indo-China, conceived with a view to relieving the pressure in the over-populated delta, and procuring the labour that may be required by the southern districts. Internal settlement, however, represents only one of the possible solutions of the demographic problem, and it is therefore necessary to revert to this question so as to study it more thoroughly and consider the various ways of dealing with it. THE DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEM IN INDO-CHINA X Considered only from the standpoint of the density of the population—i.e. the number of inhabitants to the square kilometre— the population of Indo-China displays great inequalities. Tonking with 117,000 square km., has 8,700,000 inhabitants, or a density of 75 inhabitants per square kilometre; in Annam, the density is 38.4 (5,656,000 inhabitants for 147,000 km2.); in Cochin-China, the corresponding figure is 71 (4,616,000 inhabitants for 65,000 km2.) in Cambodia, it falls to 16.8 (3,046,000 inhabitants for 181,000 km2.), while in Laos, it is no more than 4.3 (1,012,000 inhabitants for 230,000 km2.).2 1 Cf. Pierre GOUROU: Le Tonkin, op. cit., pp. 81 et seq.; idem: Les Paysans du Delta Tonkinois ; idem: " Le delta tonkinois, fourmilière humaine " in Le Monde colonial illustré, June 1936; ROBEQUAIN: L'Indochine française, op. cit., pp. 162 et seq.; Auguste CHEVALIER: " Le surpeuplement du delta et la colonisation de l'intérieur du Tonkin par les Annamites " in Bulletin de l'Association des géographes français, May 1936; Gilbert MONNIER: " Démographie et colonisation dans le delta tonkinois" in Outre-Mer, December 1936; René ROBIN: " L e problème démographique en Indochine" in Bulletin périodique de la Société belge d'études et d'expansion; HOANG VAN Co: " Le Problème démographique en Indochine " in La Dépêche coloniale, 30 April and 7 May 1936; René BOUVIER: "Démagogie et démographie", ibid., 24 June 1936; idem: " Les deux sacs de riz de l'Indochine " in Le Monde colonial illustré, June and July 1937. 2 1936 census figures. 217 INDEPENDENT WORKERS From a social point of view, however, the actual density of the population is only of secondary importance, and it is much more significant to consider the " nutrition density " or the relationship between the number of inhabitants and the area of the land actually under cultivation (in this case, rice fields are meant, as paddy is the main article of human consumption in Indp-China). The area of the rice fields in Tonking is only about 1,180,000 hectares, so that the average " nutrition density " is 737. In Annam, which has 760,000 hectares of rice fields, the average density is still higher—744. In Cambodia it falls to 386 for 788,000 hectares, while in Cochin-China it is no more than 231 for 2,258,000 hectares.1 No figures need be given for Laos, where the small population is out of all proportion to the area of land fit for cultivation. These figures give a very accurate idea of the problem, both agrarian and social, which is raised by the overcrowded state of the population in Tonking and North Annam, and by the sparseness of the population in Cochin-China in particular, which is the richest part of the Indo-Chinese Union. To understand the urgency of this question, it is sufficient to consider the Tonking delta. The delta-lands, with an area of 15,000 sq. km., have a population of about 7% millions, so the demographic density exceeds 500 inhabitants per square kilometre; but when the " nutrition density " is considered, very striking figures 2 are found in the delta provinces : Quang-Yên Yenbay Hadòng Bakan Nam-dinh Thai-binh Number of inhabitants per square kilometre 2,300 1,143 1,126 825 785 785 The overcrowded population of the Tonking delta cannot really be compared with European countries where similar population densities are to be found: Belgium, the Ruhr basin and Lancashire are industrial areas and their inhabitants are towndwellers. The Tonking delta, on the other hand, is inhabited by peasants to the extent of 95 per cent. The uneven distribution of the population cannot be explained by historical reasons, for 1 1936 figures. 1931 figures—it has not been possible to obtain the number of inhabitants per province for the 1936 census. It is probably necessary to increase by about 10 per cent, the figures of " nutrition density " given above. 2 218 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA the most populous districts are not those which have been longest inhabited, but the most fertile: for example, the land lying along the estuary of the Red River, which has an abundant water supply and where every facility exists for draining and irrigating the rice fields, has an immense population. The figures given above certainly seem to justify the statement t h a t the areas in question are over-populated; but this has nevertheless been contested. An author who studied conditions in Tonking for many years writes as follows : It may he asked whether the Tonking delta does not suffer from over-population. At first glance, the reply would appear to be in the affirmative, but when the matter is subjected to close scrutiny, the question appears rather difficult to answer. In the first place, it seems that during the busy period in agriculture, the delta does not possess more labour than it requires under present methods of work. Under present conditions, the peasants are not too numerous at harvest time. Again, nothing very certain can be said about the most serious aspect of over-population, namely over-population in relation to sources of nutrition. Does the delta really possess more inhabitants than it can feed ? There would be no doubt on this point if the requirements of the Tonking peasants were the same as those of French peasants, but this is known not to be the case. When the matter is considered from the standpoint of local economic conditions, which are the same as those prevailing throughout the Far East, the Tonking delta produces practically enough foodstuffs to ensure the subsistence of its inhabitants. There is no general shortage and still less famine. At the same time, it is certain that the subsistence of the inhabitants is assured in a very precarious way and only because the standard of living is very low. But it is impossible to make any great improvement in the lot of the Tonking peasants, who are far too numerous to allow of any hope of raising their standard of living. It would be hopeless to try to change their Eastern ideas on life into Western ideas; the excessive density of the population is an evil to which there is no remedy.1 These statements lend themselves to criticism. Mr. Gourou recognises t h a t the delta manages to feed its inhabitants only on account of the very low standard of living. In other words, if the country areas of Tonking support six or seven times more people than is the case in Western Europe, it is because the Tonking peasants eat six or seven times less food than French or English peasants. It only remains to be seen if the protecting Power concerned must resign itself to the maintenance of this standard of living, to this system of malnutrition and to this state of traditional poverty. Although the normal annual rice ration per inhabitant is about 250 kgs., in Tonking it is only 136, by which it may be inferred that the Tonkinese peasant is always 1 Pierre GOUROU: "Le delta tonkinois, fourmilière humaine". INDEPENDENT WORKERS 219 under-nourished. Substitute products, such as Indian corn and tubers, allow them to subsist, but their conditions are miserable. " Far too many children still die in infancy, not only on account of inadequate hygiene arrangements, but also because they are nursed by exhausted mothers . . . their bodies are often puny and stunted. The result of more abundant and more rational food may be seen in the healthy look of servants and soldiers who are fed by the European." 1 The position is the same with regard to the methods of cultivation employed. Such as they are at present they require an enormous amount of human labour and provide employment for the entire population of the delta. It is difficult to imagine the details of the manifold operations which their rudimentary but admirably meticulous methods impose on the Tonkinese peasant. " After the passage of the plough, the lumps of earth are piled up by hand in rows, the loosened soil is broken up with a spade, the rows are then moved so that the ground covered by them can be broken up, and finally the rows themselves are taken to pieces and the lumps of earth spread over the surface of the field. The object of this enormous work is to ensure that the soil is thoroughly dry . . . " (P. Gourou). But if suddenly, as may be expected, technical methods even of the most elementary nature were to be adopted, the problem of over-population with all its drastic consequences would have to be faced. Moreover, even as it is, according to other authorities on the subject, the amount of available labour is much greater than the requirements of agriculture. For example, Mr. Paul Bernard asserts that there are two-and-a-half times more workers in Tonking than is necessary for the cultivation of all the arable land in the province. There is, however, another factor which would seem to provide a definite answer to the whole question, for even although a certain balance appears to exist between production and population, this balance must inevitably be upset by the natural growth of the population. According to certain authorities, the increase in the delta population alone amounts to 80,000 or 100,000 souls a year.2 1 2 Charles ROBEQUAIN: "L'Indochine française", op. cit., p. 167. Recent census figures show that the increase is really much greater than this, as the population of Tonking increased from 6,851,000 inhabitants (1928 census) to 8,096,000 (1931 census) and to 8,700,000 (census of 1 July 1936). (The population of the delta represents about seven-eighths of the total population of Tonking.) It must be added, however, that the official statistics must be accepted with a certain amount of reserve, as they are not actually the result of a real census but of more or less theoretical calculations. The registration of vital statistics exists in the delta, but it is of recent date and it is not at all certain that the registers are kept with the necessary accuracy. 220 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA This increase in the population is largely due to the establishment of the French Protectorate and its action to improve public health. Even previously the birth rate was very high in this country, where it is imperative for parents to leave behind them children who will perform the religious ceremonies necessary for the parents' peace on the other side of the grave. 1 The death rate seems to have fallen as the result of the ceaseless campaign carried on against epidemics, the increase in the number of hospitals and maternity homes and the popularity of the medical consulting stations, through which several million people pass every year. However satisfactory this may be, it would be a cause of anxiety, were it not for the measures taken to develop new food resources corresponding to the growth of population. Although it is in the Tonking delta t h a t the demographic problem is most acute, it also arises in other parts of Indo-China. For example, the part of Annam which adjoins Tonking is hardly in a better position, for while the population is not so dense, the area of the rice fields per inhabitant is practically as small, being 0.168 hectare per inhabitant in Thanh Hoa and 0.153 hectare in Hatinh, as compared with 0.147 hectare in Tonking. In these two provinces of Annam the nutrition density is 591 and 651 respectively as compared with an average of 737 in Tonking. Às one goes farther south the situation improves, and in CochinChina the sparseness of the population and the consequent shortage of agricultural labour strike the least observant eye. In this connection it may be recalled that the average nutrition density in Cochin-China is 231 (as against 737 in Tonking), while in Cambodia it is 386. Now, as the demographic problem may be defined as a lack of proportion between production and population, there are clearly two possible ways by which it may be solved, namely, by measures affecting production or by measures affecting the population. In other words, the evils of over-population may be mitigated either by increasing the area of land under cultivation and the intensification of production, or by the limitation of the growth or a more rational distribution of the population. The possibilities of both methods and the results already achieved will now be discussed. 1 In Tonking the birth rate is about 41 per 1,000 as compared with 34 per 1,000 in the Philippines in 1925, 31.7 per 1,000 in the Straits Settlements in 1925, and 35 per 1,000 in Cochin-China in 1927. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 221 § 1. — Measures Affecting Production Measures of this sort may aim at increasing either the quantity or quality of production, that is to say, an attempt may be made to raise the standard of living of the population either by increasing the output of rice or by guiding the population towards other possible sources of nutrition. The development of the rice fields has already been discussed in the previous chapter in connection with the protection of the peasant classes. From that angle, a study was made of the measures taken by the authorities to protect the rice fields against floods by the •construction of dikes, or to ensure an adequate water supply for the fields by irrigation and drainage schemes. In Tonking 120,000 hectares have already been brought under cultivation by such measures, and work at present in hand promises to increase this figure to over 350,000. In Annam, especially in the populous provinces in the north and centre, a similar effort is being made: 110,000 hectares have already been reclaimed or improved, while work in hand covers a further 90,000 hectares. At the same time the incessant increase in rice cultivation is not without danger. There is indeed always the risk, in solving the demographic problem, of conjuring up another and no less redoubtable danger in the form of agricultural over-production, under the effects of which Cochin-China has already almost succumbed. It may perhaps be thought somewhat strange to speak of over-production in a country where the total harvest is barely sufficient to feed a population most of which suffers from malnutrition, but it would seem that this state of malnutrition, which is generally attributed to a shortage of rice, comes in most cases from a system of nutrition which does not embody an adequate variety of vitamins. The traveller crossing Indo-China from north to south is surprised by the sameness of the food crops. Rice and more rice is to be seen everywhere, with only a small number of secondary crops scattered here and there. The present depression has shown the dangers of one-crop cultivation, although attention had previously been called to them. It would seem necessary to take steps to ascertain on scientific lines the output potentialities of each part of the country so as to secure the maximum development of complementary crops. Attempts have also been made to find possibilities of employment outside agriculture for the huge mass of surplus workers. But 222 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA industry, which in Tonking is capable of great development, will never be able to absorb more than a few tens of thousands of these workers and will never provide an adequate outlet for this constantly increasing surplus. It thus seems that it would be useless even to hope to organise production rapidly enough to adjust it to the requirements of the population. In short, it is on the population factor that pressure must be applied if the demographic problem is ever to be solved. § 2. — Measures Affecting the Population Measures of this kind may take two forms. In the first place, an attempt may be made to limit the extremely prolific birth rate of the Annamite race with a view to mitigating the dangers of over-population. The second possibility consists in changing the distribution of the existing population by transferring the surplus inhabitants of the densely populated districts to more thinly populated areas. The difficulties of the first plan are obvious. Annamite custom requires a large male progeny to ensure the continuity of ancestor worship, and any modification of this religious tradition would raise a number of very delicate questions. It would certainly be possible, remarks Mr. Paul Reynaud,1 to avoid any direct encouragement of the growth of the population, as is done, for example, by granting large birth bonuses to indigenous officials who in any case are in receipt of salaries out of all proportion to the standard of living. Mr. Reynaud even goes so far as to suggest that an attempt should be made to limit the birth rate with the help of the traditional authorities, including the Emperor, mandarins, bonzes, and even indigenous teachers.2 The policy thus recommended implies a change in Annamite habits which cannot take place very rapidly and therefore it cannot be considered as supplying any immediate solution to the demographic problem. One is therefore reduced to seeking in the re-distribution of the population the only remedy of any importance which can be applied without delay. The Indo-Chinese authorities have already made a number of experiments in this field, but the description which follows of these experiments will show that so far no great or lasting results have been achieved. 1 Report on the General Budget for 1936 (Colonies), pp. 31-32. 2 Paul REYNAUD, op. cit. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 223 Thè problem raised by a fresh distribution of the population may be dealt with in two ways. One solution consists in taking measures to secure a more normal distribution of the population within each of the States of the Union, while the other is an interstate plan to transfer a part of the population of Tonking and North Annam to the less populous States in the south (Cochin-China, Laos, or Cambodia). Let us now see what has been done and what can still be done in connection with these two plans. LOCAL SETTLEMENT It must not be forgotten that the colonisation of Indo-China by the Annamites was not completed when the French set foot in the Peninsula in 1860. Annamite penetration was a slow process and the new inhabitants of the country worked their way from north to south along the coast, penetrating into the interior only as far as the first range of hills. Towards the middle of the 19th century it had got as far as the banks of the Mekong River. The first real attempt at settlement was made under Gia-Long. Among the Orders issued by Gia-Long and his successors are a large number of documents concerning the recruiting of labour and the tilling of the new territories. The Orders issued by MinhMang and Tu-Duc, for example, conferred the rank of mandarin on persons who recruited workers and developed the land, the actual grade of mandarinship varying with the number of labourers employed. They exempted the settlers from the payment of the land and personal taxes for four years, established military zones in the mountains, and attempted to organise penal settlements, all of which goes to show to what extent the question of settlement interested the Annamite Government. Once the French were settled in Cochin-China, the Emperor recalled his mandarins, and the movement of expansion towards the south came to a standstill. Revolts and piracy prevented its revival and even compelled the withdrawal of a number of settlements established near the coast. Tonking On their arrival in Indo-China the French immediately saw the necessity of relieving the congestion in the overcrowded provinces of the delta. Transfers of population could be made in two directions; towards the upland and mountainous districts of Tonking where the density of the population was very much 224 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA smaller than in the delta region itself, or towards the vast marshes of alluvial soil formed by the Red River in its estuary. The French authorities were quick to perceive t h a t the Annamite could be persuaded only with great difficulty to migrate to unirrigated land, but they managed to establish a small number of settlers in the middle districts by a system of share-farming. The Order of 7 June 1888 granted a permanent concession of five hectares to all Annamites making the necessary application. But this scheme met with intense dislike symbolised in the famous Annamite proverb : " At Hanoï the waters of the Red River are muddy but healthy; at Thaï-Ngyuen the waters of the Song-Cau are limpid but unhealthy. " And it is a fact that the health of the Annamites seems to decline when he leaves the delta zone. In 1917 Mr. Pierre Pasquier, who then had not yet become Governor-General, published a booklet in which he showed t h a t the Annamites who had gone to France for the War would not be averse on their return to settling in the high lands if the Government assisted them. He added: The administration should prepare for this stream of settlers by choosing settlement districts, dividing up the land into lots, issuing land laws for future settlers, establishing model villages with the necessary health services; supplying them with agricultural equipment (machines, cattle) and advancing them a supply of seed.1 At the end of the War the Administration did made an attempt to establish villages for ex-servicemen, but here again a fresh setback was encountered. Nevertheless, the authorities issued an Order on 13 January 1925 to promote the establishment of small individual holdings in the non-delta lands of Tonking. Under this Order, Annamites and other Tonkinese, over 21 years of age, could apply to the Administration for individual holdings of not more than 15 mâu, including 10 mâu of land suitable for rice cultivation. The application for a concession had to be posted up during one month. At the end of that period the Administrative Committee of Enquiry had to meet and decide to approve or reject the application. The grant of land was made subject to the following conditions: (1) The concession-holder had to settle within the boundaries of the village in which the concession was situated or install a sharefarmer there; unless he already possessed one, he had to build a homestead there for his family or for his share-farmer; 1 Pierre 1917. PASQUIER: La Colonisation des terres incultes en Indochine, Saigon, INDEPENDENT WORKERS 225 (2) The concession-holder or his share-farmer had to register in the village of which his concession was part, pay his head tax there, and pay communal dues; (3) The concession-holder had to pay his land tax to the village in question ; (4) The holding had to be completely under cultivation within a space of six years; (5) The holding could not be definitely alienated or sold on a repurchase arrangement, or pledged, given or donated during the whole of the provisional period of cultivation. After the fourth year, and provided the holding was completely cultivated, the concession-holder could apply for the definite concession of the holding, this being authorised by the Administrative Committee, subject to the approval of the Resident. If after six years the conditions enumerated above were not entirely fulfilled the provisional concession could be annulled. Up to the present only very few applications under this Order have been received from Annamites of the delta district. The experiment, interesting in its way, has not met with success despite the publicity given to it and the simplification of the formalities laid down in connection with the allocation of smallholdings. Towards 1930, the Senior Resident of Tonking requested the provincial commissioners in the upland and coastal areas to make an inventory of the lands easy to develop and to compile the information required to promote collective settlement schemes of an officiai character. The results of this enquiry have not been very encouraging: areas suitable for settlement in the middle and upper districts were rare ; all the fertile valleys and irrigated lands were already occupied ; at most only a few thousand persons could be transferred every year. The administrative authorities decided, however, in November 1932, to appoint a special Committee to study the question. In agreement with the indigenous authorities, the head of the Local Government approved the following proposals of the Committee: to transfer the settlement villages to unoccupied land in the upland districts and on the new alluvial land formed at the mouths of the rivers, and to people them with groups of families drawn from the most thickly-populated villages of the delta; to grant loans in kind valued at 100 piastres per family, repayable between the fourth and tenth year; to require the emigrant to undergo a medical examination in his native province; to transport him to the settlement at the cost of the local budget; to build his house before sending him to the settlement and to sink drinking-wells in the settlements before sending any settlers there; to exempt 15 226 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA settlers from the personal and land taxes during the first three years; to instruct officials of all services to keep a constant eye on the new villages; to secure comfortable quarters and the necessary medical attendance for the inhabitants and to give useful technical advice with regard to crops ; to expedite development work on the new alluvial land ; to study the question of the establishment of an agricultural credit bank, granting long-term loans; and finally to set up a permanent committee to ensure the continuity of the work undertaken. The position of public finances did not allow any effect to be given to the suggestions of the Committee and the local administration had to confine itself to promoting and giving financial assistance to such individual settlement schemes as appeared worthy of assistance. Some of the results of this policy are described below. A subsidy was granted from the local budget for the establishment of a village settlement in the Trân-Yên district of the YenBay province, which at present includes a score of families from the delta provinces who work under the orders of the founder of the settlement. The new village was established at Thain-guyên at the request of a score of smallholders who in a few months succeeded in bringing under cultivation about 60 mâu wrested from the virgin forest. At Lang-Son, in the frontier district of Po-Ma, six villages whose inhabitants had fled some generations ago as the result of incursions by Chinese pirates were also reestablished. 1 The Administration was itself forced to recognise t h a t these attempts at settlement, based on individual initiative, were not a complete success: We must not blind ourselves with vain hopes. The transfer of a number of families to land unknown to them is indeed a very difficult and delicate .task. Love of their native village, their attachment to the ancestral rice fields and the fear of evil spirits and illness are the main obstacles which will also militate against the development of a stream of immigration from the delta to the upper and central districts of the country. Moreover, the Annamite peasant will never consent to leave his native village unless he is sure of joining a group of people with whom he can mix and mingle without difficulty. Accustomed from time immemorial to a hierarchical communal system, he requires, at least in the early days of his establishment, a chief and a leader to guide and encourage him. Furthermore, no collective settlement scheme will have any prospect of success without some assurance of stability which only strict and thorough organisation can provide.2 1 2 Cf. L'Asie française, January 1935, p. 29. Speech made on 7 October 1935 by the Senior Resident of Tonking. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 227 To these difficulties, which all settlement schemes are bound to encounter, must be added another noted by a high indigenous authority : Emigration towards the higher part of Tonking will be possible only when anti-malaria measures have rid the selected districts of fever, and in this connection the setback experienced with regard to the Bao-Dap village in the Yen Bay province is typical of what must otherwise happen. The fact that the imagination of the Annamite populates the highlands of Tonking with evil spirits is due to the fact that fever has always stricken down any daring people who have ventured there. It therefore seems essential not to authorise families to emigrate there until after the Pasteur Institute has established zones immune from fever in the districts which it is proposed to colonise. . . .* These obstacles convinced the Administration t h a t it was vain to attempt to pursue settlement work merely by assisting individual schemes and led them to keep to the policy of collective concessions intended to provide real centres of population. This was the idea behind the Order issued by the Senior Resident of Tonking on 20 March 1936 concerning the grant of rural concessions in the mountainous and upland districts of Tonking. Under this Order collective rural concessions (population centres) of not more than 500 hectares may be granted free of charge to duly authorised French citizens, subjects or protected persons, who apply for them with a view to the creation of new villages. Thus, it is not only persons belonging to the indigenous races, but also French citizens who are entitled to take advantage of the new provisions. Following the example given by the " Annamite benefactors ", settlement schemes will be carried out through the intermediary of a " benefactor ". Once the concession is granted, the greatest liberty will be given to the benefactor. His sole obligation will be to install Annamites from the delta provinces during the fifteen years of the provisional concession. At the end of fifteen years two permanent concessions will be granted on application by the organiser, one of 125 hectares, free of charge, to the benefactor himself, and another of 375 hectares to the village to be established. Subject to police rights reserved by the Administration which will ensure public order, the " benefactor " has very wide powers. His authority over the assembled families is similar to that of the employer over his workers. He divides up the land and decides who is to have it provisionally, he accepts or rejects immigrants and selects the chiefs and overseers he deems necessary. In addition to this authority, he has uncontested right to a part of the land when the permanent concessions are granted. Furthermore, a high rank of mandarin or an important distinction will be conferred on the benefactor, who, by his initiative, patience and perseverance succeeds in the work of developing the conceded land. The Order of 20 March 1937 reduces to a minimum the formalities to be complied with by applicants who will not be obliged to provide 1 Speech by Mr. Phan-Huy-Luc, Chairman of the Chamber of Representatives of the People of Tonking (7 October 1935). 228 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA caution money, as the Administration will take over the entire cost of advertisement, enquiries, surveying and marking out the land. Furthermore, applicants will not be required to prove that they have capital. The Administration hopes that the new regulations, by encouraging private initiative, will promote an exodus of the indigenous population towards the upland districts. As the responsibility for the whole system contemplated lies on the founder-benefactor, the success or failure of the scheme must depend on the latter's character. The Administration has itself stated that " present budget necessities having forced the protectorate to choose a method of settlement which will not be a burden on its finances, it will be essential to adopt an unbiassed outlook and to welcome all offers which appear genuine, even if they come from religious bodies. Missions, as well as the Buddhist associations, can become benefactors and will be entitled, just like private individuals, to unlimited assistance from the Administration ". 1 The efforts to thin out the delta population have not been confined to attempts to organise migration towards the mountainous and upland districts of the State but have also tried to direct it towards the coast. In this case the idea is to utilise the tracts of red or black alluvial soil which the Red River washes down from its upper reaches and deposits on the banks of the Gulf of Tonking. Here the land gains 50 to 100 metres on the sea every year. Long before the French appeared in the country, the great mandarins had foreseen the future richness of the alluvial deposits and had taken steps to embank and drain the new lands. The French administration, for its part, saw in the distribution of these lands a means of relieving the congestion in the over-populated districts of the delta. It therefore decided, by an Order of 23 July 1930, that the alluvial lands should be reserved for the indigenous population, thus safeguarding the latter's need for expansion by allowing the establishment of new groups composed of the excess population of the delta district. In order to prevent speculation, these new rice fields are distributed in the form of unassignable communal property and are divided up among all the registered inhabitants of the village. As the result of Orders issued on 15 and 16 November 1933 and on 11 and 17 April 1934, a total area of 4,000 mâu of alluvial land was allotted to riverside -villages or to centres of populatior estab1 Circular issued by the Senior Resident of Tonking on 23 March 1936. