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218 their part to unite themselves; and I think the movement will, on the whole, go along the lines of trade unions here. You state that the law in India does nothing at all with regard to the regulation of wages ?...... That is so. You have however factory inspection ? ...... Yes; but as I say, it is more or less superficial. You give in your first Memorandum that was issued some time ago a comparison here between the wages? ...... That is not the Memorandum I have given to this Committee but to the Trade Union Congress. That is so—I beg your pardon. In that Memoran. dum you give a comparison between the wages paid, which run down to twelve shillings a month in the jute mills and the dividend paid to the shareholders in various companies, with, I imagine, Indian as well as European shareholders ?...... Yes. Does that rather striking constrast (because I see that some of the dividends run up to 120 per cent) influence feeling to any great extent amongst the workers themselves ?... It does ; more and more through the help of the vernacular newspapers these things come to be known among the labourers and the workmen in factories and in mines, causing discontent that while they are labouring the profits go to the employers of labour and the labourers do not get their adequate share. We have heard about the change in India during recent years, I mean the awakening of a political cons ciousness in India. Do you think those economic conditions have had anything to do with that?...I think the economic conditions have mostly to do with that. I believe that the patience of the Indian masses, both