endant's tongue. Moreover, the company's laws
permit the punishment of unruly laborers by flogging, with a maximum of
twelve lashes. In view of the remoteness of most of the estates, it is
scarcely necessary for me to point out that this is a form of
punishment open to the gravest abuse.

Although, as I have shown, the British North Borneo Company permits the
existence of a system not far removed from slavery, a far more serious
indictment of the company's administration lies in its systematic
debauchery of its laborers by encouraging them to indulge in opium
smoking and gambling for the purpose of swelling its revenues. Nor does
its heartless exploitation of the laborer end there, for when a coolie
has dissipated all his earnings in the opium dens and gaming houses,
which are run under government concessions, he can usually realize a
little more money for the same purpose by pawning his few poor
belongings at one of the pawnshops controlled by the company. In other
words, from the day a laborer sets foot in Borneo until the day he
departs, he is systematically separated from his earnings, which are
diverted, through the channels provided by the opium dens, the gambling
houses and the pawn shops, into a stream which eventually empties into
the company's coffers. For, mark you, the chartered company did not go
to North Borneo from any altruistic motives. It is animated by no
desire to ameliorate the condition of the natives or to increase the
well-being and happiness of its imported laborers. It is there with one
object in view, and one alone--to pay dividends to its stockholders. As
the chairman of the company said at a recent North Borneo dinner in
London: "They have acted the parts of Empire makers and yet they are
filling their own pockets, for the golden rain is beginning to fall."

Let me show you where this "golden rain" comes from. The two principal
sources of revenue of the British North Borneo Company are opium and
gambling. Suppose that you come with me for a stroll down the Jalan
Tiga in Sandakan and see the gaming houses and the opium dens for
yourself. Jalan Tiga (literally "Number Two Street") is a moderately
broad thoroughfare, perhaps a quarter of a mile in length, which is
solidly lined on both sides with gambling houses, or, as they are
called in Borneo, gambling farms, the term being due to the fact that
the gambling privileges are farmed out by the government. There may be
wickeder streets somewhere