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 229 lished in the provinces of Tahi-Bing, Moncay, Quang-Yên and Nam-dinh. The development of this land was to provide in the space of a few months for the subsistence of a population estimated at about 10,000 souls. At Bach-Long, a large amount of work has been carried out in connection with the embanking of the land gained from the sea. The building of a dike 7 kms. long and 2.50 m. high necessitated 152,000 cu.m. of banking and provided employment for 2,000 workers a day. More than half of the embanked area, which measures 3,186 mâu, or about 1,150 hectares, will be allotted to five riverside villages. A part of the land will be allotted as private property for the instalment of settlers, while the remainder wili be distributed as communal land. The land will be exempt from taxation during five years. Persons to whom it is allotted will have the use of it for ten years so as to facilitate their establishment. Subsequently, a distribution of land will be made every three years. Not far from there, another attempt at populating the district was made at Mê-Lâm. The area embanked exceeds 3,000 hectares, of which two-thirds have been allotted to fourteen riverside villages, while the remainder will be used to establish eight new villages. The result of this attempt has been to procure adequate means of subsistence for a population of about 26,000 souls. It was only towards the middle of 1936 that this population was finally established on the foreshores, a loan of ten piastres being granted to each inhabitant to enable him to build his straw hut and stock a small garden. Seven villages consisting of over 2,000 huts have thus grown out of the earth in less than one month. However encouraging these achievements may be, it has to be recognised that they are still very limited, 1 and that they in no way put an end to a search being made elsewhere for the extra space necessary for the surplus population of the delta. Annam It has already been seen that certain provinces in Annam and especially those which form part of the delta are just as overcrowded as the Tonking delta lands. It was only recently t h a t an attempt was made to thin out these provinces, when the Administration decided to set up, in the Nah-Trang province, ten villages for workers drawn to the district by the building of the Trans-IndoChinese railway. In order to encourage experiments of this sort, the Emperor of Annam issued a " Du " on 24 March 1936 which sets up a provincial settlement office in each province of Annam. The provincial offices are required to draw up and apply a smallholding scheme for indigenous settlers as a remedy to over-population 1 According to Mr. René Robin, a maximum number of 200,000 to 300,000 persons can be placed on the land reclaimed from the sea, as described above. 230 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA by the development of suitable land for settlement and the establishment of new villages on such land. The villages set up by the settlement office will be officially taken over by the office when they include at least 30 healthy inhabitants and 50 mâu of rice fields or land under cultivation. Of the rice fields and land allotted to these villages, one-half will be unassignable and one-half assignable. Half of the assignable land will be allotted in smallholdings to inhabitants who have cultivated it during a period of five years and will be issued to them in proportion to the average area tilled by them, while the other half will be put up for sale. By an Order issued on 3 May 1936 l the Senior Resident of Annam regulated the working of the provincial offices, each of which will be managed by an executive committee composed of the local French Resident, who will act as chairman, the Annamite chief of the province, who will act as vice-chairman, and three members selected by the provincial authorities from among persons well known for their competence in agricultural matters. The executive committee must draw up a settlement plan, see to its enforcement and administer the settlement fund. The settlement fund will be maintained by voluntary contributions from the villages and private persons, the proceeds of the sale of newly developed land and official subsidies. Cochin-China Local settlement in Cochin-China has taken the form of village settlement. Two experiments have been made so far, the first at Rach-Gia and the second at Ha-Tiên, the aim being different in each case. The object of the Rach-Gia scheme was to t r y to settle landless peasants, fathers of large families, farmers dispossessed of communal lands and unemployed ex-service men. The Administration aimed at giving these people, who had neither homes nor resources a place in the economic system and a chance of bettering themselves ; for this purpose, the best scheme seemed to be one which would facilitate their establishment and above all give them a chance of acquiring land. The system of village settlements meets both these requirements. According to the scheme adopted, an individual can lease a piece of arable land and a piece of building land for an initial period of three years. The lease may be prolonged, renewed or cancelled. After six years the land allotted may be given permanently to the settler if he deserves it by his work. In order to avoid speculation, land so granted is unassignable. 2 The land selected for allotment included 750 lots of about 10 hectares of rice fields and 750 lots of land for dwellings, the whole forming three main hamlets. 1 Amended by the Order of 12 November 1936. Add. : Circulars of 29 October and 19 December 1936. s Cf. La Dépêche coloniale, 24 J u n e 1931. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 231 The settlers began to arrive in April 1931. They arrived practically without tools and without money. Their formation into groups could only count on a loan of 4,000 piastres put at the disposal of the Indigenous Agricultural Credit Society of Rach-Gia by the Local Government. All started to work courageously, and while fishing and lumbering provided them with some resources they set to the work of breaking up the land. Unfortunately the rainy season was too near to allow them to establish a system of irrigation and drainage. A number of new settlers having arrived by the end of October, 550 lots were distributed, of which 350 were actually occupied, a really satisfactory initial result. Unfortunately the area sown did not increase at the same rate, for the first and second sowings suffered from the prolonged drought which followed the early rains. Nevertheless, the area under cultivation, which amounted to 150 hectares at the end of August, was increased to 250 hectares by 15 September, and reached 350 hectares by 15 October. The first harvest, without being brilliant, gave good results and allowed the formation of a stock of paddy sufficient for the next sowing campaign and the provisioning of the families which arrived in time to sow a few hectares. Moreover, the settlers possess a certain amount of firewood, the marketing of which is however difficult, as oil has replaced wood to a very large extent for the heating of steam-launches in the east of Cochin-China, while the economic depression has restricted the market. New measures have just been introduced to enable the village settlements to thrive and prosper. By the Order of 30 December 1931, which completes the first clause of the Order of 8 November 1912 concerning the formation of indigenous agricultural syndicates in Cochin-China, the Administration has decided that during the five years following the foundation of the village settlements the inhabitants would be granted exactly the same privileges as the members of the agricultural syndicates, but without being required to pay contributions. The sum earmarked in 1931 to provide loans to settlers in the villages amounted to 4,000 piastres; it will be increased to 5,000 piastres in 1932. In addition, a sum of 2,000 piastres obtained from dividends paid by the Indo-Chinese Bank has just been transferred to Rach-Gia for distribution to the settlers in the form of encouragement bonuses in proportion to the area cultivated by them. The amount of this bonus will be substantially the same as the annual payment due on the loan made to them, so that, in short, the persons in question will have practically nothing to pay out in that connection. During the same year the village settlement association will also have at its disposal the contributions of its members (1.50 piastres per settler) and the subsidies granted by the province of Rach-Gia and by the village of Tho-Son in the form of refunds on communal dues and communal taxes paid by the inhabitants of the village settlement. The prospects for the next rice sowing season were also very promising. The construction of 8 kms. of small canals and the completion of a system of earth embankments were expected to bring the area available for cultivation up to 1,100 hectares by April 1932. Further, the settlers who received a part of the loan made by the Annamite landowners to their farmers provided voluntary labour for the building of a market and a warehouse for paddy. Finally, the communal services of the village were to be completed by the building of a police office, the cost 232 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA of which would be included in the ordinary expenditure of the villages of the province.1 The second experiment was made at Ha-Tiên, where 3,000 workers were living in poverty after dismissal from an undertaking in Phu-Quôc, a neighbouring island in the Gulf of Siam. All these workers had been recruited in Tonking and most of them were Roman Catholics. On land conceded to the new village, shelters, a warehouse and a market were built, wells were sunk and roads were traced. This work was financed by an initial loan of 15,000 piastres obtained partly from estimates included in the colonial budget for the encouragement of agriculture, and partly from the interest on loans granted by the indigenous agricultural credit funds. All this work was carried out by the villagers themselves. The distribution of the available land immediately after the establishment of the settlers would have had the most unfortunate results, for these Tonkinese, being out of their element, would have proved incapable of developing it. But it was intended as soon as possible to allot to each family 9 hectares of land suitable for the cultivation of rice and other crops and a plot of 99 ares for the construction of dwellings. Both at Rach-Gia and at Ha-Tiên, the authorities are trying to set up an administrative organisation adapted to the living conditions of the settlers, to provide them with moral and material assistance, to promote initiative and to encourage individual and collective work. A new sort of rural economic system really seems to be established under which the settlers, governed by the same disciplinary measures, extend and develop their productive work. Again, the village settlement stands out as a special and very curious example of that spirit of self-help and individual betterment which has always been one of the most characteristic features of French policy. Finally, as already stated, these communities have a stabilising influence on the floating and troublesome elements of the population, a fact which goes to promote social order. It may therefore be thought that the example given at Ha-Tiên and Rach-Gia will be copied in other parts of the Indo-Chinese Union.2 INTERCOLONIAL EMIGRATION As the experiments described above affect only dispersed and small sections of the population they do not appear likely to supply any general solution to the serious demographic problems 1 A. A. BABUT: " A Successful Experiment: Settlement Villages in Eastern Indo-China ", in Revue Franco-Annamite, 11 May 1932. 2 A.M.: "Colonial Experiments", in La Dépêche coloniale, 24 June 1931. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 233 raised by the over-populated districts of the Tonking delta. The real solution would appear to lie in the evolution of comprehensive schemes for the mass transfer of groups of people from the delta to those parts of the Union which it is intended to colonise, namely Cochin-China, Cambodia or Laos. And it must be admitted that transfers of this kind have never so far been undertaken in a systematic manner. In 1907 the Administration did make an attempt to transfer Annamite peasants to districts far from their native village. In this case the administrator of Cantho (Cochin-China) had asked for workers to be recruited in the province of Thaï-binh (Tonking). The Resident of Thaï-binh assembled 84 families comprising 328 persons, promised 4 hectares of rice fields to each family and supplied them with food, clothing and tools. But the indigenous officials entrusted with recruiting operations had engaged all and sundry and created fictitious families, so that the workers who arrived in Cantho did not know the first thing about agriculture and proved to be lazy, debauched and dishonest. All those who were not pirates were repatriated and the whole plan was a dismal failure.1 The only systematic effort to encourage emigration from the north to the south was the transfer of Tonkinese labourers under contracts to the plantations in Southern Indo-China, which began in 1919. But these transfers of labourers cannot really be considered as an attempt to promote settlement and one result was to create a dangerous agricultural proletariat. Moreover, the Administration has always considered that the contract labour system was merely a transitional arrangement and that the real objective must be to develop spontaneous migration which would gradually provide plantations in the south with an abundant supply of voluntary labour. Now that the Trans-Indo-Chinese Railway is completed, is there any likelihood of a spontaneous movement of migration from the north to the south, without Government encouragement on a large scale ? The obstacles (apart from the absence of easy and rapid means of transport) which have hitherto always militated against the creation of such a movement are such as to cause a certain amount of doubt. The intense dislike of the Annamites to travel even so far as the upland and mountainous districts of Tonking shows what serious obstacles will have to be overcome when it is a question of transferring them to places situated at 1 L. A R C H I M B A U D : R e p o r t on the general budget for 1929 (Ministry of t h e Colonies), p p . 72-73. 234 LABOUR C O N D I T I O N S IN INDO-CHINA least 1,000 kms..from their homes. Here the problem is further complicated by two new factors, about which it is necessary to say a few words. The first factor to which attention was called in the first chapter of this volume when discussing recruiting problems is the opposition of the Tonking employers to all schemes for sending workers to the south. As to the cause of this opposition: Some say that these employers wish to have a constant and abundant supply of labour so as to keep prices down, and thus avoid the necessity of replacing their antiquated plant. In this way they can continue to cope with outside competition. This we do not believe. The French in Tonking foresee a rapid development of the mining industry of the country and fear a shortage of labour at the psychological moment. This of course is only natural, but in our opinion they are wrong; for the number of workers which can be absorbed in Oceania and South1 Indo-China is much smaller than the annual growth of the population. The second factor is the undoubted hostility shown towards the Annamites by the indigenous population of certain districts suitable for settlement. For example, the Cambodians and to a certain extent the Cochin-Chinese are inclined to consider the Tonkinese as an enterprising and grasping race. The Annamite inspires the same dread in the Cambodian as the Chinese inspire in the Annamite. Similar fears have been expressed in Laos. The animosity of the Cambodians towards the Annamites is still as strong as ever. They tolerate their establishment in the Kingdom as artisans and tradesmen. But they object to their admission to the Administration and the teaching profession and absolutely refuse to allow them to acquire land. How can one deny this race antagonism, this survival of atavistic hatred, when one has had, like the author of these lines, to enquire into the causes of the real pitched battles which are fought periodically between the Cambodians and Annamites on account of disputed land ? And these battles took place in the province of Chaudoc, which, for over a century, has been freed from Khmer authority. The rôle of arbitrator which the French Administration has to play there between irreconcilable enemies is not a very easy one.2 As regards Annamite immigration into Laos, the following opinion was expressed by a highly placed Laotian, His Excellency the Tiao Phetsarath, Inspector of Political and Administrative Affairs in Laos, in the course of an interview published early in 1931 by France-Indochine : The Laotians have no need of Annamite immigration, which is a source of expense and trouble for them. The Laotians have to give 1 3 L. A R C H I M B A U D , op. cit. Henri LE GRAUCLAUDE: "OÙ va le Cambodge?" in Franee-Indochine, 18 February 1935. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 235 way before the immigrants and abandon their institutions and customs. The immigrants should as a rule submit to Laotian laws and regulations, but in reality they do nothing of the kind, as Annamites in Laos live " outside the laws ", form " a State within a State " and thus enjoy " inadmissible privileges ". This state of affairs must have serious consequences in the future and will surely lead the Laotians to desert Laos and to cross over into Siam to join the great Thai family, which always gives a warm welcome to its blood brothers from across the river. These statements are naturally denied by the Annamites, who assert t h a t they have no feeling of hostility for the Laotians and have no desire to invade or conquer their territory. And in reality the avenues open to the Annamite immigrants are nowadays much more limited than is commonly believed. There are of course the mines and work on the roads and railways, but most of the workers so employed are essentially unstable and cannot really be considered as immigrants in the strict sense of the term. Only when the Annamites are allowed to grow rice in Laos will their emigration have any chance of development. Moreover they seem to form an element of stability and prosperity for Laos. 1 When Mr. Paul Reynaud, then Minister for the Colonies, visited Indo-China in November 1931," the Annamite colony in Vientiane submitted to him a list of complaints which brought out the following points: (1) Annamite emigration is a vital matter for Laos. Whether they like it or not, the Laotians must drop their policy of isolation and collaborate with the other races of the Union, and the necessary effort cannot be made by the indigenous population of Laos. (2) In its present state, progress in Laos depends entirely on subsidies from the Federal Government; Laos must now take steps not only to meet its own expenditure but also to play an important part in the Indo-Chinese economic system, by the development of its natural wealth. (3) The well-being of the whole of Indo-China depends on the establishment in Laos of an outlet for the dangerous surplus population in Tonk'ing, which is the main cause of almost all the disturbances which periodically occur in certain parts of the Union. (4) It is essential to encourage Annamite emigration to Laos, notably: (a) by adopting a coherent policy towards Annamite immigrants and by avoiding divergencies of opinion on this subject among the chiefs of the provinces; (¿>) by securing equal educational facilities for Annamite and Laotian children. For example, a Circular issued by the Senior Resident has closed the State schools of Laos to young Annamites whose families did not live in that country 1 PHAM-QUYNH: 27 March 1931. " L'Immigration annamite au Laos ", in France-Indochine, 236 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA and therefore did not pay their taxes to Laos. It should however be remembered that the taxes paid by these families go to swell the general budget from which the majority of the social institutions in Laos are financed; (c) by exempting newly-arrived Annamites from taxation, so as to facilitate their initial establishment; (d) by giving the Annamites special facilities to acquire land in the towns and in rural areas, so as to permit new arrivals to settle in the districts where the first nucleus of Annamite settlement naturally takes root; (e) by bringing Laos out of its isolation through the completion of the railway from Thakhek to Tân-Ap. 1 More recently, Mr. Vien-De, the Annamite delegate to the Economic Conference of France and its Oversea Possessions (December 1934-April 1935), when discussing the demographic problem of Indo-China before the Social Welfare Committee, submitted the following proposals to the Committee : (1) Stop the anti-Annamite campaign in the south of the country; (2) Allow Annamite children in Cambodia to attend the French schools of the country; (3) Take measures to promote immigration in the available parts of the Mekong delta. The difficulties of the problem are evident. Hemmed in between the Annamite mountain range and the China Sea, wedged between the mountains which cover most of their country and leave only a few narrow plains here and there, the Annamite people suffers from a surplus population which compels it to emigrate and settle down in the less populated regions of Indo-China. On the other hand, the ethnical minorities have to be protected against excessive appropriation of their lands. It is, of course, the duty of the protecting Government to prevent abuses and to secure a harmonious balance between the various parts of the country. The Indo-Chinese Administration came to the conclusion that despite the completion of the Trans-Indo-Chinese Railway, the difficulties described above did not allow any hope of a spontaneous emigration movement. The necessity was felt for organising this movement carefully, preferably by groups of families from the same villages, headed by their chiefs, who alone are capable of maintaining the cohesion necessary if the Tonkinese are to settle down to their ordinary way of living immediately after their establishment in the settlement areas. It was decided that the first attempt at migration on a large scale might be tried by the 1 According to La Tribune Indochinoise, 13 Apri] 1932. INDEPENDENT WORKERS 237 establishment of a settlement zone in the Trans-Bassac district of Indo-China which would be arranged and reserved exclusively for emigrants from Tonking. After hearing the opinion of a Committee which met in Saigon early in 1936, the Government of Cochin-China proposed to the Governor-General a plan for the installation of two villages of 500 families each in the province of Rach-Gia. The GovernorGeneral approved this proposal and decided, in view of the great importance of the experiment, t h a t the cost of transporting and establishing the settlers should be met from the general budget. The Senior Resident of Tonking accepted this suggestion with alacrity. But the Tonkinese Settlement Committee set up in Cochin-China has since gone back on its original suggestion and has put forward a much more modest scheme which provides only for: (1) The establishment in 1937 of an initial contingent of 100 families on the new lands of the province of Rach-Gia, this number to be increased by 300 families at the rate of 100 families a year. (2) The grant to 50 families of rice fields in the province of Soc Trang which have been worked and abandoned by defaulting debtors of the mutual credit societies. (3) The individual recruiting of a number of Tonkinese farmers by the owners of large estates in Cochin-China, on the basis of a standard contract at present under consideration. An Office for Tonkinese Immigration and Settlement, established at Saigon, will direct and supervise the execution of the measures adopted. It will be seen therefore t h a t the measures which the Tonkinese Settlement Committee in Cochin-China finally decided on are extremely modest. This restriction of the original plan is regretted by the Senior Resident of Tonking: This reduced programme, limited to some 600 persons, will not in my opinion do much to solve the question of over-population in Tonking. It may even be said that an experiment undertaken with such small original numbers will be neither conclusive nor even lasting, for the Tonkinese will settle permanently in Cochin-China only if in the early days of their venture they feel that they are numerous, well organised and well supported. I have therefore decided, in agreement with His Excellency the Governor of Cochin-China, to send to Saigon a political officer accompanied by two high mandarins who will carry out investigations and draw up a practical plan to conciliate the standpoints of the two countries concerned.1 1 Speech made at the opening meeting of the Chamber of People's Representatives (October 1936). 238 LABOUB CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA The Governor of Cochin-China also admitted that the experiment contemplated was too restricted. When the Colonial Council of Cochin-China was discussing the estimate of 2 million piastres for the organisation of the Tonkinese zone in the west of Cochin-China, Mr. Pages, the Governor, in replying to an Annamite delegate who suggested that the amount was " somewhat small for such an important undertaking ", said : " That is also my opinion. What we require for the 50,000 Tonkinese families that we desire to establish here is 50 millions spread over several years. It is the duty of Cochin-China to help Tonking which, with its immense population of 8 million souls, is our best home customer for rice." x It is thus generally agreed to consider the present measures as an experiment rather than the real beginning of organised migration. But the movement of opinion to which it has given rise 2 makes it possible to set out the whole problem more clearly. According to this movement of opinion and the conclusions to be drawn from previous experiments and failures, it would seem that the various conditions which must be fulfilled if migration is to have any chance of success, may be summarised as follows: (1) Psychological conditions. — Account must be taken of the Annamite character, and in particular of the following traits: attachment to their native village, want of initiative and spirit of adventure, fear of evil spirits and illness. These psychological characteristics form a very difficult obstacle to emigration, especially when it is a question of persuading the Annamite to emigrate to mountains countries which, to him, imply only " bad roads and foul water ". It seems, however, that science has made enough progress for it to be possible to create perfectly healthy settlement centres. Anti-malarial measures should in any case precede any attempt at settlement. As for the attachment of the Annamite to his village, this would necessitate measures to enable immigrants to retain their share in the communal property of their native village until they waive all such right of their own free will. The Tonkinese Immigration Committee considers this to be a capital point: " If it is not agreed to in the country of origin we foresee a check, as a Tonkinese never leaves his native land without 1 Colonial Council of Cochin-China (October 1936). At the same session of the Colonial Council of Cochin-China an Annamite delegate suggested that the Government should consider the organisation of other Tonkinese zones in the eastern provinces where maize could be cultivated. 2 Cf. for example, the activities of the Tonkinese Immigration Committee (Bulletin administratif de la Cochinchine, 26 March 1936, pp. 760-770). INDEPENDENT WORKERS 239 meaning to return." The lack of a spirit of initiative in the Annamite also calls for certain methods of settlement and, in particular, the essential rôle given to the " benefactor ". Accustomed as he is to collective effort, the Annamite peasant is useless when it comes to doing something by himself and to surmounting difficulties. He is little inclined to undertake negotiations, to comply with formalities, hardly ever knowing where or to whom to apply. He must be constantly directed and guided, and for this reason the important place given to the " benefactor-founder " in the Order of 20 March 1936 is a particularly happy conception. (2) Social conditions. — It is not enough that the settlement schemes should take account of the individual mentality of the Annamite. It is also necessary for them to respect the traditional social organisation and the two institutions which are the very axis of Annamite life: the family and the village. Emigration should be organised in family groups, and in this connection Mr. Paul Bernard has made a number of suggestions. Special privileges should be reserved for the family (inalienable family property) and for the village (communal property), while steps should be taken to prevent the family heritage from being broken up into smaller and smaller parts with each successive generation. It should not be a question of transferring paid labour, but of real family contracts giving the family the possibility of acquiring possession of the land in a given time if the specified conditions are satisfied.1 As to the maintenance of village ties, Mr. Pierre Pasquier made an interesting suggestion in 1907 when he proposed to select a number of families from each village who would emigrate and form a new village bearing the same name as their native village. In this way the emigrant would be more at home and would have the impression of not being entirely cut off from his native village and his traditions. In order to maintain contact between the two villages, Mr. Pasquier recommended the foundation of a sort of association by the two villages, the original village lending money to the new village and taking a part of its future profits. This scheme was adopted by the Indigenous Advisory Chamber of Tonking and there would seem to be every advantage in taking it up again. (3) Economic conditions. — Settlement schemes can thrive only if they enable the migrant population to live on the land with the least possible help from outside. Attention should be 1 P a u l B E R N A R D , op. cit., p. 292. 240 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA. devoted primarily to growing crops required for food, and to stockbreeding, fishing and the handicrafts. All this naturally implies t h a t the settlement scheme has been carefully studied by the authorities before migration actually takes place. The scheme should take account of the various elements affecting production: climate, soil, crops to be grown, methods to be adopted, etc. Migration should begin only when the villages have been built and the land prepared (surveys, roads, drainage, building of huts, etc.). Particular attention should be given to the selection of settlers. The Tonkinese Settlement Committee has emphasised this point: " If the Tonkinese settlement schemes in Cochin-China have so far always been a failure, this is because real Tonkinese peasants were not recruited; emigrants were often enrolled from vagabonds in the towns, undesirables from the countryside and peasants with past experience who had turned into bad characters. It is therefore essential to organise recruiting on a rational basis." This question, of course, is a matter for the country of origin. The Committee therefore recommended the appointment of settlement committees which would take measures to introduce a satisfactory selection system. (4) Financial conditions. — Such matters mainly concern the Administration and it seems that if the authorities wish to obtain reliable immigrants they must employ the same methods as the large landowners of Cochin-China do for the cultivation of their land, that is to say, they must supply the farmers with everything t h a t they require. The assistance granted by the Administration should include, for example, (1) the cost of the immigrants' transport; (2) the cost of building their houses; (3) loans of paddy and money, the repayment of which would begin when the output of the land became sufficient, i.e. about the fifth year. Thus, when all is said and done it is the question of large credits which has to be faced.1. The Administration must also consider taxation exemptions during the period of development of the land conceded. (5) Administrative conditions. — The simple statement of the conditions which precedes shows t h a t settlement schemes have no chance of success unless they are promoted by a special organisation with competent staff, using methods based on experience, 1 It has been calculated that in order to establish 1,000 families of Tonkinese farmers, the Government must begin by putting up a sum of 180,000 piastres which, at the end of the fifth year, with interest at six per cent., would represent a total of 347,850 piastres. (LÉ QUANG LIEN: "Settlement must be on a large scale ", in La Tribune Indochinoise, 3 June 1936). INDEPENDENT WORKERS 241 and working on a programme of which the political, ethnical and economic data have been carefully established.1 As soon as the Indo-Chinese Administration is able to abandon the experimental period and launch out on programmes of greater scope, it will have to set up some such organisation, following the example given to it by the African Administration when it placed the responsibility for settlement schemes in the French Niger Colony on the Niger Office, a body specially set up and equipped for the purpose. Mr. Paul Bernard considers that in order to centralise and co-ordinate the work done in each branch of settlement, a special body of officials should be set up. The duties of these officials would be: (a) to mark off the concessions; (¿>) to fix the crops to be grown by each settler; (c) to give advice on agricultural matters; (d) to distribute Government loans; (e) to collect the dues payable by each settler. These officials would, in fact, serve as intermediaries between the general settlement services and the settlers. The " benefactor-founders " mentioned in recent Tonkinese legislation could carry out most of the duties attributed to the officials in question. But it seems that the work of these local officials should be co-ordinated by a powerful central body, which still remains to be set up.2 1 This was the method used in India when, after a period of uncertainty, the success of the first settlement centres in irrigated districts decided the Government to extend this system of agricultural development to the whole of the desert areas of the Punjab. 2 The Economic Conference of France and its Oversea Possessions (December 1934-Apri! 1935) expressed the desire for the establishment of a High Commissariat for Settlement in Indo-China which might be based on the same methods of organisation as the Niger Office. 