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LABOUR IN MADRAS 151 We will have to get the Factory Act properly changed so that the hours of work are reduced. These are the important points that I want you to consider during the week and help me with your suggestions, so that we will be able to do something for the poor labourers of India with the help of our Madras Labour Union. At this meeting the following resolution, moved by Mr. T. V. Kalyanasundarum Mudaliar, was duly seconded and supported and carried unanimously amid great enthusiasm : "The Madras Labour Union requests their President, Mr. B. P. Wadia to plead the cause of the Labourers in India before the British Labour Party in England and the British Democracy." On 3rd May a meeting of the Madras Labour Union was held with Mr. Wadia in the chair. He said : MY BROTHERS,-It is a very happy occasion on which we are met to-day and welcome in our midst our great leader Mrs. Annie Besant. As you know, she is going to England to fight the cause of Home Rule for India, and I am sure that the resolution that you are going to pass here to-day will enable her also to fight your battles while she is in Great Britain. The second resolution which your Committee has prepared requires our friend Mr. John Scurr to represent your grievances to the Labour Party in England to which he belongs. The following resolutions were passed unani. mously : "The Members of the Madras Labour Union beg to place on record Mrs. Annie Besant's sympathy with the Labour Movement in India and request her to use