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LABOUR IN MADRAS
115


115 & Co., accepted arbitration. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, it is very well to cheer, but what am I and my colleagues going to do? This is the 19th day of the Lock-out. Thousands of labourers are starving. By careful computation, I find that 45,000 or 50,000 people, men, women and children, are all starving at Perambore and round about. The struggle has been heroic and I am proud of my men who have, without a murmur, without showing a sign of impatience, behaved like spcrtsmen and gentlemen. (Cheers.) Several friends have asked me during the last two or three days how many rupees I have so far spent in feeding these poor. So far the labourers have not come for a single pie. (Cheers.) Out of their own earnings, living economically, giving up liquor, etc., they are carrying a struggle of which as an Indian I am very greatly proud. (Hear, hear and applause.) The spirit which they have shown is admirable; but however economically you may live, your purse is going to be exhausted and these illiterate, uneducated people have with careful computation arrived at a date and they will pull on so long. I asked them what after that they have to say supposing friends do not come in and the Indian public do not make an adequate response. They said “We will go back to our villages; we will die; but in the struggle we will not give way where the principle of righteousness is involved. (Cheers.) They have said their say and I want you friends to have your say." Cheering will not do. I have gone there day after day, sometimes early in the morning and I know that starvation is already upon them. We want your help. Reference was made by the previous speakers to