16 PART IV SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF WORKERS CHAPTER I ASIATIC IMMIGRATION § 1. — The Chinese The earliest authentic record of Chinese immigration into Indo-China dates back to the end of the 17th century. Historians relate that in 1680 several thousand Chinese warriors landed at Tourane and were authorised by the ruler of Annam to settle in the immense and fertile plain of the Donnai. For a long time the frontiers of Tonking witnessed the passage of bands of pirates from the provinces of Kwangsi and Yunnan, which were often in a state of unrest. In addition there was a constant stream of immigration between the ports of China and Annam which was favoured by the prevailing winds of the monsoon. In most cases these immigrants arrived in groups and then proceeded to spread through the towns and district markets, to which they were attracted by the growing trade. The Chinese showed remarkable aptitudes for trading and moneylending, and these characteristics, which contrasted sharply with the carelessness and simplicity of the Annamite in money matters, made it all the more easy for them to do business. Before the arrival of the French in Indo-China, they had established a hold over the whole country, owing both to their capacities and to the favour with which they were received and treated. And as the Annamite institutions were modelled on Chinese lines, they enjoyed the same civil rights as the Annamites and, like them, were entirely free to acquire and dispose of property, to marry and make a testament and to carry on business. The Annamite Government, however, moved by political reasons and the desire to facilitate its administration, decided to group the Chinese in communities or " bangs ", under the orders of 244 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA chiefs responsible for their acts to the authorities. Now this conception was entirely in keeping with the customs and habits of the Chinese, and under it the chiefs of the " bangs " were made responsible for keeping order and the payment of taxes. The number of Chinese immigrants settling in Cochin-China was larger than in Annam and Tonking, for in Cochin-China they found a scattered and sparse population, extremely fertile land and a network of waterways most propitious for the development of trade. In Cambodia there had always been a certain amount of Chinese infiltration. The Chinese arrived from the highlands of Szechwan and Yunnan by way of the Mekong and Irrawaddy valleys, or they came in junks from the ports of the China Sea, to escape the miseries of civil war. But whereas in Annam the Chinese formed a floating population ever on the move between China and their country of adoption, in Cambodia they settled down, generally for good, and devoted themselves to agriculture or fishing, the two main trades of the country. In Cambodia, the Chinese had the same civil rights as the indigenous population, and the laws of Cambodia applied to them in all respects. The thousands of Chinese warriors who arrived in Indo-China in 1680 and large numbers of other classes of immigrants married Annamite women. The children of these marriages, who at the outset were considered as Chinese, were treated as Annamite subjects from 1829 onward and grouped in separate communities in each province. They were then given the same political rights as the Annamites and were allowed to hold office in the kingdom, a right never conferred on their forbears. The Chinese were quick to take advantage of the Annamite's perpetual need for credit facilities. They lent money at 60 per cent, interest per annum and took over the rice crops of defaulting debtors. Very soon they had the monopoly of the salt, alcohol and opium markets. In short, entangling the Annamite population in an inextricable state of indebtedness and capturing the entire trade of the country, they very soon succeeded in replacing their lost political power in Indo-China by a more crafty but no less tyrannical domination. The French occupation did not change this state of affairs to any appreciable extent. The Chinese, firmly established in the country for many years and speaking the Annamite language, seemed in many respects to provide a useful link between the victors and the vanquished. They thus became the caterers of the French army of occupation, and the French Administration SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF WORKERS 245 even farmed out indirect taxation to them. The framework of the communities (the former " bangs ") was carefully retained by the French, as this system had the advantage of simplifying the relations of the authorities with the Chinese colony. Even at the present time the community constitutes the basis of Chinese settlement in Indo-China. The community system is intended to make up for the lack of charitable and mutual aid associations on which the emigrant was accustomed to rely in China and which he misses in foreign countries. It usually provides the newlyarrived immigrant with food and shelter until he finds employment. It takes the place of the family, lends him money, advises and guides him, judges his errors and disputes, helps him to carry out his religious obligations, comforts him in time of sickness, pays the cost of his funeral and repatriates his body if he dies in poverty. The Chinaman frequently alludes to his community as his family, his bank, his judge, and his mandarin. The community system was officially recognised and meticulously regulated in Cochin-China by an Order issued by the GovernorGeneral on 16 October 1906. Similar regulations were issued in Tonking by the Order of 12 December 1913, in Cambodia by the Order of 15 November 1919, and in Annam by the Order of 25 September 1928. Apart from a few small differences, these four Orders embody identical provisions. They establish the regulations governing immigration and the method of electing chiefs, as well as the latters' functions. They also impose a poll tax on the Chinese, who have always protested against the imposition of a special tax. Since 1920, however, Europeans in IndoChina pay a similar tax (in substitution for the personal tax). But moral satisfaction has been given to the Chinese by the Orders of 9 September and 30 October 1935 which stated that the poll tax imposed on the Chinese would henceforth be called the " poll tax on aliens granted a privileged status ". In the early days of the French occupation, the administrative authorities were wont to consider Chinese immigrants as a possible supply of labour to be used to make up any local shortage of workers. Chinese were recruited for work on the jute plantations, tea plantations, etc. But Chinese immigration soon underwent a certain change. It was quickly found that as soon as they had saved a little money the Chinese did not hesitate to abandon manual labour to set up as traders. This change was made easy for them by the spirit of mutual assistance reigning in their communities, and it is as traders and commercial go-betweens that 246 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA the Chinese have played an important part in the economic history of Indo-China. Cholon, an entirely Chinese town, administered by a Chinese municipality, is the great rice market of the peninsula. There the Chinese possess a number of steam factories and innumerable hand-driven rice-husking plants. At the present time the Chinese are the undisputed masters of the rice market of Indo-China . . . Generally speaking, the entire import and export trade of the colony with Singapore and China is in the hands of the Chinese . . . The Chinese are excellent seamen; all the barges navigating the arroyos of Cochin-China under the French flag belong to the Chinese and have Chinese crews. In the towns and villages of the interior the Chinese carry on the trades of grocer, restaurant-keeper, shoe-maker, tailor, chemist, confectioner, glazier, printer, photographer, jeweller and money-changer. The Chinese grocer is a marvellous tradesman, taking back goods which do not please the customer, keeping his shop open till late at night, always courteous and smiling. A sort of jack-of-all-trades, he is a real blessing to the European for whom he procures European goods at lower prices than are possible for French firms, which have very heavy overhead expenses . . . The Chinese are also exchange agents. They hoard up in turn copper and nickel coins, piastres and banknotes. The Chinese hardly ever take to agriculture in Cochin-China. Moreover, the Annamite is not at all disposed to give way to the Chinese agricultural worker.1 In 1879 there were 44,000 Chinese in Cochin-China. By the end of 1928 their number had increased to 250,000, including 75,000 in Saigon and 95,000 in Cholon. At that date the total number of Chinese in Indo-China was 402,000. The economic depression put a check on Chinese immigration ; many of the Chinese firms in Cholon being compelled to close down, a considerable number of Chinese went back to China. But from 1934 onward, immigration revived and on 1 July 1936 the number of Chinese established in Indo-China was as follows: Annam Cambodia Cochin-China Laos Tonking 11,000 106,000 171,000 3,000 35,000 Total 326,000 Although in the past Chinese labour has been of great service to the Government in connection with public utility work, such as the building of the Yunnan railway, it may now be said that, to all intents and purposes, the day of the Chinese labourer in Indo-China is over. There is among the Chinese a certain number of agriculturists—namely, those who own and work most of the 1 René DUBREUIL: De la condition des Chinois et de leur rôle économique en Indochine, 1910. SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF WORKERS 247 pepper plantations situated in Cambodia and in Cochin-China on the shores of the Gulf of Siam. They excel in scientific cultivation in all its many and delicate forms, but no Chinese are found in the rice fields. Only the robust half-castes of Sino-Cambodian origin live in the same way as the indigenous inhabitants. The Chinese are often craftsmen in the towns, b u t above all they are tradesmen. In Cochin-China and Cambodia they very often have retail businesses in the villages. They are always to be found in command in centres where trading operations are carried out . . . Their white, several-storyed houses with commodious shops, closed at night with folding shutters, dominate the miserable straw booths of the Annamite traders and hawkers; proudly they line the highways and waterfronts . . . The Chinaman with his shaven head, good-natured smile and corpulent paunch takes his meals simply in the shop with his assistants; every evening, armed with his abacus, he deftly counts his takings. Envied, sometimes hated, his prestige cannot be denied and local people willingly give him their daughter in marriage. He has a detailed knowledge of the resources of the district, knows the language and needs of the people, flatters them, helps them and cheats them, takes advantage of every opportunity, and satisfies the requirements of all. The Chinese trader in a large way has often started in the most humble circumstances; some of them have formerly carried sacks of paddy on the quays of Cholon, others have tramped the streets, shaking their rattle and carrying a stove and food-box on their shoulders, selling duck soup and chicken broth. They have risen in the world, sometimes rapidly, as a result of thrift and frugality. Their agents keep them informed of the state of the crops, and their finger is constantly on the pulse of the province. During the difficult period between the planting and the harvesting of the rice, the Chinaman, combining usury with trade, lends money to the needy farmers on the security of the future harvest and buys the standing crops. Once his warehouses are full of grain he is able to regulate prices and re-sell at the right moment with great profit to himself. The Chinaman may be encountered with retailers and Annamite coolies in attendance even in the marketing centres of the backwoods of Laos, buying up the most valuable products, viz. coffin wood in Upper Tonking, cinnamon in Annam, medicinal plants, cardamom, resin, aniseed, benzoin and even opium, the smuggling of which he cunningly organises. Besides rice he keeps a stock of Indian corn, cotton, matting reeds, fish and skins. For a long time back he has been the organiser and profit-taker of foreign trade and for several centuries has been selling cotton goods made in Europe. An astonishing mixture of contradictory traits, honest and cunning, familiar and enigmatic, supple and inassimilable, he has profited greatly from our-intervention. Coming from a country which transformed Indo-China and which still has a vast influence there, he continues to take an active part in its evolution, appears to be indispensable and knows it. 1 In Tonking, a few large groups of Chinese labourers are still to be found. The mines prefer Chinese to Annamite labour as, 1 Charles ROBEQUAIN: L'Indochine française, op. cit., pp. 127-128. 248 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA although it costs more, it is more stable and hard-working and itsoutput is higher. There are about 4,500 Chinese in the mining districts of the Kwang-Yen Provinces.1 A number of Chinese has settled as farmers in the mountainous districts. The number of Chinese tradesmen is much smaller than in Cochin-China, both relatively and absolutely, the reason for this being that retail trade has remained almost entirely in the hands of the Annamites, and the mining industry has completely escaped the Chinese. On the other hand, they hold the entire rice trade and about half of the semi-wholesale trade in other commodities. Opinions differ as to the influence of the Chinese in Indo-China. For some, their hold on the commerce of the colony is a danger because the wealth of the Colony does not increase in proportion with economic development, the profits on all business done by Chinese going to China. It is also feared that the presence of a constantly increasing number of Chinese nationals may one day lead to political difficulties. On the other hand, it is pointed out that, although the Chinese make money in Indo-China, the rice growers also become rich, not only as a result of their work, but also because of the enhanced value given to their time, their property and their capital by the economic activity of the Chinese. The latter act in Indo-China as a sort of leaven which stimulates production and thus creates wealth. And finally, although enormous sums are transported to China every year by the Chinese, there are also large amounts spent by them in Cochin-China itself. A recent event seems more than likely to make a great change in the position of the Chinese in Indo-China* The Franco-Chinese Treaty of 1930, which came into force on 4 August 1935, guarantees the Chinese in Indo-China treatment at least equal to that given to the most favoured nation there. As a result they are now entitled to the same rights in the law courts as the British or Americans. They will thus be in a more favourable position than the Annamites, in particular as regards labour legislation. Furthermore, China thus becomes entitled to appoint consuls in Indo-China, and it will be interesting in these circumstances to see what will happen to the Chinese communities. Logically they should disappear, but an Order issued by the Governor-General on 6 December 1935 strengthens the community system by recognising the communities as incorporated institutions, a right which had never previously been conferred on them. It 1 Pierre GOUROU: Le Tonkin, op. cit., p. 259. SPECIAL CATEGOBIES OF WORKERS 249 would seem from this Order t h a t it is thought necessary, in the interests of the Chinese themselves, to maintain the community system, the abolition of which would certainly entail real hardships for them. 1 § 2. — The Javanese The applications made for Javanese labour by the planters of Cochin-China met for a long time with a refusal from the Netherlands Government. I t was only in 1906, as a result of a mission sent to Java by the Governor-General of Indo-China, t h a t the Netherlands Government authorised the emigration of workers, on the understanding t h a t certain guarantees would be given to them by the employers. At the end of 1906 the Falkenberg Agency offered its services to the Governor-General of Indo-China and obtained permission to organise a Javanese immigration service in the Colony. The Indo-Chinese legislation applicable to Javanese is embodied in an Order issued b y the Governor-General on 8 March 1910, the provisions of which combine with those of the Order issued by the Governor-General on 20 May 1913 as amended by the Order of 28 October 1916. The main provisions of these Decrees are su marised below. Every owner of an agricultural or mining undertaking who desires to introduce Javanese labour into the Colony must first apply for permission to the Governor or Senior Resident, giving details as to the situation of the undertaking, its area, the nature of the cultivation, and the number of workers desired. Permission is granted subject to an undertaking by the employer not to allow his future workers any other advances than those mentioned in the contract of employment and to authorise no advances daring the fulfilment of the contract. Contracts of employment are concluded in the worker's country of origin by the owner of the undertaking or by his duly accredited repiesentative. The minimum age of the recruited workers is fixed at 18 years. Among other stipulations, the contract must contain details concerning the worker's identity, the nature of the work, the place where it is to be carried out and the length of the contract, the number of rest days, the number of daily working hours, the methods of computing and paying wages, the right to quarters, food and medical attendance, the amount of advances, and conditions of repatriation. In addition to wages, every worker, and the members of his family authorised to live with him, are entitled to healthy quarters and food at the expense of the employer. Drinking water, medical attendance and medicines, must be provided free of charge for the worker and his family. Surgical operations must be carried out by a European doctor. 1 The Chinese form the bulk of the Asiatic immigration. On 1 July 1936, statistics showed that in Indo-Chma the number of alien Asiatics other than Chinese (Indians, Siamese, etc.) was only 6,000. 250 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA No worker may, without his consent, be separated from his wife and infant children. Every worker is required to work 10 hours a day except on rest days and public holidays. Women may not be employed on work beyond their strength. They are entitled to a month's rest after confinement. Sick workers are entitled to free food until their recovery. Any worker who, during the course of his employment, is certified to be unfit for work must be repatriated at the employer's expense. The employer must ensure decent burial for any worker who dies in his service. No foreman may trade in any way with workers employed in the same mine as himself. The contract of employment may be terminated by the mutual consent of the parties, or on account of the worker's physical inability to work, or by a worker who, after one year's service, gives three months' notice and repays all advances made to him, plus an indemnity of 50 piastres. Contracts of employment may be renewed three months before their expiry if both parties agree. Every worker is entitled to lodge complaints with the representative of the administrative authorities, either personally or through his employer or his representative. Breaches of contract, which are carefully defined by the legislation, must be referred to the ordinary courts, and are punishable by simple police penalties. In recent years, Indo-Chinese employers, finding that Javanese labour was particularly expensive in times of depression, have gradually ceased to re-engage Javanese on the expiry of their contracts. On 31 December 1933, the number of Javanese in the plantations of Cochin-China was only 210 (including 80 women), and by 31 December 1934 their number had fallen to 79 (8 women). CHAPTER II EUROPEAN LABOUR In Indo-China the workers are almost exclusively indigenous. Europeans (French and others on the same footing) are practically always employed in managerial or supervisory posts, and, in fact, are not workers, but salaried employees attached to agricultural, industrial or commercial concerns. 1 In 1929 there were about 7,000 Frenchmen holding managerial or supervisory posts or employed in a technical capacity in Indo-China. Of these, 1,922 were in Tonking, 4,494 in Cochin-China, 591 in Annam, 341 in Cambodia, and 84 in Laos. The information given later with regard to unemployment shows that the economic depression led to a considerable reduction in the number of Frenchmen employed in Indo-China. As to other European workers and persons treated as such, their number (313 in 1934) seems to be negligible, when Chinese are excepted. As regards the legislation applicable to European labour employed in Indo-China, it will be remembered that the French Code of Labour and Social Welfare, including Book I (Conditions of Employment) and Book II (Regulation of Labour) has never been extended to Indo-China. Contractual relations between employers and employed are consequently regulated by common law, that is to say (1) by the clauses of contracts concluded between the parties either in France or in the Colony, and (2) by the provisions of the Civil Code. Legislation applying specially to European labour has, however, been contemplated, and even adopted in certain cases. § 1. — Workmen's Compensation The most important case is t h a t of workmen's compensation. In order to regulate this question, the General Labour Inspectorate drew up a draft Decree for the adaptation to Indo-China of the legislation in force in France. After the heads of the Local Govern1 See Appendix I, Table 1, for statistics of the total registered European population of Indo-China in 1936. 252 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA ments (Governors or Senior Residents) and the Chambers of Commerce and Agriculture had been consulted, the draft Decree was submitted to the Grand Council of Economic and Financial Interests, and then examined by the Department of Economy, Labour and Finance. Finally it was published as the Decree of 9 September 1934, to which reference has already been made (cf. Part II, Chapter III, § 3), and which must now be discussed in detail. The Decree of 9 September 1934 does not apply generally, as it excludes Indo-Chinese and assimilated Asiatics, and makes no reference to occupational diseases, which it did not appear possible to distinguish with any degree of accuracy from tropical diseases. As it stands, it covers only accidents to French citizens, French protégés, and alien workers covered by the reciprocity clause (the latter number only a few hundred persons). The provisions of the Decree apply to industrial, commercial and agricultural or forestry undertakings, whether public or private. An employer who is not covered by the provisions of the Decree may bring himself under the system established by it in respect of all accidents which may happen to his workers in the course of, or arising out of, their employment, the idea of this being to extend the field covered by the Decree. In addition to being European or assimilated persons, wage-earning and salaried employees of the undertakings covered must, in order to be covered by the Decree: (1) be bound to the employer by contract of employment; (2) not have wilfully caused the accident. As in France, the Decree divides the compensation payable to injured persons into two groups: minor benefits and permanent benefits. Minor benefit includes daily compensation and the cost of medical attendance, medicines and funeral expenses. Daily compensation is payable by the employer to all workers and salaried employees who, as the result of an accident, are temporarily incapacitated for work for more than four days, and is due throughout the whole period of incapacity. It is equal to half the earnings which the person in question was receiving at the time of the accident, unless the earnings are variable, in which case daily compensation is equal to half the average earnings for the working days during the month preceding the accident. The cost of medical attendance and medicines is payable from the time of the accident until the injured person is completely cured or has definitely reached the stage of permanent disablement, whatever the length of the period of incapacity for work. Funeral expenses, which are fixed in France at 200 francs, must be established by an Order of the GovernorGeneral, as must the cost of hospital treatment, which, in the limits laid down, is borne by the head of the undertaking. The injured party is entitled to a pension when, after the healing of the injury, he is permanently incapacitated for work. As in France, in cases of permanent total incapacity, the victim receives a pension equal to two-thirds of his annual earnings and. if incapacity is only partial, a pension equal to half the amount by which his earnings are reduced as a result of the accident. These allowances are calculated on the injured person's annual earnings up to a certain maximum figure, paragraph 2 of section 3 stating that wage-earning and salaried em- SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF WORKERS 253 ployees whose annual earnings exceed 24,000 francs are not to benefit from these provisions beyond that amount. In respect of the excess up to 50,000 francs, they are entitled only to one-fourth of the allowances mentioned above; above 50,000 francs, they are entitled only to oneeighth in default of any agreement to the contrary by which the proportion is increased. When the accident is followed by death, a pension is paid to the dependants of the victim. The surviving husband or wife, if not divorced or separated at the time of the accident, is entitled to a life pension equal to 20 per cent, of the annual earnings of the injured person; in the event of re-marriage, the husband or wife ceases to be entitled to this pension, in which case he or she is granted a lump sum equal to three times the amount of the annual pension in final commutation. Legitimate children, or illegitimate children recognised before the accident, who are under 16 years of age, receive until that age a pension calculated on the basis of the annual earnings of the injured person at the rate of 15 per cent. where there is only one child, 25 per cent, where there are two children, 35 per cent, where there are three, and 40 per cent, where there are four or more. The total amount of these pensions may in no case exceed 40 per cent, of the earnings. In the case of children who have lost both parents, the pension is fixed at 20 per cent, of the earnings for each child, provided the total amount does not exceed 60 per cent, of the annual earnings. Finally, if the injured person has neither husband. wife nor child, each of his relatives in the ascending or descending line who were dependent upon him for maintenance receives a life pension if they are relatives in the ascending line and a pension payable until the age of 16 years if they are descendants, equal to 10 per cent, of the annual earnings, provided that the total amount of the pensions thus granted does not exceed 30 per cent. Workmen's compensation being of great social importance, the legislative authorities of the colony, like those in France, have called in the help of certain authorities who, in their respective capacities, direct the procedure in the best interests of the injured persons. Hence a number of formalities, which vary according to the class of undertaking in which the accident occurs. One principle is very common to all accidents, this being that minor accidents, entailing temporary incapacity, merely have to be notified and proved by a medical certificate. On the other hand, those resulting in death or permanent incapacity give rise to an enquiry. Notice of every accident which has caused incapacity for work must be given within 48 hours by the head of the undertaking to the mayor, or the chief officer of the province, or the labour supervisor or the nearest police officer, who must make a minute of the notice, and immediately deliver an acknowledgment of it. Within the next four days after the accident, if the injured person has not resumed his work, the head of the undertaking must file with the administrative authority which received the notice of the accident a medical certificate stating the condition of the injured person, the probable effects of the accident, and the time when it will be possible to ascertain the final result. Within the 24 hours following the filing of the certificate, and not later than five days after the accident notice, the administrative authority which received the notice must forward it to the justice of the peace, who must, if the injury seems likely to result in death or permanent incapacity, or if the injured person has died, open an enquiry within 24 hours in order to ascertain: (1) the cause, nature and circumstances of the accident; (2) the injured persons, their whereabouts, and the date and place of their birth; (3) the nature of the injuries; (4) the 254 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA dependants who may be entitled to claim compensation and the place and date of their birth; (5) the daily and annual wages of the injured persons; (6) the insurance company with which the head of the undertaking was insured or the mutual benefit society or guarantee association to which he belonged. Except in cases of physical impossibility, the enquiry must be closed as early as possible, and at latest within ten days of the accident. As regards notice of mining accidents, the provisions of the local mining regulations, already discussed in connection with free labour, apply in addition to the provisions of the Decree of 9 September 1934. It is the justice of the peace who finally fixes, whatever the sum demanded, the amount of funeral expenses or temporary compensation. The establishment of permanent compensation falls within the competence of the civil court or the justice of the peace, with extended powers, of the place in which the accident occurred. As regards the guarantees for the payment of compensation, the authors of the Decree have, as in France, not made insurance compulsory for the head of the undertaking, but, in order to guarantee the payment of compensation charges, they provide the injured persons with a special guarantee covering the employers as a body, by means of a Special Guarantee Fund supported by the employers. Claims for minor benefits are guaranteed by the lien specified in section 2101 of the Civil Code. The Special Guarantee Fund set up in Indo-China is an incorporated institution with independent status. It is managed under the authority of the Governor-General and under the supervision of a supervisory board, by the Director of the Financial Department of the Colony, the duties of cashier being carried out by the Accountant-General.1 § 2. — Weekly Rest Workmen's compensation is the only matter in respect of which legal regulations have been issued to cover European workers,. but the question of regulating weekly rest has also been studied. In Tonking the administrative authorities were consulted on the advisability of extending to the Colony the provisions of the Labour Code dealing with this matter. It was decided that the status quo could be maintained but " t h a t it would not be ill-advised to establish this right for French nationals by legal measures, as any such step would have the advantage of defining the rights and obligations of both parties and of avoiding possible disputes ". 2: After enquiries, the Senior Resident in Cambodia also expressed the opinion t h a t for the time being there was no need to consider 1 The Decree of 9 September 1934 was promulgated in Indo-China on 26 January 1935. An Order issued on 12 October 1936 brought it into operation as from 1 January 1937. The administrative regulations wereestablished by six Orders issued on 20 May 1935, an Order of 12 October 1936, and an Order of 24 October 1936. Add. : Circular issued by the GovernorGeneral on 16 December 1936. 2 Rapport sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection du travail au Tonkin du. 1" juillet 1933 au 30 juin 1934. SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF WORKERS 255 the introduction in Cambodia of any special regulations on the subject. § 3. — Cheap Housing The French Act of 5 December 1922 amending the laws relating to cheap housing and small properties was adapted to CochinChina by two Orders issued by the Governor-General on 31 March 1928. The first of these Orders extends the French legislation to CochinChina, subject to a number of small amendments of detail; the second provides for various tax abatements in connection with cheap dwellings, which were also exempted from the land tax for 14 years. The adaptation of the French legislation to Cochin-China occurred a few months before the adoption of the Loucheur Act of 13 July 1928, but the latter merely repeats, without much amendment, the essential principles of the previous legislation on cheap housing. The fact that legislation on cheap housing is in force in Cochin-China is the direct result of the housing shortage, which was more acute there than in the other States of the Union. The high level of rents, on top of high daily expenditure, made it necessary for the public authorities to take measures to assist natives and Europeans with a modest income. Moreover the special character of the financial organisation of CochinChina and its numerous resources made it easier for that State to be the first in the field in this sphere. Subsequently the housing question has become more and more acute in the large towns of the other Indo-Chinese States, and at present the extension of the Cochin-Chinese regulations to the whole Colony is under consideration. § 4. — Employment of Foreigners During the period when the French population of Indo-China was suffering from unemployment caused by the economic depression, the Ministry for the Colonies determined to extend to French possessions in the Far East restrictive measures similar to those taken in France itself for the protection of national labour. Thus it came about t h a t the Decree of 15 June 1933 for the regulation of the employment of foreigners in Indo-China was promulgated in the Colony on 30 April 1934. Like the Act of 10 August 1932 on which it was based, this Decree was intended to relieve unemployment among French citizens by reserving for them the greater part of the posts in Indo-Chinese undertakings. In order to provide adequate protection for French nationals established in the Colony, the Governor-General, in agreement with the Department, issued on 30 April 1934 an Administrative Order applicable to all public and private undertakings. 