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LABOUR IN MADRAS


nstead of being utilized by the work-people themselves. A ration system therefore, was introduced, by which each adult could purchase, once a week, 31 measures of rice for a rupee, and half-timers half this quantity. In the same way it has been stated that the price of cloth sold to the work-people was raised. This is also correct, and for the same reason, the management found that the work-people were buying cloth of the kind they do not themselves wear, and that the cloth was being re-sold to the bazaars, and even small shops on the Mount Road. The price was then raised to the current wholesale market price and the quantity limited. The recent fall in the market price has incidentally led to a fall in the price of the cloth supplied to the workpeople. At no time have the work-people received less than 3} measures of rice for the rupee or been charged more than the wholesale market price for the cloth sold to them. Further, in November, in the week before the assaults took place, one day's pay, an English dhoti and four measures of rice to each man (two measures to each boy) were given free in recognition of the Armistice, We now come to the immediate trouble. On Monday, the 25th November, the Weaving Master of the Carnatic Mill was assaulted in the weaving shed, by shuttles being thrown at him from behind. The suspension of a jobber followed, and on Wednesday, the 27th, the weavers at the Carnatic Mill refused to work unless this man was reinstated. On the saire Wednes day morning a: 6 A.M. a premeditated attack from the