Page:Labour in Madras.djvu/15



There is no one in India who knows so well as does Mr. B. P. Wadia the needs of Indian labour, the legislation that has been passed into law, the legislation that is now required to help and establish labour's rights. He was the first to organise and establish a durable Trades Union. He is the first victim of the present state of Indian law which allows trades union leaders to be sued for loss caused to employers by Trades Unions action, legitimate in other lands. He therefore is well fitted to write this book.

As my friend of many years standing and as an old Trades Union colleague at Labour party Conferences, I am delighted to write this Foreword, and to be witness to the selfless work done for years by a man unjustly maligned both by rivals and by enemies.

There are many who are now helping Indian Labour to its place in the sun, great orators such as Lajpat Rai, great thinkers such as Mahatma Gandhi, but none has so resolutely given all bis strength to the one cause - the organisation and emancipation of Labour.

If everything should be subordinated to Trades Union work, I think Wadia is right in keeping clea