256 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA This Order limits the proportion of alien workers to : 33 per cent, for public works entailing an expenditure of at least 30,000 piastres ; 50 per cent, for public works employing less than 6 Europeans or assimilated persons; 10 per cent, for undertakings working State land of over 300 hectares under a concession ; 20 per cent, for all privately-owned undertakings of an industrial, commercial or agricultural character; 10 per cent, for mining undertakings (fuel mines) and 25 per cent, for all other mines. In order to permit the employment of the necessary technical staff, these percentages may be increased by way of exception, but only on the receipt of special permission from the GovernorGeneral or the heads of the Local Governments, given after consultation with the services or committees concerned. A census of foreign staff employed in all private undertakings and those working under a concession has also been taken. Aliens who desire to find employment in the various undertakings after the entry into operation of the regulations must first obtain permission to work in Indo-China from the Governor-General of the Colony. To sum up, the administrative authorities have taken the necessary measures to restrict the number of foreigners employed in Indo-China by reserving for Frenchmen whenever possible all vacancies in Indo-Chinese undertakings. § 5. — Unemployment and Employment The economic depression which was acutely felt in Indo-China led most of the undertakings in the Colony to reduce their general expenses and to retain only the staff required for maintenance purposes. The result was that after 1930 unemployment increased among both Europeans and indigenous workers. From the middle of 1931, dismissals in Tonking affected 103 Europeans and 9,758 Annamites, these figures representing 17 and 9.2 per cent, respectively. In Cochin-China the percentage of dismissals was practically the same for Europeans, but much higher as regards Annamites and Chinese workers. The industrial district of North Annam and the mining undertakings in Laos were also affected by the depression, which however was not felt in Cambodia. SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF WORKERS 257 The dismissed indigenous workers were able without much difficulty to adapt themselves to the situation, either by finding work in other undertakings or by returning to their native villages to take up work in the fields. The question of unemployment was therefore a difficult one only so far as Europeans were concerned. The employment exchanges, which were set up in commercial centres of Saigon and Hanoï by the Order of 6 November 1929 in order to bring discharged soldiers and other unemployed Frenchmen in general into contact with employers likely to utilise their services, rapidly found themselves unable to procure employment for the large number of persons registering with them. During 1930 the employment exchange in Saigon received 280 demands .for work from Europeans, including 28 specialised workers; but only 118 were found work. At the end of 1930, 162 Europeans were thus out of work in Southern Indo-China. During the same year the employment exchange in Hanoi received 113 applications for work, of which 21 were satisfied.1 In order to give all possible assistance to Europeans in search of work by guiding them in their enquiries, a Circular issued by the Governor-General on 28 May 1931 requested the General Labour Inspectorate to collect all information relating to the European labour market and to exercise supervision over the measures taken by the employment exchanges to find work for discharged soldiers. In addition, the Government did everything in its power to facilitate the repatriation of unemployed Europeans to France. On 31 December 1931 the total number of unemployed Europeans in Indo-China was 746. During the years 1932 and 1933 unemployment among Europeans continued to increase, and the number of situations found by the employment exchanges was very much lower than the number of registered unemployed. § 6. — Regulation of Employment of European and Assimilated Workers The provisions of a Decree issued on 24 February 1937 form a sort of labour charter for European and assimilated workers 2 . The general tendency of the Decree is to give European workers established in Indo-China the benefit of the provisions of the French 1 A public employment exchange was set up in Pnom-Penh by the Order of 23 April 1937. 2 Cf. Journal Officiel de la République Française, 3 March 1937. — This Decree was promulgated in Indo-China by an Order of 9 April 1937. 17 258 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Labour Code, in so far as local conditions permit. An analysis of the essential provisions of the Decree is given below. Most of the sections of the Decree of 24 February reproduce the provisions laid down for Natives in the Decree of 30 December 1936. The reader may therefore refer to the analysis of that Decree (cf. Part II, Chapter II, § 2: " Recent Developments in the Regulation of NonContract Labour ", p. 134) for information on the various provisions dealing with the contract of employment, establishment rules, the prohibition of fines, notice of dismissal, the illegal termination of the contract of employment, the protection of pregnant women workers, labour regulations and their discussion by the employers' representatives and officials of the Labour Inspectorate representing the workers, the establishment and payment of minimum wages, notifications by commercial and industrial undertakings, the prohibition of night work for women and children, the weekly rest, rest periods for confined women and women nursing their children, underground work and itinerant trades, the health and safety of the workers, labour inspection, penalties and the settlement of disputes. In the present context it will be sufficient to discuss the provisions for the protection of European and assimilated workers which differ from the system laid down for indigenous workers. In view of the fact that contracts of apprenticeship, such as they exist in France, are not yet in current use in Indo-China, section 7 of the Decree leaves it to the Courts to decide, in the absence of formal legal provisions and with all due allowance for circumstances, local conditions and social evolution, " what provisions should be applied by analogy to persons who, though not bound by such a contract, must be deemed to be apprentices ". Moreover, the heads of the Local Governments have power, subject to the approval of the Governor-General, to issue orders to regulate verbal contracts of apprenticeship, while making due allowance for local conditions. It may be noted that the minimum age for apprentices is fixed at 14 years (instead of 12 years for Indo-Chinese). In connection with the contract of employment, section 19 of the Decree stipulates that wage-earning and salaried employees who are French citizens are entitled, except in case of grave misdemeanour, to an allowance of 100 piastres for every year of service in the undertaking when they leave on the expiry of their contract or are dismissed. Undertakings which have set up a welfare fund which guarantees at least equal benefits may be exempted from this section by order of the Governor-General. Moreover, the employers are free to grant higher indemnities to their staff on dismissal or on the expiry of the contract. With regard to the travelling expenses of workers recruited outside Indo-China, it seems that these should normally be paid by the employer. Nevertheless in order to give employers the possibility of obtaining a refund of sums advanced as travelling expenses in certain cases, section 46, paragraph 4, states that deductions may be made from wages in repayment of such sums. This measure may be enforced only if it is agreed upon in advance and in no case may the total amount of the deductions exceed half the amount of the travelling expenses. Section 52 stipulates that the rights of a married woman who is a French citizen to the proceeds of her own work and savings made therefrom will be governed by the Act of 13 July 1907 relating to the earnings of married women and the contribution of married persons towards household expenses. SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF WORKERS 259 The age for admission of children to industrial or commercial employment is fixed at 14 years (instead of 12 years for Indo-Chinese). As to hours of work, it did not appear possible, in view of the provisions already introduced in connection with the employment of indigenous workers, to extend the 40-hour week to Europeans. The best that could be done was to adopt the 48-hour week established by the Washington Convention. As 1 January 1938 was fixed as the date for the introduction of the 48-hour week for indigenous workers (who up till then were required to work a nine-hour day), the result was a certain disparity between the measures laid down for Europeans and those affecting Indo-Chinese. In order to avoid the difficulties which might arise from this state of affairs, especially in connection with supervisory staff in direct contact with indigenous labour, section 59 of the Decree empowered the Governor-General to issue Orders authorising overtime paid at not less than 30 per cent, higher than the normal rate, so as, when necessary, to co-ordinate the hours of presence of European staff responsible for the supervision and management of work with the hours of presence of Indo-Chinese. The minimum length of the annual holiday is fixed at 15 days, including not less than 12 working days (instead of 10 days established for Indo-Chinese). As to workmen's compensation, the Decree reproduces the provisions of the Decree of 9 September 1934, which has already been analysed. In conclusion it may be pointed out that as no special stipulations are laid down for Chinese nationals in Indo-China, it follows from the Nanking Convention of 16 May 1930 that all measures introduced for French and European workers will automatically apply to the Chinese. CONCLUSIONS An attempt will be made in the following pages to give first of all as objective a general picture as possible of the labour legislation analysed in different chapters of this work. Forced labour, contract labour and non-contract labour will be discussed successively, and in each case the results achieved will be assessed and an indication given of what has still to be done in the legislative field. The various aspects of labour protection are dominated by one general problem, which may be expressed as follows : is not respect for custom incompatible with the promulgation of labour legislation on more or less Western lines ? This question immediately gives rise to a second: is not the continued existence of indigenous custom already jeopardised by the growth of a proletariat in IndoChina ? An attempt will be made to reply to these two questions in the second part of the conclusions. In addition to the 200,000 workers who would be covered by a labour code, there are in Indo-China millions of craftsmen and peasants who live in almost unrelieved poverty and whose situation cannot be improved except by raising social standards in general. Such an improvement would also benefit factory and plantation workers in so far as they continued to be craftsmen or peasants —and that would be to a very large extent. The possible means of raising the standard of living of the great masses of craftsmen and peasants will be considered in the third and final section of these conclusions.1 § 1. — Labour Legislation FORCED LABOUR This form of labour now exists only as a survival in Indo-China, but it still requires attention from the authorities. The physical conditions of the country impose quite a heavy obligation on the 1 Author's note. — Most of the opinions expressed in these conclusions were suggested by first-hand observation during a mission to Indo-China from October 1934 to January 1935. 262 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA population in connection with the defence of dikes during periods of flooding, and detailed regulations have been issued on this subject. There are also detailed orders concerning porterage and the requisitioning of labour for important public works; these are put into effect by carefully adapted regulations. The requisitioning of labour is now permitted only in outlying districts where there are no means of communication, and all that is required of the inhabitants of these districts is porterage and the transport of administrative equipment under clearly defined conditions. It is perhaps in the matter of labour dues that the authorities could most usefully take action. According to French theory, labour dues are not really a form of forced labour, but simply a special tax. In Indo-China they are dealt with by rather complex regulations which might well be simplified and co-ordinated. It would seem that the possibility of commutation might be considerably extended. CONTRACT LABOUR The fairly complete legislation dealing with this form of labour may be considered as fulfilling all essential requirements. The legislation was made necessary because of the generally recognised existence of abuses, such as fraudulent recruiting, unhealthy conditions in the plantations, excessively long hours, the brutality of certain overseers, under-feeding, etc. The abuses connected with recruiting would seem to have practically disappeared, although it is true that the progress made in this direction is due to the cessation of recruiting as a result of the depression quite as much as to the reforms that have been carried out. Minimum wages have been fixed ; hours of work are generally limited to ten in the day; the situation as regards health and sanitation has been improved. Most important of all, the supervisory staff on the plantations has been subject to a process of selection; the economic depression which obliged the undertakings to economise helped on this work of selection. Moreover, the international plan for restricting the output of rubber, to which Indo-China adhered, put an end to the extensions of plantations which involved the most arduous work, such as the clearing of bush. During recent years the workers have been mostly employed on ordinary maintenance work and tapping, which are comparatively easy tasks. The credit for two notable improvements may be given to the 1927 regulations. In the first place, there is the deferred pay CONCLUSIONS 263 system, which was at first little appreciated by the workers who regarded it merely as a deduction from their wages without any corresponding advantage, but which soon became popular when the first accumulated savings were paid out after 1 January 1931 and the workers who were repatriated to Tonking found themselves on disembarking in possession of an appreciable sum which enabled them to purchase a patch of land. There can be no doubt that it was owing to the deferred pay system that large contingents of workers could be sent back to Tonking and adapt themselves anew to local conditions without friction. The second success was the remarkable improvement in health conditions on the plantations of Cochin-China and Cambodia; the Pasteur Institute played a very important part in this field as technical adviser in the campaign against malaria. The mortality rate on the plantations of Southern Indo-China fell from 5.4 per cent, in 1927 to 2.3 in 1929, 2.09 in 1931, and 0.95 in the first half of 1932. This does not mean that everything is now perfect in the system of contract labour, for there is still considerable progress to be made. The regulations would not seem to be uniformly respected on all the plantations, and in particular such provisions as those guaranteeing workers a minimum number of days of employment every month and those stipulating that the time spent in going to and from work should be considered part of the statutory hours.1 Only too often the payment of wages is irregular, and in some cases the authorities had to take active measures to enable the workers to draw their deferred pay. The campaign against malaria is not carried on with the same energy in every undertaking and the workers are still too often exposed to the ravages of that disease. It may be asked whether the regulations concerning contract labour would be adequate even if they were scrupulously applied. On some points more liberal provisions might be considered desirable. It would, for instance, be reasonable to grant a sick worker at least half-pay, but the workers would benefit even more from the cessation of certain practices on the part of their employers than from any improvement in the legislation. The workers are still too frequently the victims of regrettable abuses on the part of the cdis (indigenous overseers), who generally make the members of their gangs pay a permanent tax deducted from their wages. Often the overseer's wife runs a store on the plantar o n some plantations the roll is called at 3 a.m. 264 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA tion, and that means that the workers are still further exploited. The planters insist that these practices are so inveterate that it would be practically impossible to eradicate them. Nevertheless, it would be worth while making a serious effort to abolish them by other than legislative means. The inspection of plantations is often unsatisfactory. Generally, the labour inspector is the assistant administrative officer and his relationship with the planters is too intimate and too friendly to let him have the independence of mind and decision which would sometimes be necessary. The inspector announces his visits in advance and this deprives them of some of their efficacy. Most of the incidents that have occurred on plantations would seem to be due not so much to the actual conditions of employment, unattractive as these may be, as to certain psychological errors on the part of the managers. It is not so astonishing as might at first sight appear to find that one plantation which in many respects might be considered a model has had more trouble with its workers than other agricultural undertakings which are smaller and less carefully supervised. This plantation has built the largest and most modern hospital to be found on any of the plantations in Cochin-China, but, under strict orders from the directors in France, the managers pay little attention to certain features of indigenous life, such as religious festivals, the Annamites' habit of working spasmodically, etc.; the development programmes are drawn up in Paris, and those in charge of the plantation receive a bonus on output at the end of the year which incites them to obtain the maximum amount of work from the workers by any possible means. This method has sometimes led to bloodshed. It, must not be thought that mistakes of this kind are characteristic of labour conditions in the plantations in general. Such abuses would now seem to be quite rare and on most of the agricultural holdings the workers engaged under contract would seem to be satisfied with their conditions. Another problem of contract labour, and perhaps the most important one, is the question of its gradual replacement. The authorities have always considered contract labour as being of a transitional nature in Indo-China, destined progressively to give way to the ordinary system of employment under the provisions of the common law. In the course of the present volume mention has been made of the two methods by which this development might be hastened on: the settlement in the vicinity of the agricultural undertakings of the workers already engaged, and the CONCLUSIONS 265 creation of a spontaneous current of emigration between Tonking and Cochin-China which would provide the undertakings in the south with an adequate supply of non-contract labour. There is a theoretical consideration underlying the whole problem: is it desirable that the system of contract labour should disappear and give place to that of non-contract labour ? The contract system certainly has advantages : it compels the employers to fulfil certain legal obligations towards their workers, more particularly with regard to health conditions; it presupposes strict supervision and gives the authorities adequate power to deal both with the workers and with the employers. Unfortunately these advantages for the worker are purchased at the cost of a considerable restriction on his liberty. The employers' point of view is that they cannot recover the heavy expenditure in which they are involved by their legal obligations for the protection of workers unless they can be sure of retaining those workers in their service for a certain number of years. This explains the long duration of the contracts, the system of advances, which is often abused, the coercive measures concerning the regulation of labour conditions, the penal sanctions, etc. It would seem that the solution of the problem would be to retain as many as possible of the advantages of the contract system and of the guarantees it offers for the well-being of the worker while gradually lessening the strict compulsion which it implies for him—in other words, to get gradually closer to the ideal of non-contract labour without abandoning the benefits of regulation. NON-CONTRACT LABOUR There was no legislation concerning non-contract labour in Indo-China until 1933. The Decree of 19 January 1933 dealt with the position of children, young persons and women, but did not mention male adult labour. This Decree was not promulgated until 15 August 1936, so that the regulation of non-contract labour did not actually begin until early in 1937. An analysis has been given above of the extensive social movement launched in IndoChina when the Popular Front Government came into power in France : the restriction of hours of work, the prohibition of night work for women and children, a weekly rest for women and an annual holiday with pay. The authorities in France wished to go further and provide Indo-China with a complete homogeneous indigenous labour code. This was the intention of the Decree of 30 December 1936, which retained the existing regulations concerning forced 266 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA and contract labour and introduced very detailed rules concerning contracts of employment and the conditions of non-contract labour. Certain provisions of this Decree, such as those regulating apprenticeship for the first time, prohibiting fines, granting the workers certain guarantees against the abuses of cals sub-contractors, making provision for compulsory minimum rates of wages, regulating company stores, etc., are of the highest importance. This Decree came into force by promulgation in the Official Journal of the Colony on 27 January 1937 ; its effective application, however, depends on Orders to be issued by the Local Governments, and there is reason to think that these Orders will weaken its provisions in certain respects in accordance with the demands of the employers' organisations. Until the details of its application are known it is too early to pass definite judgment on the value of this labour code. The movement in favour of labour reforms which sprang up in Indo-China towards the end of 1936 brought out more clearly the position of the workers and of the employers respectively. The employers pay attention almost exclusively to commercial competition and costs of production ; they do not seem prepared to admit that social protection should be considered, not as an optional charge depending on the margin of profit, but as a strict obligation for which allowance must be made in the initial calculations of any business. The efforts of the authorities to enforce labour legislation in Indo-China met with the resistance of the employers in regard to such matters as administrative supervision, supply of statistics, admission of inspectors to their undertakings, workmen's compensation, etc. Sometimes their opposition to certain reforms, even when decided upon by the authorities in France (such as the Decree of 19 January 1933 concerning non-contract labour), was so strong that the application of the legislation in the colony had to be suspended. At the same time, this opposition, which allowed certain abuses to continue and even to become more intolerable, subsequently gave rise to a reform movement which carried the employers much further than if they had accepted the normal gradual advance of reform. The employers do not yet fully realise that they have enjoyed a high degree of immunity from State intervention in their relations with the workers; nor do they yet appreciate the fact that excessive reductions of wages destroy the purchasing power of the people and are thus contrary to their own interests, because industry in Indo-China will more and more have to seek a large part of its market within the country and it cannot do so unless the purchasing power of the inhabitants is adequate. CONCLUSIONS 267 The representation of the interests of the workers has suffered seriously from a lack of unity both in theory and in action. Mention has already been made of the difficulties met with in drafting a list of demands to be submitted to the Colonial Commission of Enquiry set up by the French Government. The development of any social movement in Indo-China, whether stimulated by the visit of a member of the Government or by the news of the impending arrival of a Commission, generally follows the same course: it begins with a widespread collective movement which leads to the appointment of committees representing all trends of opinion to draw up a programme of demands. The more advanced elements, generally Communist, form cells within these committees and persuade them to adopt resolutions which go far beyond the social field and impinge upon the political sphere; sometimes they even propose the restriction or complete abolition of French sovereignty in Indo-China. Then comes a reaction by the moderate elements, and, at the same time, the-authorities intervene to keep the movement within constitutional bounds. The collective urge is already seriously weakened by quarrels between various individuals who stir up trouble and break up the committees, and thus the whole movement peters out. The most urgent need of the Annamite workers is internal unity and to avoid being led astray into political matters. The Problem of Trade Unionism The question is sometimes asked whether the introduction of trade unionism in Indo-China would be likely to hasten on the necessary organisation and unification of the working classes. There can be little doubt that trade unionism would give the working class a spirit of discipline which it lacks at present and would enable it to have qualified and responsible representatives to defend the interests of the workers. During the numerous strikes that occurred towards the end of 1936 it was noted that when the authorities tried to settle a dispute by arbitration they could always find representatives of the employers with whom to deal, but they were never sure of dealing with the representatives of the workers. The latter, having no qualified and responsible spokesmen, had to be represented by politicians, who had doubtless good intentions but who were not workers with a knowledge of working-class conditions. The opponents of trade unionism say: " Trade unions mean perpetual strikes ". The increasing number of strikes in Indo-China, although there has so far been no trade union move- 268 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA ment, seem to destroy much of the validity of this argument. Again, it is said: " Trade unions mean agitators ". But agitators exist already, and if they belong to trade unions they would at least be openly taking a hand and would be known. A system of trade unionism cannot, however, be established ready-made; it requires very laborious preparation and demands discipline and self-sacrifice on the part of its members and a keen sense of occupational interests on the part of the leaders. In Indo-China the problem is made more complex by the existence, side by side with the permanent workers, of a floating body of labour which accepts employment in various undertakings only during the agricultural slack season. To incorporate this floating body of workers, in the trade union movement would be extremely difficult. Moreover, trade unions must be kept alive by contributions from their members, and it may be doubted whether the extremely low wages paid to workers in Indo-China would enable the unions to accumulate sufficient reserves to defend the interests of their members, establish a strike fund, etc. However that may be, the time would seem to have come when the question of the introduction of trade unionism in Indo-China should be studied and should not simply be declared unthinkable. Labour Inspection As the authorities decided for reasons of economy not to retain the labour inspectorate as a special service, the civil service administrative oflicer is at present required to act at the same time as inspector of political and administrative affairs and local labour inspector. His duties in the latter capacity are considered by him as of secondary importance. The administrative officer is not really interested in labour matters nor has he the time to study them as they deserve. He rarely carries out an inspection on the spot. The actual task of inspection, which should involve constant touch with the workers, is generally entrusted to the assistant administrative oflicer, who is already overburdened by office work which gives him little time to make tours of inspection; he is generally transferred to another post every time he returns from leave and therefore has not the necessary stability for paying close and constant attention to labour matters. In addition, his neighbourly and friendly relations with plantation and works managers rarely leave him with that independence of spirit necessary for ensuring strict compliance with the regulations. The authorities seek to justify this admittedly regrettable state CONCLUSIONS 269 of affairs by financial considerations and by the fact that the organisation of a special inspectorate is less necessary now that economic development is slower. These two arguments are not without foundation and must be borne in mind when assessing the position. But it is necessary to consider the future, and the recent economic revival in Indo-China would already seem sufficient to make a reorganisation of the inspection services on more adequate lines indispensable. It should be possible at the present time to introduce certain changes which would in no wise interfere with the balancing of the budget, such as a reorganisation of the special allowances generally paid to the administrative officers who act as inspectors; this reorganisation might be so carried out as to permit reasonable remuneration to be paid to a small number of specialised inspectors. Perhaps a single inspector might be sufficient for each State of the Union if he had no other duties. The fact that he would always be on tour would give him both the necessary independence and the indispensable basis of comparative experience for assessing the extent to which labour legislation was being applied. Wages Policy The problem *of wages, which is no less important than that of labour inspection, cannot be dealt with solely by the legislative provisions, desirable as they are, contained in the new Labour Code, which prescribes the periodical fixing of minimum wage rates; a number of other measures will be required, including internal works regulations, the repression of gambling and the establishment of savings banks. The main lines of a far-sighted wages policy may be indicated here. The most urgent task obviously is to give the workers .the purchasing power they have so far lacked by ensuring that wages are sufficient to cover the vital needs of the worker and leave him a certain surplus; the details given above concerning wages show that up to the present the Annamite worker has had no such surplus in his budget and that it has always been completely impossible for him to economise. Certain troubles which have arisen, more especially on the plantations, as a result of unjustified reductions in wages shov/ t h a t it would be dangerous to count on the worker always remaining passive. It would be necessary in the next place to ensure that the worker is paid his wages in full, and this presupposes strict supervision of the indigenous overseers and proper regulations concerning 270 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA company stores, advances, fines, etc. Wages should also be paid individually, which implies, in the first place, the identification of the worker, who is very often considered by the European as merely a registered number, and, in the second place, the handing over of wages directly to the worker so as to prevent the loss suffered by the worker when the indigenous overseer acts as intermediary. Finally, any sound and complete wages policy must take advantage of all the possible means of helping the worker to use his earnings wisely. The negative aspect of this policy would consist in removing the most serious temptations which cause the worker to squander his earnings: opium, the sale of which is encouraged in certain mines, alcohol, the consumption of which is by no means restricted by the system of a Government monopoly,1 and gambling, which is still officially licensed in certain districts. The positive aspect of the policy would consist in encouraging the worker to exercise thrift by such measures as setting up post office or other savings banks near the workplaces. § 2. — Custom and Labour Legislation It is often said that it is a mistake to legislate for Annamite labour on the same lines as for Western labour. Indeed this is one of the usual arguments of the employers' organisations whenever the regulation of any aspect of labour conditions is proposed, whether it be in connection with wages or workmen's compensation or with land settlement or the employment of women. When the authorities wish to raise wages or to restrict the employment of children or to introduce legislation for workmen's compensation, the employers always bring forward the same argument: " Be careful. You are going to interfere with the traditional forms of life and labour of the people. The Annamite worker is very different from the European worker: he is much attached to traditional customs and if you try to enforce a new custom he will resist, even although that new custom might be more favourable for him. Labour legislation in the Asiatic countries is always 1 The desire of the authorities to make consumers of alcohol purchase their entire supply from the Government monopoly instead of obtaining a large fraction of it from smugglers has led them to prescribe a certain minimum degree of consumption of alcohol per head of the taxpayers annually; if this minimum is not reached the cantonal and communal authorities may not be promoted or may even be dismissed. CONCLUSIONS 271 likely to do more harm than good unless it takes account of the special conditions of these countries ". One may ask what these " special conditions " are. They may be described very briefly as " the family system ". The theory is that there is little or no industrial development; agriculture is the dominant form of activity and is organised strictly on a family basis. The relations between employers and workers are personal and friendly, for the workers are mainly members of the enlarged family. There is a natural and traditional system of mutual aid which makes organised social relief less necessary than elsewhere. There is no public opinion, no expressly formulated body of demands. Wages are thought of as supplementary payments rather than as remuneration corresponding to a given effort, and the worker always receives supplies in kind, such as food and accommodation. There is a certain traditional indifference to security and comfort based on the naturally passive character of the Asiatic races. The worker has no desire to better himself. He is quite satisfied with the knowledge that all those around him live, have lived and always will live under more or less the same conditions as himself. These " special conditions " are certainly sometimes found in Indo-China. It is quite possible, for example, to find that Annamite workers prefer night work to a day shift in the cotton mills both in summer and in winter, and the same is true in most continuous process industries. In summer the well-ventilated workrooms are cooler by night than by day and the conditions of work are therefore less unpleasant. In winter there is not so much ventilation and the factory is warmer than the native hut, which is exposed to every wind. Moreover, both in summer and in winter the only supervision over night work consists in periodical rounds by the European sta IT, generally at more or less the same hours ; the workers can thus arrange among themselves to take turns in the work, and those wrho are idle can snatch some sleep between the looms. In the case of women, there are perhaps certain special conditions which must be taken into account, although opinion is far from being unanimous on this point. Is it true, as is sometimes asserted, that the arduous toil of the Annamite woman makes childbirth easier for her, so that she can without danger be worked just as bard as a man or even harder ? Is it true that Annamite girls develop so early that they can be mothers at the age of 13 or 14, and that it is therefore unjust to prevent them from beginning to earn their living at the same age ? 