Lord Atkin.:-

This is an appeal from the Supreme Court of Ceylon, (Poyser and Wijeyewardena JJ.), who affirmed a decree of the District Judge of Colombo in favour of the plaintiffs in an action on a mortgage bond. The defence was that the sum mentioned in the bond was an amount due as the result of wagering transactions on the price of rubber. There has been no dispute at any time in the present action that in accordance with the law of Ceylon as decided in the Supreme Court in (1934) 36 New Law Reports 145, Tarrant v. Marikar such a plea if established would be a valid defence. The only question in the case is one of fact, whether the transactions between the parties were wagering transactions, in other words, were bets. Both Courts decided this issue in favour of the plaintiffs in judgments which fully discuss the facts, and it is only necessary shortly to state the circumstances which gave rise to the action. The defendant is a grower of rubber in Ceylon: the plaintiffs are a long-established firm of share and produce-brokers, members of the Colombo Brokers' Association and of the Colombo Rubber Traders' Association. The defendant alleges that in May 1929, it was arranged between