Copy.
The Colonial Sugar Refining Company Ltd.
SYDNEY,    15th February, 1939.
Dear Sir Harry Luke,
I have received your letter of 31st of January
and I am pleased to note that you are still hoping to
visit Sydney fairly soon.
I have been looking into dates and engagements
etc.     I shall be out of Sydney from the 25th of this
month till the 20th of March, and on 10th April I will be
obliged to attend the Royal Commission in Brisbane, but
should be back in Sydney on 12*th April.
We have arranged to have the Conference with all
the Fiji Managers on the 21st March, and the most ideal
set of conditions would be, of course, that you should
happen to be in Sydney at the same time.
I note that you are trying to secure the services
of a man with experience of Indian labour as Industrial
Relations Officer, and also that you refer to certain
draft legislation, the consideration of which you say is
not only desirable but essential if we are to avoid the
difficulties that the other Colonies experienced.
On this latter point I fear our opinions are
sharply at variance.
Having lived in a country riddled with and re-
tarded by trade unionism and various forms of Social
legislation, I would say that the introduction of similar
conditions in Fiji will only serve to start £eal and last-
ing trouble there.
Our industrial legislation has done here what
was forecasted thirty years ago by the wiser minds: it
has put employer and employee into two separate litigious
camps.      Theoretically, the trade union business sounds
alright/
alright, but unfortunately the control of the Unions
always drifts into the hands of the quick witted agitating
class who don't like work, while the industrious will not
become interested, but finally find themselves dragooned
into strikes etc.
I should think that in the reach of Indians such
legislation would lead to disaster, and this, of course,
is one of the subjects I will wish to talk to you about
when we meet.
Dr Kunzru is a typical example of the type which
causes no end of trouble and unrest.   He informed me that
if Lord Linlithgow failed to bring back with him a much
greater measure of Home Rule to India, he feared that in
the event of another war Great Britain would not find India
an Ally.
I have no doubt, however, that in the event of war
the Home Government would know the safest course to deal
with people who think and preach such doctrines. And
moreover, I am sure they do not represent the feeling in
India generally any more than the glib tongued orators in
Fiji represent the feeling of the industrious working man
there, but they can make a lot of trouble.
I am much obliged to you for sending me a copy of
your Hansard reporting Chattur Singh's speech to the
Council, and for the very attractive calendar.
We are having a very hot summer in Australia. I
hope you are being spared this.
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
P.E. Goldfinch.
Sir Harry Luke, K.C.M.G.,
Suva, Fiji-