272 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Even if these suggestions were entirely justified, the only conclusion t h a t could reasonably be drawn from them would be t h a t the complete and unreasoning assimilation of Asiatic labour regulations to European regulations would be Utopian and even dangerous. But there is a considerable difference between adopting an attitude of legitimate prudence and doing nothing at all, and there is therefore ample scope for useful action by the French authorities. There are three arguments in favour of action in this direction. The first is that if a colonising country were to wait until the inhabitants of the colony were able to appreciate fully the benefits of the legislation, social progress and even purely material progress would be quite impossible. It has been pointed out that regulations introducing a system of agricultural credit funds were adopted in Cochin-China a quarter of a century ago without anyone first of all considering whether the Annamite farmers were capable of appreciating the social importance of such a measure; nevertheless, as has been pointed out, the success of these credit funds was so rapid t h a t it almost undermined the whole system. The second point is this. The very persons who advance the argument of indigenous custom when they wish to oppose any progress which they consider harmful to their interests, have no hesitation in ignoring this custom entirely when it suits themselves. When the numerous labourers required for the plantations in the south had to be recruited in the villages of Tonking to which they were closely attached, and had to be sent more than 1,000 kilometres from their homes to work under a semi-military system which was as different as it could be from their life as small peasants, it cannot be said that the undertakings which recruited these workers showed much respect for indigenous custom. Finally, when a certain stage of economic and social develop'ment is reached in a colony, it is just as dangerous to ignore it as to go ahead of the times. Indo-China, like all rapidly industrialised territories, is at present undergoing a complete transformation, the main characteristic of which is that the family system is giving place to the industrial system. It is probably true t h a t the family system is still the dominant one in home industries, the crafts and small establishments, but it is incompatible with the conditions of a large mining or industrial undertaking. The idea of the family as the basis of the social system may be said to be an obstacle to the introduction of labour legislation in so far as it offers no opportunity for the realisation of the existence of collective interests. CONCLUSIONS 273 When once the growth of a working class has brought into existence this idea of collective interests, it becomes difficult to use the family system as an argument for refusing labour legislation. Can it be said that this is now the position in Indo-China ? It is sometimes doubted whether a working class exists in IndoChina. It is pointed out that the number of wage earners recorded by statistics (221,000 in 1929) is so small as compared with the total population of 23,000,000 that it is erroneous to speak of a working class. But certain facts must be borne in mind when interpreting these numerical data. The statistics show only the indigenous workers employed as wage earners in European undertakings. In the course of economic development, however, an increasingly large body of agricultural wage earners has come into existence under conditions already described: small landowners who have been ruined and who have become the tenants of the new owners of their land, the tâ-dien in Cochin-China, etc. All these workers, not being employed by European employers, are omitted from the statistics, although they are perhaps the most numerous section of the new working class. A second fact to be borne in mind is that the statistics show only the wage earners employed in various undertakings at the time of the census. When one remembers the intermittent character of wage-paid employment in a country where no one ever leaves his village to accept employment without hoping to return some day and take his place again in village life, one must conclude that the actual number of workers belonging more or less to the working class is much higher than is shown by the statistics. Emphasis should be laid here on the profound differences betwen the Annamite workers and the workers of the West. The latter show a striking degree of continuity and fixity, whereas the working classes of Indo-China would seem to be singularly unstable and mobile. When large-scale industry and large plantations run on Western lines were introduced in Indo-China as the result of French occupation, the Annamite people who supplied the labour were almost entirely a race of peasants. It required a long period of adaptation and hesitating efforts before the farmer could become a wage earner, and it may be said that at the present time the life of the worker in Indo-China, in view of his character, his social ties and his economic position, is still essentially that of a peasant. This explains, for example, the considerable upheaval necessitated by the recruiting of workers in Tonking for the plantations of Southern Indo-China; between 1925 and 1930 almost 75,000 indi18 274 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA viduals had to be recruited, although the number actually employed at any given moment was rarely more than 22,000. The degree of stability of the labour employed in the factories is little higher. All the workers are anxious to return to their village at least once a year for the festival of Têt ; and often some mining undertakings have to begin recruiting almost the whole of their labour force afresh after that festival because the workers who went on holiday have not returned to their jobs. The economic depression in IndoChina showed how easy it was for the many labourers who were dismissed to adapt themselves again to country life, which is their real life, and this proves how vague is the line of demarcation between the peasant and the worker. This intermittent character of their employment explains the difficulty for these workers of achieving specialisation; apart from the workers in manufacturing industries, such as textile or engineering works, where the complexity of the work makes the engagement of specialists essential, the Annamites practically always remain unskilled labourers. They do not seem to make any effort to escape from this anonymous class, in which, perhaps, they hope to enjoy certain advantages, particularly as regards taxation, or from which they hope to desert more easily—a consideration that is never far from their minds. The Annamite has remained a tiller of the soil, à rice grower. It may be said of him, as Mr. Philip has said of the Indian worker, that he is not yet conscious of having become an industrial worker. In spite of these characteristics, which set it completely apart from the working classes of the West, the Annamite working class undoubtedly exists, and its numerical importance may be assessed by multiplying the figures given in the statistics by four or five. This new mass of workers could not come into being without endangering the two traditional pivots of Annamite society, the village and the family. The village, which had proved itself an institution of value for political, administrative arid social purposes—so much so that some observers held it in very high esteem—was already tending to become a mere administrative subdivision and the lowest unit in the territorial organisation of the colony as a result of French occupation. Modern working conditions could not fail to hasten on this disintegration. Village life is incompatible with an industry based on machine methods, which involves an exodus from the country to urban centres, and with industrialised agriculture, which implies the organisation of workers' camps. Mr. Halbwachs has shown that the small enclosed CONCLUSIONS 275 village, where the village street is as familiar as the home, of which it is practically an extension, has nothing in common with an urban centre, in which the workers' dwellings and the streets are anonymous and foreign and the home is impersonal. Moreover, indigenous workers who are expatriated lose practically all touch with the village authorities, and those who return to the village when their contracts have expired generally bring with them a spirit of emancipation which is not favourable to the maintenance of village discipline. The course of evolution has affected family life in the same way as village life. It tends to break up the family, not only because of the spiritual dissociation caused by new forms of work, but also because of the breaking down of the material bonds uniting the family. The Western conception of labour in which each worker is responsible for his task and receives personal remuneration helps to develop that individualism which is common to European thought. In the factory the woman becomes the equal of the man; the young man is the comrade and the equal of his father in the workshop. This tends to destroy paternal authority, which has otherwise remained such a powerful factor in the Annamite tradition. From the purely material point of view the cohesion of the family cannot survive the expatriation of the father when he goes to work on a plantation or in a factory. In this way a working class is gradually being constituted which no longer knows the traditional social organisation of which the family and the village are the essential elements. It would be going too far to conclude that customary conditions had completely disappeared and that therefore social legislation of a Western type ignoring the traditional forms of indigenous society could be introduced. Apart from those who have become members of the new working class the mass of the population is still faithful to custom and tradition. Moreover, at the present time the authorities are making an effort to restore the two traditional pillars of Annamite life. In Cochin-China more particularly the Government is considering a reform of village life that will make the village a living nucleus in which the inhabitants can remain wedded to their traditions and enjoy their ancient privileges on a broader basis. Labour legislation must be adapted to the present conditions in the country as regards the existence of the old customary social organisation and the new social organisation of wage workers. It would be just as absurd to refuse the benefits of legislation of a Western type to groups which already work under the same 276 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA conditions as European workers as it would be dangerous to sweep away old customs in the case of craftsmen and peasants who have remained in their traditional environment, especially at the present time when the French authorities are trying to revive these older conditions. Those who constitute the working class would also find their situation improved if the two fundamental institutions of the family and the village were re-established around them. Certain legislative texts show that the desire to achieve this end is no new one. The Order of 25 October 1927, which laid down regulations for contract labour, established the principle that family groups should not be broken up; it also prohibited married women, even over the age of 18 years, from accepting employment except when accompanied by or going to rejoin their husbands. The same text stipulated that young persons between the ages of 14 and 18 years were not allowed to emigrate except to an undertaking in which their parents were already working. It further provided that families should be lodged in special huts and should have a patch of land which they could use as a garden. In the same way attempts have been made in the legislation to restore the life of the villages. The Order of 25 October 1927 provided that whenever possible the workers engaged in industrial or mining undertakings should be grouped by villages and should be allowed to organise themselves as in their own countries. Similarly the Order of 26 June 1928, which applies only to Cochin-China, stipulated that when the number of Indo-Chinese workers of the same race engaged by any undertaking was sufficiently large they might, with the approval of the authorities, set up an independent village. These groups were to have the same internal organisation as the traditional Annamite society : at the head was a council of notables ; the workers over the age of 18 were considered registered members of the community; communal taxes were collected, labour dues were enforced, and a service of guards organised during the night; the village possessed a stretch of land equal to one hectare for every 10 workers. The desire to restore the authority of the villages is still more clearly revealed in recent texts analysed above in connection with land settlement. The establishment of the Settlement Office {Decree of 22 April 1932) is an instance of this effort to restore the older framework of society. It was already mentioned that the Tonking Emigration Commission, responsible for studying the problem of land settlement in Indo-China, urged that emigrants CONCLUSIONS 277 from Tonking should retain their share of the common land in their village of origin until they voluntarily renounced all claim to it; mention was also made of the very interesting suggestion put forward by Mr. Pierre Pasquier in 1907 to the effect that a certain number of families should be transferred from each village and established as independent villages in the land settlement area; each village would have the same name as the village of origin of the inhabitants, and the two villages would be permanently connected by the establishment of a civil society. These attempts to preserve whatever of the traditional institutions is sufficiently living to subsist are certainly beneficial; by reestablishing for the Annamite who has become a wage worker the steadying influence of the family and the village much can be done to attenuate the sudden demoralising effects of industrialisation. § 3. — Improving the Social Environment It was shown above how the Indo-Chinese worker, by his origins, his family, and his traditions remained bound to his customary environment: he is usually a peasant who has temporarily left his village and his family to work as a wage earner in a European undertaking. There would be no point in improving his position as a worker unless at the same time a parallel improvement was made in his situation as a craftsman or peasant. Consequently any progress made in labour legislation in the strict sense must be accompanied by an improvement in the general social environment. This raises the problem of the protection of craftsmen and the improvement of the status of the peasant. PROTECTION OF CRAFTSMEN When the French occupied Indo-China they found specialised handicrafts which were able to supply practically all the requirements of the population as regards manufactured articles. These handicrafts, which were established more particularly in Tonking, remained within the framework of the village ; the craftsmen used very rudimentary tools and had developed their activities more or less by chance without any attempt to find the best centre for the work or to discover improved technical methods. The westernisation introduced under French influence altered the needs of the local customers and made certain forms of the traditional output unnecessary. At the same time large-scale 278 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA industry offered manufactured articles which competed successfully with the same articles produced by local labour. Very fortunately this trend of evolution, which might have had extremely serious social consequences, was kept within bounds by the fact that only an élite among the population was affected by Western influence. Moreover, the growth of new customs resulted in new needs and offered additional markets to the indigenous craftsmen. In the last resort the continued existence of handicrafts in Indo-China depends on the persistence of the family agricultural system; should that give place to an industrial economic system, which is the final outcome of westernisation, the crafts will decline very rapidly. This is far from desirable, and from the political point of view it might even seriously endanger public order. It is therefore the duty of the protecting Power to save the crafts from extinction during periods of depression. The main outlines of such a programme were indicated earlier: it would consist mainly in a re-adaptation of technical methods and the adoption of new forms of production; at the same time the sale of these new products would have to be encouraged either by a systematic organisation of the market or by increasing the purchasing power of the customers; finally the crafts would have to be helped by the provision of appropriate credit. These three points are a matter for administrative initiative. So far little such initiative has been shown except in the first of these directions, and it may be said that the problem of markets and that of credit for the crafts still remain to be tackled. In both these directions effective solutions might be found along the lines of co-operation. The opportunities that exist in this direction will be discussed later. It would certainly seem to be a matter of urgency to carry out a thorough enquiry into the present situation of handicrafts in Indo-China. The work of protection and revival will probably be facilitated in this Colony—in contrast to what has happened in the African countries and in the Near East—by the fact that in Indo-China the craftsmen are not hidebound in matters of organisation and technique as a result of corporative or religious traditions such as tend to render progress difficult in Muslim countries. PROTECTION OF THE PEASANTS The Indo-Chinese are a race of peasants and in practically every section of the country the standard of life of these peasants has CONCLUSIONS 279 remained extremely low. These two facts are sufficient in themselves to indicate that the most urgent task of the protective Power in Indo-China undoubtedly is to improve the position of the peasant. The programme outlined earlier enumerated certain possibilities, but the measures for changing the system of land tenure or improving methods of cultivation cannot bear fruit until some considerable time has elapsed. The urgency of making some improvement in the conditions of the peasants, which are aggravated by the rapid increase of the population in the Tonking Delta, calls for remedies that will take effect more quickly. It has been suggested that a more scientific distribution of the population would be helpful. It must be admitted that the efforts so far made in this direction, whether in the form of migration from one colony to another or land settlement within each colony, have been limited, sporadic and in the last resort ineffective; there was never any resolute and continued effort made by the authorities to bring those schemes to a successful conclusion. This failure is doubtless largely due to the difficulties of financing any extensive land settlement scheme. Money is necessary to set up a central settlement organisation and maintain a staff of specialised local officials; money is necessary for the transport of the emigrants; money is necessary for the preliminary surveys, for the construction of villages and the making of roads, for clearing and drainage, and for the advances of rice and cash which must be granted to the settlers. The aggregate of all these sums may well be some hundreds of millions of piastres if a sufficient number of emigrants is to be transferred to bring any real relief to the overcrowded districts of Tonking. Land settlement in Indo-China would therefore seem to be essentially a matter of credits. The attempt at present being made to install a first contingent of a hundred families in the Transbassac district of Tonking must be considered simply as an experiment and not as the launching of an actual scheme; even from this limited point of view it is extremely interesting and should be followed with the closest attention. Internal land settlement will doubtless relieve the poverty of those sections of the population transported to more favourable districts. It would still be necessary to improve the situation of the much more numerous sections who remain in their own villages, and it is in this field that co-operation has a very important part to play. 280 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA POSSIBILITIES OF A CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN INDO-CHINA The action of the French authorities with regard to agricultural credit has been far from lacking in success, and some account has already been given of the results achieved. The indigenous mutual agricultural credit societies in Cochin-China and the credit banks in the Protectorates have been useful instruments which have enabled smallholders to break the bonds in which they were held by the constant necessity of appealing to money-lenders. But it cannot be said that these institutions have succeeded in creating a real spirit of mutual aid among the peasants. This could not be expected in view of the administrative basis of the system: as the operations effected by the agricultural credit funds were guaranteed by the Government, this meant that in the last resort the State was placing money at the disposal of individuals, and too often it did little or nothing to keep a check on the way in which that money was used. There was no joint risk-bearing, and therefore mutual supervision was useless and the spirit of mutual aid could not come into being. Moreover, these bodies were under the supervision of existing services, the staffs of which were already fully taken up with their own technical jobs and had no special co-operative training which would have enabled them to carry out the necessary work of education and supervision. Finally, the provision of credit on too easy terms developed a habit of constantly begging for assistance rather than establishing durable prosperity. For the system was not founded on the development of a sense of thrift or on the training of character. In so far as the Annamite smallholder has ceased to borrow from the " chetty "—and it is only to a slight extent that he has ceased to do so—he has merely become indebted to a more powerful creditor—the Government. The greatest fault of the system perhaps is that the authorities devoted all their attention and gave all their financial support to this particular form of agricultural credit and therefore gave no thought to the possibility of setting up institutions of a really co-operative character. The development of agricultural credit in Indo-China might have been different if the authorities, instead of taking as their chief model the credit institutions of the Netherlands Indies in their original form, had looked rather to British India or to some of the Provinces of China and Japan in which various forms of co-operation, often extremely ingenious, have been developed which could, it would seem, very easily be adapted to Annamite CONCLUSIONS 281 conditions, and which would certainly bring about a considerable improvement in the lamentable situation of the peasants in IndoChina. Co-operation in its true form offers a magnificent field of action for the French authorities in Indo-China. 1 At the conclusion of this study all t h a t can be done is to indicate briefly how favourable the circumstances are and what are the possible lines of development. At first sight it might be imagined t h a t co-operative action would meet with serious obstacles in the psychology of the Annamite people. Many observers have referred to the following features of t h a t psychology: a certain fatalism which seems destined to paralyse from the outset any effort towards progress and any attempt to improve conditions of nutrition or housing; the absence of any spirit of initiative or perseverance; the narrow scope of the Annamite's affections, which are restricted to his own family and do not extend to a spirit of general altruism; the tendency to rely on the public authorities to do all t h a t is necessary in the way of charity towards the poorest sections of the community; finally, an absence of thrift, which is encouraged by the family system, whereby obstacles are placed in the way of the dispersion of the children, who remain under the authority of the head of the family and are expected to help their parents in their old age, the result being t h a t the Annamite is rarely dogged by that worry concerning the future which is the beginning of thrift. It seems difficult to deny the existence of these racial characteristics, but it would nevertheless be a serious mistake to use them as an argument for renouncing in advance any constructive effort in the field of co-operation. The very fact of organising co-operative institutions would help to transform that traditional mentality and arouse a spirit of mutual aid. Every co-operative institution is a real adult school; it not only helps the members to escape from the clutches of the usurer, but it also helps them 1 It must not be forgotten that it will not be necessary to begin from the very beginning in setting up such a system. Certain attempts have already been made which it is only fair to mention. The Dong-Loi established about 30 years ago declined and had to be dissolved, but certain indigenous cooperative societies established more recently for the mass production of selected rice seed have given useful assistance to the Rice Office. In Quang Ngai a co-operative society for working up cane sugar was opened on 13 April 1936 and had already a hundred members by the end of that year. In Cambodia proposals were recently made for the establishment of agricultural co-operative societies on a village basis for storing the harvest and selling produce direct to the exporter. These are only first steps towards the creation of a complete network of co-operative societies which should cover the whole of Indo-China. 282 " LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA to escape from themselves, from their bad habits, and to learn virtues which are not always natural to them, such as orderliness, foresight, punctuality, strict respect for promises and a readiness to accept responsibility. It would be very surprising if co-operation, which has given good results in the countries immediately adjoining Indo-China—India, China, Siam and the Malay Peninsula—should find it impossible to flourish among the Annamites. It must not be imagined that co-operative organisations can develop only in Europe; there are at least 130,000 co-operative societies of different kinds with 10,000,000 members in the countries of Asia and Africa. Although the psychology of the Annamites might seem at first sight to be far from favourable to the development of co-operation, this disadvantage would be largely counterbalanced by one very favourable factor, namely, the existence in the social tradition of those countries of a number of customs and institutions which might already be considered as a sort of spontaneous co-operation. It will suffice to mention the communal lands which are used for collective purposes 1 and certain forms of collaboration within the framework of the village (corvées, keeping guard over the village, mutual aid in connection with mourning and funerals, assistance in the case of flooding, fire or theft, the establishment of shelters for travellers, etc.); still more important is a certain sense of responsibility developed by the traditional independence of the village (in the matter of taxation, for example, the tax is fixed as a lump sum for the whole village, which remains responsible for dividing it up and collecting the individual taxes). These customs constitute a sort of nucleus of co-operative activity which would merely require to be developed in order to arrive quite quickly at certain modern forms of co-operation. Moreover, if lasting results are to be obtained it is better to start from what already exists than to import a ready-made co-operative system. Co-operation must be a living growth and not an official creation, and that is possible only if it is rooted in the traditions and needs of the country. A careful study of Annamite institutions shows that the village in its traditional form might provide an ideal framework for the establishment of co-operative institutions; it contains all the essential conditions for co-operative effort, such as a certain natural cohesion between the members, a more or less restricted 1 Every Annamite village has land which may not be alienated : the huong-hoa or property used for religious purposes, and the ngay-dien reserved for charitable bodies which provide for the maintenance of the poor and the education of children. CONCLUSIONS 283 sphere of action, which is essential if the members are to know each other and attend meetings regularly, and also a simple framework based on group discipline. Co-operation would not merely confer invaluable economic and moral benefits on the population of Indo-China by helping them to combat poverty, but it would also provide the best outlet for the zeal of the more highly educated Annamites who are impatient to engage in constructive work for the benefit of the community and who too often seek satisfaction in political agitation. It would be difficult to enumerate here the possible forms of co-operation in Indo-China, because the co-operative movement can be adapted to the most varied needs and to all kinds of ethnical, historical, geographical, economic and social conditions, so t h a t new forms can at any time be evolved. It must suffice to mention a few forms which have proved most useful in the countries with conditions most comparable to those of Indo-China. This enumeration will serve in itself to show that there is scarcely an ill at present afflicting the peasant and the craftsman of Indo-China for which a remedy and an antidote cannot be found in a co-operative institution which is specially adapted to the end in view. The chief requirement of the peasant in Indo-China, as in India and in China, is credit. Credit co-operative societies have been tremendously successful in such Asiatic countries as India, China and Japan; in British India there are some 90,000 societies with 30,000,000 members, and in China there are 2,000 societies with 90,000 members. Sometimes the credit co-operative society is the direct descendant of some traditional mutual credit institution, such as those connected with ancient games of chance which have existed for centuries in China and Japan. In the latter country, for instance, some modern credit co-operative societies are directly connected with the mujin or mutual credit societies which existed seven or eight centuries ago and generally consisted of from 30 to 50 members living in the same street or exercising the same occupation or attending the same temple, who agreed to pay a certain sum every time they met. The small capital thus amassed was paid in turn to each member. A similar form of society, known as the tontine, exists in Annamite villages. Every family pays an insignificant sum monthly to the head of the village, who is responsible for investing it at interest. When a villager requires money he " buys " the tontine and then repays the amount by annual payments. The capital accumulated in this way sometimes amounts to 4,000 or 5,000 piastres. There is no reason 284 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA why the Annamite tontine should not, in the same way as the Japanese mujin, become a modern credit co-operative society. It would be idle to allege that the extreme poverty of the IndoChinese peasants makes it impossible for them to constitute a sufficiently large fund without the help of the administrative authorities. The members of a credit co-operative society must never borrow on the security of what they owe, but on the security of their personal worth and on their joint responsibility. In addition to credit co-operative societies it might become possible to set up savings societies pure and simple which would have certain advantages over the post office savings bank as being easier of access, having a simpler and more elastic procedure for the withdrawal of deposits, etc. The co-operative savings society would find a favourable field for development in the towns amongst wage earners in a stable situation and particularly among the indigenous employees and officials of the administration, from whose salaries a deduction could easily be made as the beginning of a savings fund. Agricultural purchasing and marketing co-operative societies may perhaps require more education on the part of their members but they are spreading in certain Asiatic countries, more particularly in British India. They are often credit co-operative societies which have extended their activities by providing facilities for marketing the produce of their members. A certain resistance must be expected here, because the farmers do not like to see their produce mixed with that of others. It is probable also that co-operative machinery would not be sufficient to solve the problem of the organisation of the rice market in Indo-China, but it should at least be possible to organise that market in such a way that co-operative marketing societies could gradually form part of the machinery. Many other forms of co-operative organisation already existing in colonial countries might render valuable service in Indo-China, as for example societies for the purchase of fertilisers and seeds, for mutual insurance against mortality amongst cattle, for irrigation and for medical services. Societies of the last-named type were recently set up in Japan to overcome the shortage of doctors in the villages and the high cost of medical treatment ; they provide their members with the services of a doctor and with certain facilities for treatment. 1 Anti-malaria societies have been developed 1 In 1933 there were in Japan 23 medical co-operative societies with about 80,000 members owning 43 hospitals and employing the services of 38 doctors. CONCLUSIONS 285 in Bengal with the help of very small contributions from members and certain subsidies from the authorities; they make themselves responsible for improving sanitary conditions in the villages, draining dangerous patches of water, distributing quinine and sometimes maintaining a small dispensary. Another type of co-operative society which may be mentioned is the arbitration society, of which several have been set up in India, where vexatious and often childish litigation is so common that it has become a real disease. These co-operative societies try to prevent their members from the useless expense involved in incessant lawsuits. Mention should also be made of the labour «o-operative societies which might provide a useful antidote to the system of job contracts and to the activities of the cais in Indo-China,1 and of the better-living societies which have been particularly active in the Punjab (there were more than 300 in 1930) and which endeavour in a variety of ways to improve the «onditions of their members by prohibiting the ruinous expenditure called for by certain traditional customs, by raising the standard of hygiene, by organising education and, in general, by developing sensible and healthy habits calculated to improve the general standards of the villagers. Co-operation would be just as useful to the craftsmen as to the peasants. The possible forms might include joint purchasing societies for certain trades, which would have the dual advantage of bringing down the prices of raw materials and saving the loss of time involved in going to make the purchases; varous forms of co-operative services (joint leasing of premises for exhibiting manufactured articles, societies for the collection and distribution of orders, societies for the supply of plant or the hire of machin1 An example of these labour co-operative societies can be found in the groups of charcoal burners in the Taza Mountains in Morocco. These groups, which work in the forests from October to June, are composed of poor farmers who know each other through being neighbours and who select their own chief. Their supplies are organised on a purely co-operative basis, each one iringing a certain amount of food with him. Each member also provides his own tools. One remarkable feature is the fact that the head of each group, although providing special tools at his own expense and a beast of burden for carrying supplies, does not receive any special remuneration in exchange, the principle being that everyone has his equally necessary contribution to make to the common cause. These primitive forms of co-operation in colonial countries have been studied by Mr. Maurice Colombain, Chief of the Co-operative Section of the International Labour Office. (Cf., for example, " Les Coopératives indigènes au Maroc ", extract from the report of a mission to Morocco submitted by Mr. Colombain, Bulletin économique du Maroc, Vol. IV, No. 17, July 1937. Cf. also L. TARDY and M. COLOMBAIN : La Coopération dans les colonies, and International Labour Directory: Cooperative Organisations, 1936.) ¡^ 286 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA ery, etc.), and as a final stage of development the purchasing co-operative society for handicrafts, with a joint workshop, which presupposes a considerable degree of discipline among the members. It will be seen that the co-operative system is very adaptable and can take on a variety of forms; the numerous benefits which it could bring to the population of Indo-China have also been indicated. But the co-operative movement cannot spring up and develop in Indo-China unless two essential conditions are fulfilled from the very beginning. The first of these is that the system must not be heavily financed by the State at the outset, as this would nip in the bud the spirit of initiative of the members; State aid must be just sufficient to give the system a start, and in any case the financial requirements of small societies are not considerable. The second condition has been already mentioned: the co-operative system must not be imported ready-made as an administrative measure drawn up in the abstract; it must evolve gradually from what already exists in the country. In this connection technical and moral assistance from the State would be essential to provide explanations, to persuade the workers without compulsion, to help and guide the new co-operative groups in their first contacts with economic realities which are generally strange to them, and to supervise these institutions so as to ensure that they remain within their own-proper framework and are not used to exploit certain individuals or groups., These duties of co-operative education, organisation and supervision must be carried out by men with special training and special qualifications. The Resident in Morocco by appointing a Co-operative Counsellor recently initiated an experiment from which valuable lessons may no doubt be drawn for Indo-China. Co-operation, wisely conceived and judiciously applied, can improve the conditions of life of millions of peasants, and that, as was already pointed out, is the most urgent task before the French authorities in Indo-China. At a time when the destinies of this great Asiatic Colony of France are in the hands of a man who has emphasised his desire to raise the material and moral standards of the population, it is to be hoped that no effort will be spared to foster the growth of a fruitful spirit of mutual aid among the peasants and craftsmen of every country in the Union. The present writer is firmly convinced that at the present stage of development the best hope for Indo-China lies in co-operation. APPENDICES APPENDIX I STATISTICAL TABLES Table 1 POPULATION OF INDO-CHINA IN 1 9 3 6 Civil population Country French Aliens of European status 2 x Arm Aliens of privileged status 3 Aliens of special status * French subjects and protected persons Europ Annam Cambodia Cochin-China Laos Tonking 3,532 2,023 12,835 499 11,822 158 43 363 14 397 10,650 105,700 170,700 3,200 35,550 170 2,800 1,700 230 500 5,639,000 2,935,000 4,424,000 1,007,000 8,632,000 1,2 1 2,2 Whole of { 1936 Indo-China . 1 1 g g l 30,711 975 325,800 5,400 22,637,000 10,5 27,740 1,665 20,962,000 12,3 i 2 a * 428,000 6,8 Estimate at July 1936. — From Bulletin économique de l'Indochine, September-October 1936, p. 782 Including Japanese and Philippine Islanders. Chinese. Subjects of British India, Siamese, Javanese, etc. Table 2 APPROXIMATE DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION BY ETH Ethnical groups Annam Europeans and assimilated . French subjects or protected persons: Cambodians Thaï ] L a o t i a n s • • • • lhal \ Others . . . . Indonesians Muong Meo Malays and Chams . . . Minh-huong 2 Other groups Foreign Asiatic subjects : Indians and others . . . Total | Cambodia Cochln-China 5,000 2,300 15,500 4,835,000 191,000 2,597,000 20,000 3,979,000 326,000 100 54,000 52,000 73,000 8,000 62,000 11,000 200 106,000 2,800 171,000 2,000 5,656,000 3,046,000 4,616,000 400 17,000 664,000 99,000 1,400 23,000 L 2 56 10 24 4 2 1 1936 census. — From Bulletin économique de l'Indochine, September-October 1936, p. 783. 2 Slno-Annamlte mixed-bloods. 1,01 290 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Table 3 PERCENTAGE OF RECRUITING IN 1 5 PROVINCES OF TONKING AT THE END OF 1 9 2 6 Provinces Total recruited per province Population Thai-binh . . . . Ninh-binh . . . . Nam-dinh . . . . Hai-duong . . . Hung-yên . . . . Ha-nam Ha-dông Son-tây Bac-ninh . . . . Kiên-an Bac-giang . . . Vinh-yên . . . . Phuc-yên . . . . H a i p h o n g (Town) Hanoï (Town) . . Total 1 913,817 327,106 849,329 500,511 394,650 415,000 781,520 247,580 399,016 335,482 223,810 183,647 146,000 83,394 91,718 7,495 5,183 4,684 2,543 1,840 1,471 1,342 1,007 810 523 301 166 98 38 4 5,892,580 27,505 Percentage 0.821 1.584 0.551 0.508 0.466 0.354 0.171 0.406 0.203 0.155 0.134 0.091 0.067 0.045 a i From Compte rendu sur le fonctionnement de l'Inspection générale du travail, 1927-28, p. 18. 2 The average percentage ot recruiting in the provinces mentioned above was 0.48 per cent. of their total population. Table 4 STATISTICS FAMILIES OF ON RECRUITED THE AGRICULTURAL PLANTATIONS OF WORKERS SOUTHERN AND 3 1 DECEMBER OF THE YEARS 1 9 2 2 TO 1 9 3 4 Year AT 1 Agricultural workers 3,022 5,568 7,719 10,269 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 THEIR INDO-CHINA Men Women Children 10,491 18,672 22,352 18,379 16,695 10,109 5,518 4,673 6,697 1,183 2,648 4,119 3,787 3,904 3,004 2,269 2,171 1,939 499 1,217 1,577 1,408 1,091 257 i Figures supplied by the Service for the Immigration and Supervision of Recruited Labour in Saigon. 291 APPENDIX I Table 5 STATISTICS OF RECRUITED AGRICULTURAL WORKERS DISEMBARKING IN SAIGON FOR SOUTHERN INDO-CHINA FROM 1 9 2 2 TO 1 9 3 4 Year 1 Number ( F r o m 1 J a n u a r y 1919 to 31 December 1922 . . 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 . . . 1933 1934 (up to 30 October) 9,143 3,846 3,482 3,684 16,861 17,606 17,977 7,428 10,925 2,565 206 5,060 6,068 i From the Reports of the General Labour Inspectorate. Table 6 STATISTICS OF RECRUITED AGRICULTURAL WORKERS REPATRIATED FROM SOUTHERN INDO-CHINA FROM 1 9 2 2 TO 1 9 3 4 Year F r o m 1 J a n u a r y 1919 to 31 December 1922 . . 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 . . . . 1934 (up to 30 O c t o b e r ) . ' . ' . . ' . ' . ' . ' . ' . ' . ' . i From the Reports of the General Labour Inspectorate. 1 Number 2,219 442 — 336 1,593 2,222 4,006 6,907 8,960 10,646 6,955 6 263 1^804 292 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Table 7 STATISTICS OF BREACHES OF CONTRACT REPORTED TO THE LABOUR SUPERVISION SERVICE BY EMPLOYERS IN SOUTHERN INDO-CHINA FROM 1923 TO 1934 1 Year F r o m 1 J a n u a r y 1919 to 31 December 1922 . . 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 . 1934 (up to 30 October) . . . . i From the Reports of the General Labour Inspectorate. Number 1,462 730 847 1,081 1,653 3,824 4,484 4,301 2,973 743 487 562 860 Table 8 STATISTICS OF DESERTERS CAUGHT AS A RESULT OF COMPLAINTS BY EMPLOYERS IN SOUTHERN INDO-CHINA FROM 1 9 2 3 TO 1 9 3 4 Year Number F r o m 1 J a n u a r y 1919 to 31 December 1922 . . 355 1923 133 1924 216 1925 208 1926 558 1927 1,070 1928 1,446 1929 1,961 1930 680 1931 321 1932 337 1933 321 1934 (up to 30 October) . . ! . . 353 i From the Reports of the General Labour Inspectorate. 1 Table 9 STATISTICS OF DEATHS OF RECRUITED AGRICULTURAL WORKERS REPORTED TO THE LABOUR SUPERVISION SERVICE BY EMPLOYERS IN SOUTHERN INDO-CHINA FROM 1 9 2 3 TO 1 9 3 4 1 Year Number F r o m 1 J a n u a r y 1919 to 31 December 1922 . . 501 1923 126 1924 158 1925 175 1926 162 1927 788 1928 1,323 1929 848 1930 362 1931 392 1932 ' 203 1933 203 1934 (up to 30 October) . . . . . . . . . . . 243 i From the Reports of the General Labour Inspectorate. 293 APPENDIX I Table 10 SUMS BROUGHT BACK AS D E F E R R E D PAY BY CONTRACT WORKERS REPATRIATED FROM SOUTHERN INDO-CHINA AND FROM THE PACIFIC Year 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 i l s t half year) . Total . . . . Southern Indo-China Pacific Total Piastres Piastres Piastres 785 37,90(1 233,00(7 223,500 148,190 32,990 1,270 2,000 3,000 111,760 207,280 289,910 34,390 83,210 1,270 2,000 3,785 149,660 440,280 513,410 182,580 116,200 676,365 732,820 1,409,185 1 i From a document supplied by the General Labour Inspectorate. Table 11 STATISTICS FRENCH OF INDO-CHINESE WORKERS EMBARKING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE PACIFIC AND REPATRIATED INDO-CHINA FROM 1920 TO 1934 * Year 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 (up to 30 October) Total Departures Repatriations 993 61 1,129 2,166 1,628 2,648 1,432 3,048 1,839 655 2 883 591 492 200 220 373 438 2,886 3,454 2,748 611 704 17,075 12,126 i From a document supplied by the General Labour Inspectorate. TO Table 12 STATISTICS OF WORKING POPULATION AND WAGES IN INDOWages in Percentage of Percentage the total of tue total number number of Men of wage wage earners earners Nationality and Number in the employed occupational status category Average Average iti various of under- wages of wages of underskilled takings takings in unIndo-China in skilled workers and question workers overseers Piastres Agricultural undertakings : 81,188 wage earners, including 70,323 men (86.6 per cent.) and 10,865 women (13.4 per cent.) . . . . 36.8 Tonkinese or Annamites . . Cochin-Chinese . Cambodians . . Laotians . . . Mois, Rhadés, etc Man, Muong, etc. Chinese . . . . Javanese . . . Japanese . . . Specialised workers Supervisory staff piastres 2 Wom Average wages of unskilled workers Piastres Piastres 0.44 0.52 0.47 0.50 . 1.47 1.83 1.90 0.28 0.25 0.39 1.66 0.40 0.25 58,069 15,972 2,424 25 71.5 19.7 3.0 0.03 3,096 487 289 300 2 3.8 0.6 0.35 0.37 0.49 0.31 0.52 0.62 347 177 0.43 0.22 — 1.72 2.50 3.50 1.39 1.32 — • 1Tonkinese Commercial or industrial undertakings : 86,624 wage earners . Mining undertakings: 53,240 wage earners . 39.2 24.0 or J Annamites . . 46,317 1 Cochin-Chinese . 23,248 1 Cambodians . . 3,698 1 Laotians . . . 181 Mois, Rhadés, / etc 188 \ Man,Muong, etc. 300 Chinese . . . . 11,906 1 Javanese . . . 132 I Specialised wor1 kers 446 1 Supervisory staff 302 Indians . . . . 6 Tonkinese or Annamites . Laotians . . Chinese . . . Siamese . . . . . . . 45,475 3,104 3,779 900 53.5 26.8 4.3 0.2 0.51 0.50 0.65 0.40 1.66 1.58 1.60 1.42 0.31 0.40 0.22 0.35 13.7 0.15 0.40 0.47 0.50 0.85 1.00 1.59 1.70 1.27 0.37 0.5 0.2 0.08 — — — 1.11 1.11 1.39 0.50 0.40 0.50 0.41 0.40 — 0.32 1.20 1.00 85.4 5.8 7.1 1.7 — 0.30 — 0.47 — — — — — Total number of wage earners employed in different undertakings in I 1 From a pamphlet published by the General Labour Inspectorate. 2 Until September 1936 the piastre was stabilised at the rate of 10 French francs. 296 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Table 13 VALUE OF THE ANNUAL OUTPUT OF MINES BY PRODUCTS FROM 1 9 2 9 TO 1 9 3 5 1929 Absolute value in thousands of piastres Categories of p r o d u c t s % Absolute value in thousands of piastres 1932 1931 1930 % Absolute value in thousands of piastres % Absolute value in thousands of piastres CATEGORIES 1934 1933 % OF 1 Absolute value in thousands of piastres 14,300 77.0 13,900 82.7 11,650 88.6 10,400 88.2 8,214 1,800 ».7 600 3.« 200 1.5 225 1.9 172 Tin & t u n g s t e n . . 2,000 10.6 1,700 10.1 1,100 8.4 1,135 9.6 1,624 Gold Other mining p r o 500 2.7 600 3.6 200 l.b 40 0.3 12 Fuel % Absolute value in thousands of piastres 1935 % Absolute value in thousands of piastres % 82.0 7,008 73.0 8,240 73.5 1.7 116 1.2 132 1.2 16.2 2,081 21.6 2,309 20.6 329 3.4 400.5 3.6 0.1 80 0.8 122.5 1.1 T o t a l . . . . 18,600 100 16,800 100 13,150 100 11,800 100 10,022 100 9,614 100 11,204 100 » From Bulletin économique de VIndochine, May-June 1935, p . 572. Table 14 AVERAGE WAGES (iN PIASTRES) OF WORKERS PAID BY THE DAY IN THE SAIGON-CHOLON DISTRICT ( 1 9 3 1 - 1 9 3 2 - 1 9 3 3 ) * 1932 1931 Occupational groups Specialised workers Specialised coolies . Labourers j ^e0nmen Overseers Children and apprentice 3 1933 Average Number Average N u m b e r Average wage N u m b e r wage wage 4,106 1.50 5,295 402 312 332 0.74 0.45 2.00 0.50 3,768 609 2,261 295 240 433 1.35 0.75 0.68 0.45 1.90 0.49 2,793 208 2,435 184 201 267 i From Bulletin économique de VIndochine, January-February 1934, p . 162. 1.25 0.77 0.62 0.41 2.00 0.37 297 APPENDIX I Table 15 AVERAGE WAGES (iN PIASTRES) OF WORKERS PAID HY THE DAY IN THE NORTH OF INDO-CHINA (1931-1932-1933) 1932 1931 Occupational' groups Number ^ways j ?sSL : : Total 1,606 0.68 4,777 0.68 0.74 Labourers (men) 749 2,589 0.37 0.37 0.32 0.37 0.33 0.42 2,088 0.33 0.35 0.33 0.35 0.34 0.41 5,716 0.38 7,615 0.36 293 568 67 674 3,488 436 154 700 (c) 343 34 237 180 0.22 0.41 0.18 0.25 794 0.22 Total 100 Total -. 453 0.35 Labourers (women) 0.22 0.25 0.18 0.25 90 446 149 465 0.22 0.23 0.16 0.21 1,453 - 0.24 1,150 0.21 166 1,027 43 217 0.45 | 507 | 0.41 | 675 0.43 Specialised women workers 0.22 | 69 | 0.23 | 149 0.25 Children and apprentices 0.23 | 1,353 | 0.21 | (g) 763 6,407 618 187 614 Specialised labourers (f) Total 2,058 0.33 0.35 0.29 0.30 0.32 0.39 606 2,324 (d) (e) 133 Total 4,782 4,000 *•*«*• | Hanoi Haiphong Other centres in Tonking. Annam 297 323 974 538 0.63 0.66 0.58 0.64 0.73 0.83 1,007 1,857 1,525 Total 1,389 1,256 253 285 736 644 0.68 0.57 0.64 0.70 0.81 0.85 0.64 0.77 0.62 0.81 0.83 0.90 (b) Cundan \ \ Specialised workers 461 329 284 703 617 Hanoi Haiphong Other centres in Tonking. Annam 1933 Average ATerage Average wage Number wage Number wage (a) Hanoï Haiphong Other centres in Tonking Annam 1 543 , 0.18 Overseers and foremen 1.00 | 1,039 | 0.95 | 513 | 1.12 Total i From Bulletin économique de l'Indochine, January-February 1934, p. 166. 298 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Table 16 INDEX NUMBERS OF WAGES FOR THE MAIN OCCUPATIONAL GROUPS, BASED ON WAGES Categories and years PAID IN Saigon- Hanoï Cholon SAIGON-CHOLON (1931-1932-1933) Other North Hai- centres in Annam Railphong Tonway king Yunnan Co. All Northern IndoChina All establishments Specialised workers : 1931 . . . 1932 . . . 1933 . . . 100 100 100 43 50 50 52 42 53 41 47 46 54 52 51 55 60 58 60 63 66 49 50 54 Labourers (men) : 1931 . . . 1932 . . . 1933 . . . 100 100 100 50 49 53 50 51 56 43 49 47 50 51 48 45 50 50 57 60 63 51 53 57 Labourers (women) : 1931 . . . 1932 . . . 1933 . . . 100 100 100 49 49 54 69 56 56 40 40 39 56 56 51 — — — 58 53 52 * — • l i From Bulletin économique de VIndochine, January-February 1934, p. 175. Table 17 GENERAL MOVEMENT OF WAGES FROM 1 9 2 5 TO 1 9 3 3 ON THE BASIS OF 1925 RATES COMPARED WITH THE COST-OF-LIVING FOR THE SAME PERIOD Categories INDICES 1 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 Workers : Saigon (Town) . . . Tonking (Mines) . . 100 100 101 105 103 111 113 115 125 120 125 125 125 111 116 95 107 93 Labourers (men) : Saigon (Town) . . . Tonking (Mines) . . 100 100 101 102 106 107 106 108 117 112 123 115 117 106 110 97 100 88 Cost of living (indigenous working class) : Saigon Hanoï 100 100 99 98 103 104 106 103 113 113 121 121 105 107 92 96 85 84 i From Bulletin économique de VIndochine, January-February 1934, p. 176. 299 APPENDIX I b T ) GJ X 3 OJ O ~ " a" o Is! PÏI Ô.S »1 PU OS Middle class Other Lodg- ex- General ing pend- index iture 05 ^•-í •*- CN CO v .™ifs c o f c o o o O (N CN (N CN C-i CO Dì ^> O Ci C i CS Cl Ci 35 0 CO 35 SUS »IIS 3¿ «"»-aja 300 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA A P P E N D I X II MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT OF CONTRACT WORKERS In Part II, Chapter I, of this Report, mention was made, in connection with the violent campaign begun in 1928 against the recruiting of contract labour in Tonking for employment on the plantations of Southern IndoChina, of the allegations made at this time regarding abuses in the conditions of work on these plantations. Below are reproduced two official documents relating to these abuses, which will enable the reader to measure the progress made in the protection of the workers since the time at which the abuses were exposed. The text of the contract of service used for workers of this category is also quoted, as well as the observations of a plantation manager on the organisation of work in colonial agricultural undertakings of the Indo-Chinese type. 1. Report of the Tri-phu of My-hoa on the recruitment of Tonkinese coolies for work on the plantations of Cochin-China, followed by a letter of the Governor of Cochin-China forwarding this report to the Saigon Association of Rubber Planters. My-hoa, 2 April 1929. Dang-Quoc-Giam, Tri-phu of My-hoa, to His Excellency the Tong-doc Hung-yen In reply to the Resident's letter No. 281 C of 30 March 1929, I have the honour to inform you that two natives of the village of Lo-xa, Nguyen-van-Dan and Nguyen-van-Du, who have been working in Cochin-China, have just returned home. From the information that I have received, it appears that they are both very glad to be in Tonking again, and have not become at all attached to Cochin-China. They say that work is not very hard on the sugar plantations, where the water is good and the ploughing is done mechanically. The labourers are employed only in spreading ashes over the soil and planting young shoots. Those who are allocated to these plantations may therefore consider themselves fortunate. The case of those who have to work on the rubber plantations is very different. There the work is very hard and the water unhealthy. Several labourers employed on these plantations died as a result of the conditions. The hours of work on all the plantations are 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. After the morning's work the labourers prepare their 301 APPENDIX II own meal, and must begin work again immediately afterwards without any time for rest. Salt and rice are furnished by the employer. The labourers must buy their own vegetables and other food, the prices of which are one and a half times higher than in Tonking. The monthly wage is 12 piastres, payable in two instalments monthly. The persons mentioned at the beginning of this letter were employed on the sugar plantations. They succeeded in saving a little money. They engaged in pig-breeding on their own account, and also invested their money. Altogether they possessed a capital of about 200 piastres each. Unfortunately, however, they had to leave without warning and were unable to bring anything home with them. One day, while they were working on the plantations, they were called away and made to embark immediately for Tonking without being given time to return to their quarters to collect their debts and sell their personal property. Although they are glad to be in their home country again, they are discontented at not having been able to bring back what they had earned at the cost of such hard labour. They could do nothing on leaving but ask some friends to sell their property and collect their debts for them. They do not know whether these friends will do them this service and send them the sums collected. Dan and Du add that the work is hard on the plantations, but that the hours fixed are observed. Both the European arid the indigenous overseers are kind to the labourers, and are indeed afraid of ill-treating them. If an overseer were to resort to harsh treatment, the labourers would certainly conspire together and assassinate him, throwing his corpse into a stream. According to the statements of Dan and Du, work on the plantations is generally very arduous. It is certain that very few inhabitants of the village who have heard what these two have to say will still feel a desire to be recruited for work on the plantations. The Tri-phu: (Signed) DANG-QUOC-GIAM. No. 927. Read and transmitted to the Resident, for necessary action. Hung-Yen, 3 April 1929. The Tong-Doc: (Signed) VI-VAN-DINH. Certified true copy, The Labour Inspector: (Signed) [illegible.] The Governor of Cochin-China to the President of the Association of Rubber Planters, Saigon. Saigon, 14 June 1929. Sir, The Senior Resident at Tonking has just sent me, for information, a copy of Report No. 418 of 2 April 1929 sent by the Tri-phu of My-hoa to the Tong-Doc of the province of Hung-yen, concerning the recruitment of Tonkinese labourers for employment in agricultural undertakings in Cochin-China, and particularly on the rubber plantations. 302 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA. I am sending you herewith a copy of this report, which describes in a summary but accurate manner the feelings of the Tonkinese population with regard to the emigration of workers towards Southern Indo-China. In addition to certain other facts, of which I think you ought to be informed, I would beg to draw your special attention to the paragraph relating to hours of work and the preparation of the workers' meals. I know, of course, that under the terms of the existing contracts the labourers must work 10 hours in every 24 and prepare their own food. Nevertheless, it would be in the interest, not only of the workers, but also of the employers, if the latter were to make arrangements for the cooking of the meals. This would have the great double advantage of sparing tired workers the task of preparing their meals—an operation which they carry out in a very summary fashion—and obliging them to take the nourishment that they need. A man is better protected against disease if he is well fed than if he is underfed; yet it is a wellknown fact that labourers are in general undernourished. The state of physical weakness in which they arrive at Tonking shows quite clearly the psychological error into which most of the employers fall, despite the many warnings they have received. A very vigorous campaign is now being carried on by the whole population against the exodus of agricultural workers, under present conditions, towards the south. I feel that if the mistakes at present being made are not righted, Tonking will close its gates against such emigration and will no longer constitute an " inexhaustible reservoir " of cheap labour. This information has been confirmed by the local labour inspector, who has spent some time in Tonking, and who has just recruited 800 Chinese for the construction of the Congo-Ocean railway, on behalf of the Government of French Equatorial Africa. In the contracts of these workers, it is laid down that food will be prepared and served to the workers so that diseases due to under-nourishment, so often found on the rubber plantations of Cochin-China, may be prevented. (Signed) 2. KRAUTHEIMER. Report of Mr. Delamarre, Inspector of Political Affairs, concerning conditions of work and life among the labourers employed on the plantations of Southern Indo-China.1 The work itself is not hard, but the canes are cut on a slant, so that after the cutting they leave the ground covered with pointed stumps which make walking extremely dangerous, especially for labourers who have no shoes or leggings. The manager of the Mimot plantations, when I asked him what hours his labourers worked, said that the roll-call was held at 5.30 a.m. and that the labourers left their quarters at about 6 a.m., working in the morning until 11 and in the afternoon from 12.30 p.m. to 5 p.m., meals being taken on the plantation. According to the unanimous statement of the labourers, however, they are awakened at 3 a.m. and assembled at 4 a.m. As there are about 1,000 labourers on the plantations, it is certain that they do not 1 The extracts here quoted are those published in La Résurrection, an Annamite periodical appearing in France, in its issues of December 1928 and February 1929. APPENDIX II 303 leave their quarters for work before 4.30 a.m. The labourers a d m i t t h a t they have a mid-day rest of 1 % hours, b u t allege t h a t t h e y do not return to their quarters until nightfall. Even if one accepts the time-table given by Mr. d'U... one has t h e following t o t a l : from 5.30 a.m. to 11 a.m from 12.30 p.m. to 5 p.m Total 5 h. 30 4 h. 30 10 hours To these 10 hours must be added, since the plantation is 5 or 6 kilometres distant from the workers' quarters, 1 % hours spent on t h e way to and from work, assuming a walking speed of 4 kilometres an hour. The labourer t h u s spends between 11 and 1 1 % hours daily either a t work or on his way t o or from work. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Cambodia Company contracts and the Decree concerning t h e employment of labour in Cochin-China, it is not specified whether the 10 hours' limit refers to actual hours of work or not. Hours amounting to between 11 and 1 1 % for actual work and the journey to and from work are excessive for a male worker, and still more so for a female worker. The contract of Tonkinese workers recruited for the Pacific colonies provides for 9 hours of actual work and 1 hour for going t o and coming from the workplace at a walking speed of 5 kilometres p e r hour. If more time is needed for going to and returning from work, it should be taken out of the hours of actual work. Wages, Deductions, Fines, Food. — The contract of the workers in question fixes the daily wage of men at 0.40 piastre and t h a t of women at 0.30 piastre. No wages are paid for days of rest and idleness due t o force majeure, unless they exceed 6 in the month. This provision is very harsh; it is indeed regrettable t h a t the Government of Cambodia should have copied the contract used on the Mimot plantations exactly, this clause included, for the labourers which it has engaged for work on the road along the Mekong valley from Kratie to Sombor. As a labourer is bound for three years by a contract which forbids him to work for a second employer during this period, it is to the advantage of his employer to refuse to pay him wages while he is in forced idleness. Such a clause should be applied only to non-contract labour. The labourers, employed at 0.40 piastre per day, do not realise t h a t with • the deductions for rice, t h e reimbursement of advances, the non-payment of days of idleness, and fines, they do not actually receive nearly ' 18 piastres monthly. The following table shows what the workers have received since their arrival at Mimot; according to the books of the Company, the figures here given refer to workers earning at a normal rate, and not to those on reduced pay or those absent or sick: First fortnight of January (10 days' work) : 10 days at 0.40 piastre Deducted (rice) ., (reimbursement of advances) . . . Piastres 4 1.00 0.50 1.50 Paid 2.50 304 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Second fortnight of January (16 days less 2 days of rest = 14 working days) : Piastres 14 days at 0.40 piastre 5.60 Deducted (rice) 1.10 Paid 4.50 Total wages paid in January = 7 piastres. First fortnight of February (15 days less 5 days' holiday [Têt] without pay = 1 0 working days) : Piastres 10 days at 0.40 piastre 4.00 Deducted (rice) 1.10 „ (reimbursement of advances) . . . 0.90 2.00 Paid 2.00 Second fortnight of February : 11 working days Deducted (rice) ,, (reimbursement of advances) . . . Paid Total wages paid in February = 5 piastres. 1.10 0.30 Piastres 4.40 1.40 3.00 First fortnight of March (15 days less 2 days of rest = 13 working days): Piastres 13 days at 0.40 piastre 5.20 Deducted (rice) 1.20 „ (reimbursement of advances) . . . 1.00 2.20 Paid 3.00 These average fortnightly earnings of 3 piastres were reduced to 2 piastres for the majority of the labourers as the result of a fine imposed by order of the manager. This fine of 1 piastre greatly annoyed the Tonkinese on account both of its general application and of its amount, which was felt to be excessive. It was imposed because the labourers, who have no hats or raincoats (the latania hats are too expensive for them and reed coats unobtainable at Mimot), stopped work during a shower of rain. If the Mimot Company wishes to compel its labourers to work in wet weather— as is inevitable during the rainy season—it should in justice supply them with hats and coats, since these are required by the nature of the work. The manager of the Mimot Company has realised this and has ordered hats and reed coats. They have now arrived, I understand, but their distribution to the labourers will be accompanied by the deduction of their price from the wages paid. With a fortnightly wage of 3 piastres, or 4 piastres when the advances have been repaid (a process which, as may be calculated, will take about 305 APPENDIX II a year), it is doubtful whether the labourers will be able to buy on the spot sufficient food, clothing, etc., to meet their needs. This is the most important question of all. For if labourers are underfed they lack powers of resistance to sickness, especially malaria, and become demoralised; the overseers are then unable to get satisfactory work by the ordinary methods, and irritation and blows result. When this situation arises the workers have only three alternatives: to run away, to revolt or to succumb to deficiency diseases. Since the average weight of an Annamite in good health is about 65 kilos, the plantation worker should receive, if account is taken of the climate and the hours of work, food sufficient to supply him with 2,925 calories, or 3,000 in round figures. His diet should further include a sufficient proportion of fresh food containing vitamins to ensure proper assimilation. The Ministerial Circular of 22 July 1924 introducing protective health measures, to be applied throughout the colonies in all private and public undertakings where indigenous workers are employed, lays down that food rations must be issued from the first day of engagement and that they must be equal to those distributed to the indigenous troops; these consist of normal rations and special rations. The rations issued to the Tonkinese infantry contain the following quantities of calories: Calories Normal rations in barracks Normal rations on manœuvres or active service . Special rations on manoeuvres or active service. . 2,907 3,045 3,582 In a'ddition to these rations an allowance of 0.40 piastre is paid to troops in barracks, and an allowance of 0.14 piastre to troops on manoeuvres or active service, in order to enable them to purchase additional food and condiments (Bulletin officiel des Colonies, 1923, p. 3589). The Tonkinese workers employed on the plantations should receive rations equal to the normal rations of the infantry on manoeuvres or active service. The labourers employed on the Mimot Plantations actually receive from the Company a 100-kilo sack of rice fortnightly, on pay-day, for every eight persons. Before the desertion of 280 coolies, in February, the 100-kilo sack had to be shared by ten men. Ten kilos of rice for 10 men for a period of 15 days means a daily ration of 666 grammes, representing 2,297 calories. There was thus a deficit of 703 (3,000-2,297) calories. Moreover, as will be seen later, foodstuffs are difficult to obtain at Mimot, and very expensive. The result was that the workers were undernourished, and hence entitled to make a complaint on this point. But the labourer is not an agricultural machine driven by rice. He requires other kinds of food and other articles of necessity. The Mimot Company has not gone into this question, and Mr. d'U..., whom I consulted as to the purchasing power of the wages received by his labourers, told me simply that they received enough to buy the " dirty messes " that they mixed with their rice. The Khcheay camp is situated in the middle of a forest, 12 kilometres from the indigenous police station of Mimot, which is itself 90 kilometres from Kompong Cham. There is no market at Khchaey, or at Mimot. There are three shops near the camp at Khchaey; only one, which is run by the wife of a sub-contractor engaged by the Mimot Syndicate 20 306 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA, to clear forest land, is properly stocked. In the absence of competition these shops charge very high prices, much higher even than those demanded at Mimot which is only 12 kilometres distant. Housing. — They (the labourers' quarters) consist, in the main camp at Khiay, of ten long huts divided into compartments by means of bamboo partitions and roofed with straw or corrugated iron. They are arranged in two parallel rows of five huts each ; there is a large space between each row. Each of the huts is capable of providing accommodation for 100 labourers; and along the walls of each compartment the labourers have arranged small rooms with plaited bamboo partitions. Although the camp is only temporary, there is no doubt that the accommodation which it provides suffers from defects which should be remedied, and which easily could be remedied with a little goodwill. The roofs are not strong enough. Those which are made of straw are too thin, and rain comes through at a number of places. Those which are made of corrugated iron are defective because no proper crest is made. The iron sheets on the two slopes of the roof are not joined at the top, and a space about as wide as a man's hand is left, through which the rain enters. Moreover, the huts having been erected on the ground, the rainwater runs in under the walls and transforms the earthen floor into mud ; this I saw with my own eyes when I visited the camp during a rainy spell on the morning of 26 March. If the floors of the buildings were raised a little and ditches dug outside the walls so that the water could run off, this difficulty would be got over. The environs of the camp are dirty; swarms of flies are found on the plateau and are a great inconvenience to those living there. Although the manager of the Mimot Company asserts that these flies always appear when one cuts down a forest of bamboo, I did not see any as I came along the road through the plantation, where the bamboos had been cut, but found enormous numbers of them on the part of the plateau occupied by the Khiay camp, where large numbers of labourers live under sanitary conditions which leave much to be desired. Drinking-water and Washing Facilities. — The labourers all complained of a shortage of water. The plateau on which the camp is situated overlooks a valley in which, about 60 metres away, there is a spring which supplies the whole camp with water. The slope from the spring up to the camp is steep but not unscalable. I was struck, on my arrival, by the fact that a single tub contained the entire drinking water reserve of each hut. Mr. d'U... explained that he had, at the beginning, distributed 4 tubs for every 30 labourers for the carrying of the water, but that the carriers had sold some of them. The water is brought up to the camp in the morning and after work in the evening, the labourers fetching whatever supplies they need. But their working day is so long, and their return to camp so late, that they are naturally unwilling to make the exertion required to descend the hill and climb up it again. The result is that the labourers do not wash, and are dirty; many of them have scabies and are covered with vermin both on the head and on the body. If their morale were better and if they had more time they would make the effort required to keep themselves clean; but whenever labourers are subjected to hard conditions and discouraged APPENDIX II 307 they fail to take care of themselves and become horribly dirty like these at Mimot. In the marshy districts washing with c'old water immediately produces fever in persons suffering from diseases in the incubation stage; the labourers attribute the fever to the character of the water, and cease to wash. Moreover, the cases of dysentery that I noticed at Mimot suggest that the water of the spring, which is situated just below the camp and is unprotected, may well be polluted by the excrements of the large numbers of labourers for whom holes dug in the slope between camp and spring are the only sanitary facilities provided. Maltreatment and Corporal Punishment. — All the labourers are under the control of the plantation assistant, Mr. V..., a Belgian of 23 years of age. The labourers complain of brutal treatment both by Mr. V..., who is particularly cruel, and by the overseers under him. As I stated at the beginning of this report, I only went into those complaints which were made to me spontaneously and confirmed by clear marks of recent blows. Any other procedure would have led me into interminable enquiries, and the desire of the labourers for revenge would have prompted them to exaggerations which it would have been impossible to check by reference to the actual marks of the blows. The statements made during the enquiry carried out on the Mimot plantations on 27 and 28 March revealed the following facts (cf. enclosed file referring to the enquiry): (1) Punishment of 12 labourers by 20 strokes of the cane: Between 4.30 and 5 a.m. on 21 March, after the morning roll-call, a dozen labourers who had run away from the plantation and been recaptured were each given 20 strokes of the cane by the cals, or the overseers, on the instructions of the manager of the "company, Mr. d'U... Mr. V... told me that he was ordered to inflict this punishment, and that the labourers had been warned that deserters would receive 20 strokes of the cane. This incident was admitted by Mr. d'U... in his statement of 26 March. I learned of it from Mr. V...; the labourers did not mention it during the enquiry. (2) 26 strokes with the lash inflicted on Lê-Van-Tao by Mr. V...: In the evening following the incident just described three other Tonkinese labourers deserted. Only one of them was recaptured—Lê-Van-Tao, No. 649, aged 33, a native of Cu-Thong, huyên Cat Giang (Haiduong), who had taken up work on the plantation in order to be able to send money to his wife and three children in Tonking. He was caught quickly and brought to Mr. V... by a cai and two overseers at about 11 p.m. Mr. V..., who lives in a room in the manager's hut, gave orders that he should be attached to one of the pillars of the verandah, his arms being placed round the pillar and his hands fixed with handcuffs (of which the manager possesses a certain number). Lê-Van-Tao passed the night in this position. The next day, 22 March, Mr. V... took him, still handcuffed, and placed him before the rest of the coolies assembled for the roll-call in the central square of the camp. He then ordered the cai of Lê-Van-Tao's gang, Lê-Van-Taon, to hold him by the feet, and another Annamite, who has not been identified as no one dared to denounce him, to take his hands. According to the statements made by Lê-Van-Tao and many other witnesses (Tien-Khan, No. 645, Van-Thinh, No. 642. and 16 others), Tao was thus held hanging in the air about 20 centimetres from the ground, his trousers having 308 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA been removed (the statement made by the cai Tuan on this latter point does not agree with that of the other witnesses; the sun had not yet risen and the scene took place by the light of an oil lamp). Mr. V... then inflicted on Lê-Van-Tao 26 strokes with the lash, breaking the skin in several places and producing wounds which were still suppurating when I examined the labourer on 27 March (cf. medical evidence attached). Lê-Van-Tao was then sent to work without his wounds being dressed. The cai, Lê-Van-Tao, who affirms that he held the victim's feet, declares that he did so in obedience to his chief, Mr. V... who had beaten him also several times. Mr. V... admits the incident, though declaring that only 20 strokes were administered. The statements of the 18 witnesses, however, agreed with that of Lê-Van-Tao to the effect that the number was actually 26. Mr. V... showed me the lash, which lie said he had himself decided to use on this occasion instead of a cane. I had seen a certain number of these bulls' pizzles in the course of my mission to the New Hebrides, but the others that I had seen, being of stronger material, had all been intact. This one, however, was so worn at the end and frayed that I could not help remarking about it to the young man, who replied in a somewhat impertinent way: " What makes you think that it is new ? Anyway, it need not necessarily have been worn out on labourers' buttocks. " (3) Punishment by strokes of the cane, given by Mr. V... to three women (one of whom was pregnant) and a labourer: On 25 March, towards the end of the day, in a field about two and a half kilometres from the village of Dong, as the drinking water brought by the labourer responsible for ensuring the supply during working hours was finished, some of the labourers left their work to go and have a drink. They were met and stopped in succession by Mr. V..., who was on his way to the field. He brought them back with him, and after a brief enquiry let go those who had obtained permission to leave the workplace and kept three women— Nguyen-thi-Tuong, No. 9, aged 21, the wife of the cai Nguyen-Van, who was at the time studying nursing at the hospital of Kompong Cham, Nguyen-thi-Lien, No. 1021, a widow aged 30, in her sixth month of pregnancy, and Nguyen-thi-Nhon, aged 36, a mother of three children —and an unmarried labourer aged 19 years, Nguyen-van-Ty, No. 312. Mr. V... made them lie down on the ground, and then proceeded to thrash them with a cane as thick as a man's thumb, bound round at the handle end with telegraph wire. He first dealt with the three women— Thi-Tuong, the youngest, then Thi-Lien and Thi-Nhon—giving them 10 strokes each on the buttocks and the upper part of the thigh. Turning next to Nguyen-van-Ty, he signed to him with the end of the cane to take off his trousers, which he did. He then gave him 20 strokes on the buttocks. In explanation of this double punishment given to Nguyenvan-Ty, Mr. V... said that, not wishing to worry his overseer, he had asked Ty to tell him truthfully whether or not he had obtained permission to go and get a drink, warning him at the same time that he would receive a " double ration " if he lied ; and Ty having in effect lied, he had kept his promise. Mr. V... asserts that he gave the women only 3 strokes each, and Ty 10. But medical examination shows that the women received at least 10 strokes each, as they themselves declare; as for Nguyen-van-Ty, although the doctor counted only 10 ecchymoses iy2 centimetres wide on his body, he found the skin split in one place to a width of 2% centimetres over a length of 5 centimetres—a wound which may well represent several blows. As the medical examination 309 APPENDIX II of the women revealed at least 10 strokes, the double ration administered to Ty must have been 20 strokes, as the victim alleged. The water carrier Tao-Van-Chi, No. 261, and the cai Nguyen-Van-But, No. 283, who witnessed the scene, made statements which corroborate those of the victims as regards the number of strokes. Three of the victims, Nguyen-van-Ty, Nguyen-Thi-Nhon, and Nguyen-Thi-Lien, affirm that Mr. V... held the thin end of the cane, so that the blows were delivered with the thick end which was bound with wire. This is confirmed by the water carrier Tao-Van-Chi. Mr. V..., on the other hand, says that he used an ordinary thick cane without a handle or other fittings. He was not able to produce it, however, and alleged that he had lost it. [The rest of the report is missing, all the copies of the succeeding issue of " La Résurrection " having been confiscated immediately on appearance.'] Contract of service of contract workers on the plantations of Southern Indo-China. REGULATION OF LABOUR IN INDO-CHINA CONTRACT OF SERVICE Between . represented by and it has been agreed as follows: Duration of Contract ARTICLE I - Agrees to work for. at for a period of three years. He will perform whatever agricultural or other plantation work may be required of him by the employer or his representative. Wages and Advances ARTICLE 2. The wage of the above-named worker is fixed at per _ .— (Adolescents.) The wage shall be increased To be crossed out if the to . on . person engaged is to on 18 years of age or over and to on In addition to this wage the employee shall receive a free daily ration of 700 grammes of rice (Section 53). ARTICLE 3. The worker shall receive in cash, on the day of the signature of his contract, an advance of piastres, which shall be deducted from subsequent wage payments in such a way 310 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA that the deduction shall never exceed one-quarter of the monthly wage (Sections 44 and 46). ARTICLE 4. The wage shall be paid in Indo-Chinese money, at intervals not longer than one month, each payment being made within 10 days of the expiration of the period for which it is due (Section 40). Conditions of Work Piece-work and day-work ARTICLE 5. The working day shall not exceed 10 hours in all, and shall be broken by a 2-hour rest period (Sections 32 and 33, agricultural workers only). This 10-hour working day shall include the time needed by the worker to go from his quarters to the workplace and back (Section 32, agricultural workers only). Any overtime which may be called for shall be paid at a rate 50 per cent, higher than the ordinary rate (Section 34, agricultural workers only). ARTICLE 6. (To be omitted if piece-work is not envisaged.) The worker may be compelled to work on a piece-rate basis (optional). The piece rates shall be so calculated that the worker shall in no circumstances earn less than he would if paid by the day, and that the volume of work shall not exceed what can ordinarily be performed in the course of a working day. In other words, the substitution of piece-work for work by the day shall be considered only as a means of stimulating the worker to the performance of the work assigned to him for the day. If a dispute arises as to the size of an allotted task, it shall be submitted to the labour inspector for arbitration. If a worker fails to complete the task allotted to him, a wage deduction proportionate to the amount of work left undone may be effected, after due establishment of the facts (Section 36, agricultural workers only). Rest, Unemployment, the Right to Wages ARTICLE 7. The worker undertakes to work every day of the week except one, which shall be a day of rest; rest days may be granted consecutively in a period of 2 weeks (Section 35, agricultural workers only). ' No work shall be done on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd days of the first Annamite month (Têt), the 2nd and 5th days of the fifth month, the 15th day of the seventh month, or the last day of the twelfth month (Têt) ; these days shall be included in the 52 rest days which the employer is bound to grant each year (agricultural workers only). The wages and rice rations stipulated above are not due for the above-mentioned days of rest (agricultural workers only). ARTICLE 8. The employer guarantees the worker at least 25 paid working days monthly (Section 35 in fine, agricultural workers only). ARTICLE 9. In case of unemployment for which the employer is responsible, or which is due to force majeure, the worker retains his right to the wages and rice rations stipulated above (Section 39, agricultural workers only). APPENDIX II ARTICLE rice ration (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) 311 10. A worker shall not be entitled either to wages or to the if he fails to work for any of the following reasons: absence at his own request; refusal to work; absence without justification; desertion; imprisonment (Section 43). ARTICLE 11. In addition to his daily work, the worker shall give 2 hours of his time each week to the cleaning of the camp (Section 35 in fine, agricultural workers only). Accidents, Sickness, Hospital Treatment ARTICLE 12. The worker shall be entitled to free medical treatment, medicine, and full board, during time spent in the infirmary or the hospital (Section 52). He shall retain his right to wages only if his incapacity for work is due to an accident caused by the work under the conditions envisaged in Section 38 in fine of the Order of 25 October 1927 concerning workers' protection in Indo-China (Sections 38 and 43). ARTICLE 13. The members of the worker's family who are on the plantation but not employed under contract shall also be entitled to medical treatment and medicine, but either they or the worker must provide for their maintenance (Section 75, applicable to agricultural workers only), except in cases covered by Section 52 of the above-mentioned Order of 25 October 1927. Housing and Clothing. ARTICLE 14. All workers shall be entitled to free accommodation, both for themselves and for the members of their families who are with them (Section 65). Every worker shall receive, before leaving Tonking, a bjanket, a raincoat, a suit of working clothes, and a native hat (Section 12). ARTICLE 15. Workers employed in clearing the ground shall wear puttees, which shall be supplied free by the employer and replaced by him as often as necessary. If a worker loses his puttees he shall be given a new pair, but the price shall be deducted from his wages (Section 67). Travelling and Repatriation ARTICLE 16. The employer shall provide full board for the worker and the members of his family accompanying him during such time as may be needed for the journey from the place of recruitment to the place of work (Sections 3 and 13). ARTICLE 17. On the expiration of his contract, or if his contract is annulled on account of his physical incapacity, the worker's journey to the place of recruitment, and that of his family, shall be paid for by the employer (Section 86). 312 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Deferred Pay ARTICLE 18. The employer undertakes to observe, from the date of the worker's entry into his service, the Regulation of 25 October 1927 concerning deferred pay. Special Provisions regarding Women and Adolescents ARTICLE 19. Women and adolescents shall not be employed on work exceeding their strength (Section 83). ARTICLE 20. Women employed under contract shall be granted a month's paid leave after confinement. During the last months of their pregnancy and the first two months after confinement, they shall only be put to light work (Section 83). General Provisions. ARTICLE 21. All questions not covered by the above provisions shall be dealt with in accordance with the law and regulations concerning Indo-Chinese labour, and in particular the Order of 25 October 1927 concerning the protection of indigenous and foreign Asiatic workers employed under contract in agricultural, industrial and mining undertakings in Indo-China. Signed, in duplicate, at - on - in the presence of Mr , representing the Resident, who certifies that the present contract has been read to the worker in his own language, and that the worker has declared that the advance mentioned in Article 3 above has already been paid to him and that he is prepared to accept all the conditions laid down in the above articles. Signature, or imprint of Signature and seal of the the right index finger, of administrative authority: the worker: Signature of the employer or his representative : 4. Extracts from a Communication from Mr. Henri Krieg, Plantation Manager, on the Organisation of Work in Colonial Agricultural Undertakings.1 It is a common habit in Indo-China to make the administrative authorities responsible for. everything that goes wrong. Though it may be true that the Administration could enforce a more careful supervision of the identity of the workers recruited for employment in agricultural undertakings, it is absurd to hold it responsible for the difficulties encountered by the employers in connection with their use of indigenous labour. 1 From the Revue du Pacifique, 15 November 1930. APPENDIX II 313 Let me quote here a few lines written by Mr. de Frémonville: " I n France, as in America, the worker is not opposed to organisation the purpose of which is to ensure regularity in his work. The French worker appreciates very fully the order that he sees around him, and co-operates gladly in a piece of organisation of which he clearly sees the object. But he does not like receiving categorical and more or less incoherent orders at every turn in a badly-organised establishment." What is true of the French is true also of the Annamite worker. Whatever one may say to the contrary, the Annamite is intelligent and has an innate sense of justice. He is not an enemy of order and good organisation, whatever a priori grounds there may be for supposing that he is; the worker soon realises that organisation means the just remuneration of his labour. At this point I must open a parenthesis. It is of the greatest importance to bear in mind that the Annamite has a language which is very different from our own, and customs to which he remains attached and which we should respect. The Europeans' ignorance of this language and these customs has caused, and will cause, innumerable obstacles which, though resulting in quite substantial financial losses, are practically impossible to detect and define clearly. Anyone who has lived in Indo-China knows that it is a mistake to trust the indigenous interpreters. Those found on the plantations often have a very insufficient knowledge of French and frequently give translations—either from ignorance or intentionally— which are highly inaccurate. In order to meet these difficulties, some plantation companies pay a special bonus to Europeans having a sufficient knowledge of the vernacular. This, in my view, is a'mistake. Such knowledge should not be voluntary, for it is indispensable. With a little perseverance one can obtain, with six months' study, a vocabulary sufficient to enable one to give orders and explanations to the workers. The advantages of knowing a little of the language easily compensate the trouble of learning it. It is a well-known fact that Europeans who can speak the vernacular have much greater authority over them than those who cannot. The problem of indigenous customs is more difficult to solve. The Europeans on the plantations are sometimes completely indifferent to these customs, or nearly so, and make remarks about them which are likely to wound the feelings of the workers. The customs are in reality worthy of respect, and should be respected. In order to interest Europeans in this question and help them to understand indigenous customs, it would be well to place in their hands such works as " VAnnam d'Autrefois ", by Mr. Pierre Pasquier, now Governor-General of Indo-China. This book is a masterly study of Annamite customs and traditions before the coming of the French. A book of this kind, brought up to date, would help the Europeans who read it to understand the people and thereby to avoid many unfortunate mistakes. It might be issued as a handbook to those placed in charge of workers, and contain a historical and geographical survey of Indo-China with information regarding the different races which inhabit that vast country. It should, above all, be in a practical and attractive form, so as to hold the attention of those—sometimes persons with little education—for whom it is intended. The utility of a handbook of this kind is so obvious that it is surprising that it does not already exist. There is undoubtedly a serious gap to be filled here. I think that if this suggestion were made either to the Government 314 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA of Indo-China or to some learned society, such as the Society of Indo-Chinese Studies at Saigon, it would be taken up at once. I have gone at some length into the subject of the native language and customs because I am convinced that it is a subject to which the managers of the plantation companies do not always attach sufficient importance. Those who know the people understand the gravity of the consequences to which ignorance in this field can lead. Until now, little effort has been made—save in a few exceptional cases—to apply to the plantations the methods of organisation widely applied in present-day industry. This, failure is due to the power either of pre-conceived ideas or of routine. Enslavement to routine, from which it is so difficult to break free, has always been a cause of astonishment to me. Sometimes it is due to the cold reception given by certain Boards of Directors in the home country to proposals for improvements submitted by their managers, or to the insufficient degree of initiative which they allow to their managers. Sometimes, again, it is due to discouragement on the plantation, caused by the frequent changing of orders regarding the work or by the arrival of orders which are incoherent or impossible of execution. Factors of this kind often lead managers to maintain existing methods unchanged—a policy for which they may be excused to some extent. The study of means of increasing the productivity of labour inevitably points to the replacement of work by the day by daily piece work, the job set for the day being clearly determined in advance and its completion capable of being easily checked. This method has the great advantage that it eliminates the idling which is inevitable when the workers, being paid by the day, are sure of a fixed wage and therefore work as little as possible. The piece-work system is not often capable of application on the large plantations because of the difficulty of checking the amount of work done. Its proper application would require the overseers to cover such long distances that it would cease to be worth while. The plantations are so extensive that supervision cannot be really effective unless made as easy as possible. Hence the necessity of fixing the daily task in advance in such a way that the work can go forward by regular stages. This, however, necessarily involves the allocation of a fixed time which is both-a maximum and a minimum for the execution of the work—a most delicate operation in view of the fact that the workers are not all endowed with the same physical strength. The most difficult thing, of course, is to determine the amount of work to be done in the day. This is a task requiring the greatest care on the part of the manager. He must select, having regard to the nature of the work, the most conscientious worker or gang of workers possible, of a strength slightly above the average. After showing him (or them) exactly what has to be done, he should set him (or them) to it for a few hours' training and then measure the amount of work performed in a given time (the time usually taken is half an hour). In calculating the daily job on this basis, account must be taken of the average time required by the worker to go from the camp to the workplace, of the rest periods (which should be fairly long) during working hours, of the fact that in certain seasons the work is rendered specially hard at times as a result of heat or rain, and finally, of the average physical strength of the workers. Some experience of the work and knowledge of the workers is quite APPENDIX II 315 indispensable in establishing the co-efficient to be applied to the time recorded in the above test. This coefficient actually varies between 1.75 and 2.25; if these figures seem very high, it must be remembered that all the factors just mentioned have to be given due weight. When the daily job in a given kind of work has been determined, it must be performed during the first few days by one gang only and under the constant supervision of a European. .The reasons for this measure are, first, that the workers must be given time to train themselves for the work; secondly, that it must be ascertained definitely whether the job set can really be performed without overwork; and thirdly, that time must be given for all the workers on the plantation to learn, by talking among themselves, that it can be so performed. Although this last consideration may seem foolish, experience has shown it to be of some importance. The workers, living as they do in camps, and not so far from each other as town workers, naturally tend to discuss their work among themselves. Those who are called upon, after the initial test described above, to work at the same speed as those upon whom the test has been made will be likely to grumble less (if they grumble at all) if the precaution in question is taken than if it is not. Piece work organised in this way avoids the inconveniences of work by the day. in the first place, the workers know exactly what they have to do in the course of the day, and that they will not be asked to do more than the job set. This is a very important point. In the second place, they know that they can rest during working hours without fear of unjustified censure. Such censure is frequent when work is by the day, and it is often the better workers who suffer the most from it, since the bad workers spend part of their time watching out for the approach of the overseers and make a great show of hard work when they draw near. In view of the fact that the plantations are frequently very extensive, every effort should be made to facilitate the checking of the amount of work done. Great care should be taken in the choice of the tools placed at the workers' disposal. They should be suitable for the work for which they are to be used and easy to repair and fit with new handles. In this field routine is particularly difficult to overcome, in spite of the low price of tools. It is argued that the workers tend to lose the tools and materials entrusted to them, and that they can quite well continue to manage with the tools to which they are accustomed. The studies made by Taylor on the subject of shovelling and the results which he obtained are striking proof of the increase in output which may be secured by the use of tools chosen judiciously as regards their weight, shape and size. In many undertakings a single standard hoe is used for many different kinds of work. Experience shows that it would be profitable to introduce hoes of different types, weights and sizes, as well as hooks and other tools intended specially for various kinds of work. The cost of carefully chosen material is often saved in the course of a few days' work as a result of increased output. Such expenditure, which can nearly always be kept low, may therefore be embarked upon without misgiving. Yet simple measures, whose utility is obvious, are often the most difficult to get adopted. 316 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA EMIGRANT WORKERS IN THE SOUTHERN 5. PACIFIC Contract of Service of Emigrants working under Contract in the Colonies of the Pacific. ARTICLE 1 hires his services to _ — for a period of years counting from the day of his beginning work in the agricultural, mining or industrial undertakings of New Caledonia or the New Hebrides for which he is recruited. He may take employment only in French undertakings. ARTICLE 2. His actual hours of work for his employer shall not exceed 9 in every 24. Hours of work shall not exceed the limits laid down in the Acts and Decrees regulating the organisation of work in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. Hours of work shall be between sunrise and sunset, and the worker shall enjoy two hours' rest about the middle of the day, at the time of the greatest heat. If a worker has to spend more than one hour daily in going to and from his workplace, the time needed in excess of this hour shall be deducted from his hours of work due. The time needed for travelling on foot shall be reckoned at the rate of one hour for every five kilometres. " In industries or undertakings in which the work must be carried on continuously, it may be organised in 8-hour shifts. When workers are asked to work voluntarily for more than 9 hours daily in connection with urgent or exceptional work, such overtime shall be paid at the rate of 0.10 piastre per hour. ARTICLE 3. If a Tonkinese worker is placed under the orders or supervision either of a black employee or of any person who has been sentenced twice by a criminal court or a court of summary jurisdiction for maltreatment of natives or workers, his contract shall be terminated immediately on his request. ARTICLE 4. No work need be performed on Sundays or public holidays (French legal holidays). The 3 first days of the 1st Annamite month, the 2nd day of the 5th Annamite month, and the last day of the 12th Annamite month shall also be considered public holidays for this purpose. These rest days and holidays shall be counted as working days as regards pay, the immigrant receiving wages for them at the usual rate, although no work is performed. On rest days and holidays the worker shall dispose freely of his time and leave at will the premises on which he is employed. The provision concerning written permission contained in Section 96 of the Decree of 24 February 1920, which is only a minor rule, shall in no case be used as a means of restricting the worker's liberty. ARTICLE 5. The worker may be compelled on rest days to perform work connected with the maintenance of order and cleanliness on the premises, the care of animals, and everyday duties. Such work, however, shall not exceed 3 hours and shall not end later than 9 a.m. Any worker who fails (for any reason other than force majeure) to do this work when his turn comes shall have half a day's wages deducted. APPENDIX II 317 In no circumstances shall more t h a n one-fifth of the total number of workers on a plantation be p u t to these duties a t the same time. ARTICLE 6. A worker shall lose his right to wages if he fails t o work on a working day owing to any of t h e following causes: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) leave granted on request; sickness; unjustified refusal to work; absence due to negligence; desertion; imprisonment. No wages shall be due for the time taken b y the worker on the sea voyages from his home country to the place of employment and back. Whenever possible, the employer shall notify the syndic, for verification purposes, of cases of refusal to work. W i t h the exception of'time lost as a result of desertion or imprisonment, the time during which a worker does not work shall be included in the period of his contract and shall not be added to the end of such period so as to postpone his repatriation or t h a t of his family. This does not apply, however, to days of confinement to premises in excess of 30 annually. ARTICLE 7. During absence from work owing to causes (1) and (2) (leave and sickness) enumerated in the preceding article, the employer shall supply the worker with food free of charge. In cases (3) and (4) (unjustified refusal t o work and absence due t o negligence), the employer shall supply the worker with food b u t the price shall be reimbursed by the worker at a rate to be fixed every six months by the local government authorities. In the case of desertion or imprisonment (5 and 6) the- employer need not supply the worker with food. When a worker is absent on leave, his employer shall pay him the value of the food due, calculated at the same rate as in cases (3) and (4). ARTICLE 8. Women shall be employed only on work suited to their sex and their strength. They shall be entitled to one month's holiday with pay after confinement. Wages, Advances, Deferred Pay and Credit ARTICLE 9. The minimum wage of male workers is fixed at 12 piastres per day and t h a t of female workers at 9 piastres. Wages shall be paid on the 1st of the month following t h a t for which they are due, in francs, at the current rate quoted b y the Bank of Indo-China. Wages shall be paid even if no work has been done (except in t h e cases envisaged under Article 6) provided t h a t the worker was prepared to work. On the conclusion of the present contract, the worker shall receive a minimum advance of 10 piastres, a third of which shall be deducted from his monthly wages in each of the first three months of his employment. ARTICLE 10. The employer shall keep a register, in which he shall enter days of presence in the workplace, the sums due to the workers, the days deducted, with the reason for their deduction, the rations distributed, and the date of delivery of articles of clothing. 318 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA This register, in which wage payments shall also be entered, shall be presented to the administrative authorities at their request. Daily wages to be deducted shall be calculated as thirtieths of the monthly wage. ARTICLE 11. A minimum deduction of one-sixth of the monthly wages shall be effected automatically with a view to forming a deferred pay account for each worker. The sums in question shall be paid each month into the deferred pay fund, whose administration shall be governed by an Order of the Governor of New Caledonia or of the French High Commissioner in the New Hebrides. On the expiration of his contract, the worker shall receive the whole of his deferred pay; the payment shall be made either on his arrival at Haiphong or, if he has signed a fresh contract, at the Immigration Office. ARTICLE 12. No debt contracted by a worker in a store situated on the estate of the employer, or run by the employer or one of his employees, may be deducted from the workers' wages in excess of the limits laid down hereafter; all such debts which exceed these limits shall be regarded as cancelled. The total value of the purchases made by a worker on credit in the above-mentioned stores shall not exceed in any month one-third of his wages as stipulated in his contract. If it is found, when the monthly settlement is effected, that a worker's account nevertheless shows a debit balance as a result of regular deductions, credit shall be suspended immediately and until the whole of the debt is paid off. ARTICLE 13. In undertakings in which the above-mentioned stores sell on a credit system, every worker shall be provided with a card showing clearly, with dates, the nature, exact quantity, and price of every article which he buys on credit. The prices charged to workers in the above-mentioned stores, whether sale is effected for cash or on credit, shall not exceed the following maxima: (1) in New Caledonia, the prices quoted on the Noumea price lists, increased, according to the district, by percentages fixed by the Governor of the Colony; (2) in the New Hebrides, the prices charged at Port Vila, increased, according to the district, by percentages fixed by the French Resident Commissioner. These prices shall be posted up outside the stores at the same place as the contract. Food, Accommodation, Clothing, Hospital Treatment and the Care of Children ARTICLE 14. The employer shall in every case supply food free of charge (except in the cases specified in Article 7) and shall also provide free accommodation and medical attendance and distribute drugs to workers from the date of their engagement until the date of their return to the place of recruitment. ARTICLE 15. Families shall in no case be separated. The husband, wife and children shall live together in the same undertaking. Workers shall be grouped in a village in which they shall be kept separate from other races. They shall be free to organise the life of their village as in their own country: on all agricultural holdings the employer shall guarantee to provide each family with a patch of garden close to their dwellings. APPENDIX II 319- ARTICLE 16. The food supply shall be adapted to the tastes and requirements of the worker, adequate in amount, of good quality and issued daily in the following proportions. Grammes - Bread 250 and dry rice 500 Fresh or salt meat without bones, or salt fish . . 200 or fresh fish 400 Fresh vegetables 300 or, failing that, sugar 40 Salt 20 Tea 5 Fat 20 Dried vegetables and • preserved meat shall never be issued except when it is absolutely impossible to provide fresh food. The employer shall give his workers as much fresh food as possible. The Sunday ration shall be issued in advance on Saturday. The employer shall provide the workers with a sufficient quantity of filtered or distilled water for drinking purposes and with sufficient water of good quality for washing. Workers' children under the age of 15 years m a y not be required to work b u t shall be supplied with food free of charge by the employer up to the following amounts: from 12-15 years: three-quarters of the normal ration; from 2-12 years: one-half of the normal ration; from 18 months to 2 years: one tin of milk every third day and 100 grammes of rice and 100 grammes of bread per day; below the age of 18 months, if the mother is not nursing her child, one tin of milk every second day. One litre of fresh milk per child daily may be issued instead of condensed milk for children up to the age of 2 years. ARTICLE 17. The accommodation shall be healthy, comfortable and adequate and the immigrants shall be grouped by families; the workers shall maintain it in a condition of constant cleanliness and shall also be responsible for keeping outbuildings and yards appertaining to the dwelling in good condition, and using them for their proper purposes. The dwelling shall contain sleeping accommodation raised to a height of not less than half a metre above the ground. It shall be prepared in advance for the reception of the worker and his family as soon as they arrive. ARTICLE 18. The worker shall be entitled to at least the following clothing free of charge every year: Men: 1 blanket, 2 shirts, 2 pairs of cotton trousers and a hat. Women: 1 blanket, 2 strips of linen for wearing round the breasts, 2 pairs of trousers of black material, 2 short cotton jackets of the type worn by women in Tonking, and a hat. Every man and woman employed in New Caledonia shall be issued with a garment of wool or some warm material every year. The brims of the hats shall be sufficiently wide to afford protection from the sun. On agricultural holdings men and women workers shall be entitled in addition to two pairs of thick cotton puttees annually. These supplies shall be distributed in kind at the beginning of each period of six months for which they are intended. ARTICLE 19. The employer shall issue free of charge to every man, woman and child on arrival a mosquito net of the type and material used in the Colonial a r m y ; this mosquito net shall be kept in good condition. 320 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Workers employed in the New Hebrides, irrespective of sex and age, shall receive free of charge from their employers preventive doses of quinine on the following scale: 1 0.25 grains of hydrochlorate of quinine daily during the hot season from 15 October to 15 April; the same dose one week out of three during the cool season from 15 April to 15 October. From 8 to 15 years: 0.12 grains of hydrochlorate of quinine under the same conditions as above; from 6 months to 8 years: 0.12 grains every second day throughout the year. ARTICLE 20. On every holding on which more t h a n four families are employed special premises complying with the necessary conditions of hygiene shall be set apart as a nursery for the feeding and care of infants and the supervision of children, while their mothers are at work. This nursery shall be under t h e care of a woman specially appointed for the purpose and shall be organised and paid for by the employer. I t shall be under the special supervision of t h e authorities. On holdings employing fewer t h a n four families a woman engaged on light work in the workers' quarters shall be responsible for attending to young children and supervising them. ARTICLE 21. The employer shall be required to send t o the nearest hospital and ensure treatment at his expense for any recruited immigrant worker suffering from a disease which requires t r e a t m e n t beyond exemption from work, a simple bandage, or drugs, as well as any workers who are certified b y the medical officer in t h e course of his rounds as suffering from a disease which cannot be treated on the spot. If the disease is due to some misconduct on the part of the worker the cost of his hospital treatment shall be deducted from his wages, up to a total of one-third of his remuneration, until the whole is paid off. T h e application of the provisions of this paragraph shall be subject to a certificate being issued by the medical officer, who shall alone have t h e right t o decide what are the causes of a n y given disease. Passage, Repatriation and Death ARTICLE 22. The employer undertakes t o provide t h e worker with a free passage to his place of destination and to repatriate the worker and his family together on the same vessel t o t h e place of recruiting within not more t h a n six months of the date of expiry of the engagement or of termination of the contract. ARTICLE 23. The passage shall be provided on steamers equipped for t h e transport of passengers and providing the necessary guarantees of safety; they shall not transport more t h a n the number of persons indicated in their licences and they shall carry a medical officer attached to the vessel. There shall be sufficient room and cubic air space t o ensure reasonable comfort for the workers during the journey. ARTICLE 24. The employer shall provide the worker with decent burial in the event of d e a t h ; funeral and burial expenses shall be met b y the employer, who shall provide a wooden coffin. The employer shall be responsible for repatriating t h e family of a deceased worker to the place of engagement, if t h e y so desire. 321 APPENDIX II General Provisions ARTICLE 25. A copy of the standard form of contract shall be constantly posted up in a permanent place in the quarters occupied by Tonkinese workers. ARTICLE 26. The French text alone shall be authentic. Any matters not mentioned in the present contract shall be governed by the provisions of the French law and regulations and more especially the Decree of 24 February 1920 concerning emigration to the French Establishments in Oceania, and subsidiarily they shall be governed by local custom. Drawn up in duplicate at —_ on 19 in the presence of Mr _ — - _ , Administrative Officer, who certifies that the present contract was read out to the worker in his own language and that the worker intimated his acceptance thereof without reserve. The worker acknowledges having received an advance of piastres. Signature of Worker: Signature of the Representative — of the Authorities : Signature of the Employer: NON-CONTRACT LABOUR 6. Report of the Labour Inspector in Tonking on the application of the Decree of 19 January 1933 concerning non-contract labour in the spinning mills of Nam-dinh and Haiphong. Distribution of Labour in These Two Undertakings The distribution of labour in the undertakings of the Tonking Cotton Co. is as follows: Undertakings Haiphong : Spinning mill . General services Nam-dinh : Spinning mill. . W e a v i n g mill. . Dye-works . . B l a n k e t factory. General services Total . . Adult Adult males females Boys Girls Boys Girls under (15 years (18 years (14 to 15 (14 to 18 under years) and and years) 14 years 14 years over) over) 234 63 595 5 8 9 600 743 70 76 229 2,015 1,292 380 218 37 188 32 — 28 12 2,312 9 272 229 — Total — 846 68 — 2,298 1,192 70 104 250 4,828 This table shows that girls and boys under the age of 18 years constitute 25 per cent, of the total number of workers employed in the spinning mills of Nam-Dinh and Haiphong, and that women and children represent 50 per cent, of the staffs of these two mills. 21 322 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Employment of women and children. —• Considering merely the employment of women and children in the two spinning mills, it should be noted in the first place that similar industries in France and throughout the world as a whole employ mainly women and children, for the following reasons. The work requires little attention and no physical effort, but it is too delicate for adult men and does not suit their tastes. The work calls for considerable manual dexterity and mechanical skill. It consists first of all in piecing the threads that break on continuous frames either as a result of unduly rapid reeling or through some fault in the material. In addition to this principal task the workers have to supervise the looms, make the necessary adjustments to ensure their proper working and report any more serious accidents that may occur. The women and children have to handle and transport bobbins from one loom to another as the yarn is spun, and also to collect and remove from the workroom the finished hanks of yarn. Other shifts are employed in sorting out waste and keeping the workshop clean. Apprenticeship. — Most of the tasks mentioned above are essentially jobs for small hands, and adult workers would be unable to perform them skilfully; adults therefore cannot take any interest in them or perform them conscientiously. Experiments in Tonking with adult workers have been just as lacking in success as those made elsewhere. One of these operations more than any of the others requires special training, namely the piecing of yarn on continuous frames. In France it is generally held that a piecer must learn his job at an early age. It is apparently easy but in reality difficult, because it requires great dexterity and supple fingers and therefore cannot be properly learned by anyone over the age of 18 years. Faulty piecing is bound to show in the finished material. Nature of the Labour Supply The labour employed in the spinning mills of Nam-dinh and Haiphong is family labour of a homogeneous and stable character. In each centre the workers really constitute a group of craftsmen. Family labour, which is customary in the small industries in Tonking, has been adopted in these mills. The spinners and weavers practically always belong to the same family, and each child as it becomes old enough joins the family in the work and thus adds another wage earner to those already engaged in the maintenance of the home. Labour Output A comparison of the output of the spinners and weavers in Tonking with those in France gives the following results : SPINNING Country France Tonking . . Number of spindles per worker Number of hours of actual work Output per worker (medium English count 20) Output per 1,000 spindles per worker in 8 hours Individual output (basis : France = 100) 500 8 62 k. Of 62 k. 100 250 11 yarn 96 k. of yarn 45 k. 73 323 APPENDIX II WEAVING Country France . . Tonking Number of looms per worker 4 2 Output in yards of Number of 20 picks per hours of one-quarter actual work inch per worker 8 11 109.60 y. 40 y. Output per loom and per worker in 8 hours Individual output (basis : France = 100) 27.4 y. 15 y. 100 55 The considerable difference in output revealed in those two tables clearly shows the very different nature of the work performed in France and that performed in Indo-China. The work in France is steady, and one might almost say standardised; not a moment is lost and every effort is made to use the workers' ability to the full. The indigenous worker, on the other hand, treats his work more or less as a game; he possesses undoubted skill, but he works in a nonchalant manner. Work in the factory reproduces, with as much added discipline as possible, the method of family labour existing in the rural districts, which means that five or six workers are employed where two or three at most should be sufficient. Annamite workers, and especially the craftsmen, who are less robust than the peasants, cannot adapt themselves to work requiring too much diligence or even requiring constant attention to detail; it would discourage them and would perhaps be beyond their moral and physical capacities. Conclusions Section 8 of the Decree of 19 January 1933 concerning the conditions of non-contract indigenous labour and Asiatic labour assimilated to indigenous labour in Indo-China provides that boys under the age of 15 years and girls or women under the age of 18 years may not be employed on any night work in the establishments specified in section 1. Work between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. is deemed to be night work. The immediate enforcement of these provisions would not only certainly imperil the very existence of the two mills mentioned above, which is already precarious, but would also involve a revolution in the working habits of indigenous cotton spinners. In the first place, quite apart from the considerations mentioned below, which are peculiar to the conditions in spinning mills and the temperament of the Tonkinese workers, it would have the disadvantage of producing unemployment. The number of looms is so limited that it would be impossible to employ for the whole day all the non-adult workers at present working by day and by night. Half the staff would have to remain idle during the day, and at night the mill would have to work with an inadequate staff because those who are idle during the day could not legally be employed. In other words, the balance between the composition of the staff—which it must be remembered is a homogeneous family group—and the industrial requirements of the mills would be destroyed, the result being unemployment by day and by night. It would also be impossible, if these provisions were enforced, to give the workers a choice of working hours. Instead of allowing the whole family to work either by day or by night, as they preferred, it would be necessary to call on the father or the mother in turn, or perhaps the two 324 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA together, to work at night, whereas the children could work only during the day. The employer, having to adapt himself to the de facto situation created by the regulations and if possible bring it into harmony with the customs of his special labour supply, would be faced by two alternative courses. He might on the one hand increase the equipment of his mills so as to be able to work during the day only, but in that case he would have no chance of recouping himself for his additional expenditure by an increased output from the undertaking. The other alternative would be to transform and improve the equipment—which is what was prescribed in the Decree—and adapt it to the most modern conditions of industry, thus reducing the number and changing the composition of his staff. In that case, the young workers whom it would be difficult to employ would suffer from the adaptation and many boys and girls would be left idle to roam the streets, where they would be exposed to serious temptations. Moreover, family earnings would be reduced. One apparent paradox should be mentioned here : both in summer and winter the Annamite workers prefer night work to a day shift in spinning mills, and in continuous process industries in general. The reasons in the two seasons are different, but the result is the same. In summer the workrooms, which are well ventilated both for reasons of health and for technical reasons, are cooler at night than by day, and conditions of work are therefore less unpleasant. In winter the amount of ventilation is naturally reduced, and the mill is therefore warmer at night than are the native huts, which are exposed to every wind. Moreover, both in summer and in winter the only supervision for night work consists in periodical rounds by the European staff, generally at more or less the same hours. The workers can thus arrange amongst themselves to take turns at the work, and those who are idle can snatch some sleep between the looms. The consequence is that the same number of workers will produce about 40 per cent, less on night work than on a day shift. That is why, in contrast to the situation in Europe, night work finds favour with indigenous workers and is in reality less strenuous than day work. From the social point of view, therefore, the question of night work in the cotton industry in Tonking should not be considered exclusively from the French point of view. Allowance must be made for habits based on differences of climate and differences of taste and temperament, which lead the Annamite worker to seek a certain comfort in his work as well as a means of livelihood. Any excessively strict and over-hasty measure which might upset his tastes or attempt to change his temperament suddenly would spread confusion among the workers, discourage them and prove a source of discontent which would pave the way for dangerous propaganda. It must not be forgotten that the strikes which occurred in the spinning mills a few years ago—a recurrence of which has to a large extent been prevented by the system of identification of workers—were caused by the fact that certain measures introduced with the best intentions were undesirable because they did not take sufficient account of the very special psychology of the local workers. At a time of crisis when one must consider essentials, it would be a most serious mistake to lose sight of the fact that the spinning mills in Nam-dinh and Haiphong, even in this period of depression, still 325 APPENDIX II provide a livelihood for about 5,000 workers—more t h a n 7,000 before the depression—and t h a t it is of the utmost importance to place no obstacle in the way of their continued activity, for on the average of good and bad years they spend some 540,000 piastres or more in t h e country in the form of wages every year, and the firm which owns the mills pays more than 220,000 piastres in the form of land t a x , licences and miscellaneous taxes. The following sums were spent by the Tonking Cotton Co. on these items in 1932: Piastres Salaries of staff in Indo-China Wages Land tax Licences and miscellaneous taxes (registration, 2 per cent, ad valorem tax, mortmain, etc.) Total 88,825.26 450,754.21 11,951.01 212,840.47 764,370.95 To these must be added the purchase of Indo-Chinese products such as coal, Cambodian cotton and various supplies obtained from local traders, as well as the purchase of the necessary machinery and plant for the industry, which benefits the trade of France. I consider, therefore, t h a t t h e spinning mills of Nam-dinh and Haiphong should be granted the benefit of the exception prescribed in section 56 of the Decree of 19 J a n u a r y 1933, which empowers the Governor-General to issue orders permitting certain industries not to apply the provisions of section 8 of the Decree for a certain period. In the present instance, as the existing state of affairs cannot change or be changed in the near future, the period during which this exemption should be allowed should be not less t h a n five years. Hanoi, 20 November 1933. (Signed) G. GUERRIER, Labour Inspector, Tonking. INDEX A Abuses 19, 50, 57, 102, 149, 150, 151, 152, 154, 262, 263, 300-309. Accidents. See Industrial accidents. Advances (of wages) 63, 66, 71, 71 (note), 136, 309, 317. As incentive to desertion 85. By the caí 153. Retention of 82-83. Agricultural credit 206-215. Faults of the scheme 214-215. Mutual societies 211-212, 280. People's systems 213-214. Agricultural education 203. Agricultural indebtedness 197, 202. Agricultural methods (improving) 203. Agricultural workers 140. Employed with contract 45-103. Employed without contract 105-107. Agriculture 9, 14. Preponderance in Indo-China 186. Alluvial land 225, 228-229. Appendices 287-325. Apprenticeship 134, 135, 258, 322. Arbitration. See Disputes. Asiatic immigration 6, 22, 24, 65(note), 243-250. (See also Chinese.) Association of Rubber Planters 53, 71 (note), 107. B Bangs (Chinese communities) 243-244" Benefactor " 227, 228, 239, 241. Breaches of contract (statistics) 292. C Cais 23, 111, 135, 146, 149-154, 168, 263, 285. Caterers 154. Foremen 152-154. Recruiting 151-152. Sub-contractors 150-151. Cambodian Guilds 182-185. Cessation of work 120-121. Cheap housing. For European workers 255. Chettys 198, 207. 209-210. Children 40, 67, 112, 124, 136, 312, 318, 321-322. Chinese traders 243-247. Influence in Indo-China 248. Chinese workers 4, 6, 65 (note), 112, 243-249, 259. Climate 2, 8, 20. Clothing 35, 66, 74, 311, 318. Collective agreements 128, 129. Communication (means of) 2, 3, 7, 97, 233, 236. Complaint (right of) 39, 79. Concessions 19, 20, 47, 108-109, 196, 224, 227. (See also Settlement.) Conciliation boards 117-119. Conditions of employment. See Work (conditions of). Conditions of work. See Work (conditions of). Contract (of employment) 15,18,135. Breach of 16, 292 (statistics). Between cai and worker 153. Labour 23, 45-103, 134, 262-265. Of European labour 258. Of workers proceeding to the South Pacific 101,316-321. Length of 16, 18, 20, 45, 65, 67, 95, 104, 309. Standard 65-69, 309-312. Termination of 68, 135, 258. Transfer of 68. Co-operation 280-286. Possible forms of 283-285. Co-operative societies. Agricultural 284. Arbitration 285. Better-living 285. Credit 283-284. Labour 285. Medical 284. Savings 284. Corporal punishment 307-309. Corvée 29, 33, 34. Cost of living 145-149, 298-299 (stat• istics). (See also Income.) 328 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Craftsmen 4, 23, 169-185. Artistic 179-185. Protection of 177-179, 277-278, 285286. Rural 170. Specialised 170-179. Credit. To craftsmen 179. To peasants 194, 207, 272. (See also Agricultural credit.) Cultivation. Compulsory 33. Forms of 190-193. Methods of 219. Custom 4, 6, 8, 28, 170, 222, 270, 272, 275, 282, 314. Employment (conditions of). See Work (conditions of). Employment exchanges 52, 53, 54, 257. Engaging 61 (note). Enquiry. Colonial Committee of 128,129,267. Of French Colonial Institute 156, 157. Enquiries by the Labour Inspectorate 163. Opportunity of, into the situation of handicrafts 278. European labour 24, 251-259. Number of 251. Regulation of 257-259. Ethnical groups (statistics of) 289. D Death (of workers) 91-92, 320. Statistics of 292. Deferred pay 20, 49, 52, 63, 66, 75-77, 163, 262, 263, 312. Of deceased workers 91. Of workers proceeding to the South Pacific 99, 317-318. Statistics of 293. Total amount of 77. Delamarre, Mr. 98, 302. Demographic problem 216-220, 236. (See also Population.) Desertions 19, 83-85, 151, 153. Statistics of 292. Dikes 25-26, 43, 201, 262. Disputes 19, 135, 138, 267. Settlement of collective 119-121, 167. Settlement of individual 116-119. Dredging 199-200. F Family 18, 72, 96, 188, 239, 271, 272, 275-276, 318-319. Fines 135, 139, 258, 303, 304. Food 20, 39, 66, 72-74, 302, 303, 305, 318. Forced (or compulsory) labour 22, 25-44, 261-262. For general public purposes 33-44. For indigenous authorities 28, 43. For local public purposes 28-33, 43. For private persons 26-27, 43. Regulation of 37-39, 134. Foreigners (employment of) 255-256. Freedom (of workers) 57, 106. French colonisation in, 14. French Establishments in Southern Pacific 23, 48, 49, 59, 65, 98-103, 293. G E Emigration. Agencies 55, 60. From Tonking to Southern IndoChina 45, 46-65, 97, 232-241. Administrative conditions of 240241. Economic conditions of 239-240. Financial conditions of 240. Psychological conditions of 238239. Social conditions of 239. From Tonking to the Southern Pacific. See French Establishments in Southern Pacific. Of Annamites into Cambodia 234. Of Annamites into Laos 235-236. Employers (mentality of) 17, 48, 51-54, 132-133, 139, 156-157, 234, 264, 265, 266, 270, 313. Gambling. 4, 38, 146, 269. H Health (and hygiene) 32, 39, 121-123, 124-125, 137-138, 258, 262, 263. Holidays with pay 128,129,130,131, 135, 137, 259. Hospitals 86-91, 112. Hours (of work). See Work (hours of). Housing accommodation 35, 39, 64, 66, 74-75, 88, 306, 311, 318. I Identification (of the worker) 56, 61, 66. 15, 50, 329 INDEX Income 14, 146-149. Industrial accidents 23,126, 1 2 9 , 1 3 1 , 132, 138, 259, 311. In mines 113, 121. Regulation of 154-162, 251-254. I n d u s t r i a l workers 108-140. Industries. Mining 108-113. Other 113-114. Inspection. See L a b o u r (inspection). I n s t i t u t e of Agricultural Research 206. I n t e r e s t (rates of) 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 215. International Labour Office or International L a b o u r Conventions in, 25, 36, 44. Irrigation 9, 19, 201-202. J a v a n e s e labour 18, 65, 249-250. J o u r n e y (of recruited workers) 63, 93, 311, 320. Of E u r o p e a n workers 258. Labour (distribution of) 7. Labour dues 29-33, 34, 43, 134. L a b o u r inspection 17, 20, 21, 99, 119, 125, 129, 138, 258, 264, 268-269. Organisation of 162-166, 321-325. Labour legislation. Growth of 14-21. Analysis of i m p o r t a n t t e x t s concerning: Contract labour 65-80. Duties a n d powers of labour supervisors 81-83. Emigration of workers to New Caledonia 101-102. European labour 251-259. Forced labour 37-39. I n d u s t r i a l accidents 154-162, 252-254. J a v a n e s e workers 249-250. N o n - c o n t r a c t labour 124-125, 134-138. Porterage 40-41. Recruiting 59-65. S e t t l e m e n t of industrial disputes 117-120. L a b o u r supervisors 20. 49, 78, 81-82, 82 (note), 138, 164, 165. L a n d tenure 188, 195-199. Legislation. See Labour legislation. M Malaria 85-91, 89 (note), 227, 238, 263, 284, 305. Malnutrition 218, 221, 302, 305. Medical examination 38, 62, 64, 124. Medical t r e a t m e n t or Medical protection 36, 39, 66, 85-91, 99, 122, 3 1 1 , 318-320. Migration (spontaneous movement of) 233, 236-237, 265. (See also Emigration.) Mines 6, 16, 18, 108-113, 296. Minimum age 126, 139, 259. Money-lending. See Usury. Morale (of the workers) 83-85. Morbidity rate 87,90,91. Mortality rate 87, 90, 91-92, 263. Mutual aid 215, 2 7 1 , 280. (See also Co-operation.) Non-contract labour 265-267, 321. 23, 95, 104-140, Offences (punishment of). See Penalties. Overtime 69. P a s t e u r I n s t i t u t e 85-91, 263. P e a s a n t s 23, 186-215. Protection of the 195-215, 278-279. Situation of the 188-195. P e n a l sanctions 80, 104, 167. Penalties 79-83, 125, 138, 165, 258. Piece-work. See W o r k (task). Population 3, 6. Density of 7, 8, 9, 47, 216-220. Distribution of 7. Growth of 219-220. Limitation of 222. Over-population 217-220. Redistribution of 222-223, 279. Relation with recruiting 51, 52 (note). Statistics of 288, 289. Porterage 33, 39-42. P o v e r t y (of the Annamites) 193, 194, 209, 218, 219. P r i m i t i v e peoples 3, 6, 28, 29, 30, 31. Production 9, 14, 199-206, 221-222. 330 LABOUR CONDITIONS IN INDO-CHINA Proletariat. Intermittent character in IndoChina 273. Rise of 16, 21, 187, 193, 233, 273. Psychology (of Annamite people) 4, 157, 187, 238, 271, 281, 313. Public works 33-36,199-202. Q Quarters. See Housing accommodation. Social environment (improving the) 277-286. Social reforms 21, 128-140, 266. Statistics tables 288-299. Stores 73, 129, 136, 305. Strikes 120-121, 133, 148-149, 167, 168, 267. Supervision. Of workers 78-83, 106. Of cais 153. (See also Labour inspection.) Supervisory Office for Workers' Emigration 62. R T Recruiting 15, 17, 45, 233, 237. Abuses in 19, 300-301. Agencies 55, 60. Authorisation of 59. Cais 151-152. Controversies concerning 50-55. Historical survey of 46-65. In the mining industry 111-112. Licences 60. Official help to 56-57. Percentage of 47, 290-292. Regulations concerning 48, 59-65, 152. Repatriation 39, 63, 66, 66 (note), 77, 92-94, 311. Of workers proceeding to the South Pacific 99-100, 320. Statistics of 291. Rest days 35, 66, 69-70, 310, 316. Rest periods 69. Rice 10, 14, 186, 194, 200, 202, 203, 204, 217, 221. Office 205, 206 (note). Rubber 4, 12, 18, 19, 46, 262. Td-dien 192, 192 (note), 204 (note), 225. Task work. See Work (task). Termination (of contract). See Contract (termination of). Trade Unions 166-168, 267-268. Transfer (of contract). See Contract (transfer of). Transport of emigrants 61, 65. Travelling. See Journey. S Safety 113,121,124-125. Settlement 8, 23. European (influence on the evolution of the crafts) 174-179, 180-' 182. Intercolonial 232-241. Internal 216-241, 276-277, 279. Local 223. Annam 229-230. Cochin-China 230-232. Tonking 223-229. Of workers in the areas of employment 94-98, 112-113. Provincial offices (in Annam) 229230. Schemes 225. Tonkinese Committee 237, 276. Village 226-232. U Unemployment 256-257. Usury (campaign against) 206-215. V Vaccinations 62, 63, 85. Vessels (supervision of emigrants') 63. Village 8, 16, 96, 188, 239, 274, 276-277, 282. Industries 171-179. Settlement 226-232. W Wage-paid labour 22, 45-168. Wages 36, 38, 54, 55, 59, 66, 70-71, 118, 129, 131, 135, 141-149, 159, 168, 258, 262, 263, 268, 269-270, 303-304, 309, 310. Components of 141-142. Payment to the individual worker 153, 270. Minimum 136. Rates and variations of 142-144. Scale of 71. Statistics of 294-295, 296-298. Wages and cost of living 145-149. 331 INDEX Wages (continued). Wages of workers proceeding to the South Pacific 100, 317. Water 74, 88, 138, 306. Weekly rest 39, 126, 131,137, 258. For European workers 254-255. Women 18, 40, 67, 71-72, 112, 124, 126,135,137, 258, 271, 312, 321, 322. World economic depression 21, 58, 256. Work. Conditions of 38, 69-72, 123-140, 128, 136-137, 300-309, 310, 316. Forty-hour week 128, 130. Hours of 16, 20, 36, 65, 69, 126, 129, 130, 137, 259, 262, 303. Night 124, 126, 130, 137, 271, 324. Work (continued). Organisation of 312-316. Task 69, 136, 310, 314-315. Work-books 15, 114-116. Workers. Mentality of 17, 168, 267. Number of 21,47,49,57-59,98-100, 105, 108, 110, 113, 186, 273, 294-295. Workmen's compensation. See Industrial accidents. Y Young persons 40, 67. {See also Children.)