PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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C.O.885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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With regard to the last paragraph of your letter, I am to refer to the letter from the Board of the 13th February, and to state that they have no further suggestions to offer, the question of the nature of the immediate steps to be taken with respect to the Sugar Convention being, in their opinion, a question of policy for the consideration of the Government.
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(No. 141.)
MY LORD,
No. 38.
I am, &c.,
ARTHUR WILSON FOX.
LEEWARD ISLANDS (ANTIGUA).
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received April 19, 1907.)
[Acknowledged April 23, 1907, No. 110.]
WITH reference to the
Governor, No. 164, May 17, 1906. Secretary of State, No. 109, June 13, 1906. Governor, No. 128, March 21, 1907.
Government House, Antigua, March 30, 1907. despatches noted in the margin,† I have the honour to forward a copy of a report on the subject of the continuance of the Brussels Convention, prepared by a Committee of the Agricultural and Commercial Society of Antigua, and adopted by that Society at a special meeting held on the 22nd instant.
2. The three questions which are answered in the enclosed report are those specified by Sir D. Morris in his presidential address at the Jamaica Conference on the 14th January last (see page 7 of printed account of West Indian Agricultural Conference, 1907), and it was at Sir D. Morris's suggestion that I submitted the questions for the consideration of the Agricultural and Commercial Society of Antigua.
3. So far as I have been able to ascertain, the replies given by the Society sum up correctly the effect on the sugar industry in Antigua of the conclusion of the Brussels Convention, the result of the uncertainty as to its continuance, and the danger, in the case of islands like Antigua and St. Kitts, to be apprehended on its denouncement. Although there is good reason for hoping that the cotton industry in Antigua and St. Kitts will be extended, it cannot, owing to the very nature of its cultivation, take the place of the sugar industry, and the sugar industry in both Presidencies only requires a continuance of the fair treatment secured for it by the Brussels Convention to remain, as it now is, the staple industry of the two islands. If the discontinuance of the Brussels Convention should result in the abandonment, either in whole or in part, of the sugar industry in Antigua and St. Kitts, the condition of both islands would be serious, for no other industry has as yet been found which could take its place.
I have, &c.,
BICKHAM SWEET-ESCOTT,
Enclosure in No. 38.
Governor.
TO THE AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL SOCIETY OF ANTIGUA.
Your Standing Committee beg to report to you below a Memorandum drawn up by them in reply to the questions relating to the Brussels Convention submitted by Sir Daniel Morris in his letter to His Excellency the Governor, dated January 21, 1907.
MEMORANDUM.
1. What has been the effect of the Convention in the West Indies? While not denying ourselves a wider outlook, we would lay special stress on matters within our direct observation, in our own colony.
• See No. 16.
† No. 3, one not printed (acknowledgment of No. 3) and No. 32.
"
49.
In our opinion the passing of the Brussels Convention tended to steady sugar values on the basis of "Natural Price.' The abnormally high prices ruling towards the end of 1904 and in the early months of 1905 were due to the severe drought in Europe and to consequent speculation: the rapid rise was followed by a rapid fall. These violent disturbances are the natural result of the principal great area of supply being within the same governing conditions. The abnormally high and low readings in the years 1904 and 1905 are not without several previous parallels. The more sugar production flourishes outside the great area of European beet growing, the greater will be the tendency to eliminate the effect of local conditions and to standardize values on the natural price of the world. This tendency has been visible since the termination of the period of acute disturbance noticed above. In our own Presidency of Antigua, the passing of the Convention was followed by a great revival of confidence and of credit, and the consequent introduction of outside capital.
On the Gunthorpe's and Bendal's central sugar factories and their supplying estates a sum of at least £80,000 has been spent on capital account: of this sum £18,500 was a conditional grant from the Imperial Government. None of this capital would have been forthcoming but for the Convention, and confidence (at least on the part of the private capitalist) in the continuity of Imperial policy. Gunthorpe's factory has been a marked success on equitable terms between suppliers and factory: Bendal's publishes no accounts. Since the date of the Convention much new cane land has come into cultivation-total 1904, 14,759 acres; total 1906, 15,831 acres. Two expensive plants of steam-ploughing tackle have been imported: the class of peasant cane growers has very largely increased: at Bendal's factory alone over three times the amount of cane required by the contract with the Crown Agents to be purchased from peasant growers was bought last year, and about £1,800 paid therefor.
2. What effect has the recent uncertainty of its continuance had? Credit has relapsed. The capitalist who found the money for Gunthorpe's and Bendal's factories were ready to promote and themselves to subscribe largely towards a much-needed central sugar factory in the Sandy Point district of St. Kitts. scheme has now been dropped. Generally expensive improvements elsewhere have been at least postponed.
The
3. What would be the probable effect of its non-continuance? Speaking for our own colony, obviously the loss of credit would continue, and with it the inability to adopt modern methods of sugar manufacture, which, while enormously increasing output and value, demand heavy expenditure, which cannot be locally provided. The independent capitalist is not likely to invest when his security depends on the uncontrolled action of foreign Powers.
It is difficult to predict with confidence whether, if the Convention be denounced, foreign bounties and kartells, or trusts will again spring up. The Continental consumer has learnt, no doubt, the advantages of cheap sugar, and would probably not be inclined to view with favour a great rise in price of that commodity. On the other hand, it is to be remembered that the crushing system of bounties and kartells, which almost killed the sugar industry in the British West Indies, sprang out of a system of drawbacks not originally intended to act as bounties: while the direct influence of the powerful agrarians in Germany and of the "Fabricants
The action of any one generally in the European beet area cannot be overlooked. power, whether within or outside the Convention now may, once that instrument is denounced, force the hand of others and bring back the old evil system. And when this takes place we may confidently predict at an early date the practical extinction of the sugar industry in the British West Indies, unless it is fated for these Colonies to prosper under another flag.
"
We have heard the question asked: "Is not cotton a substitute for sugar? and we must reply unhesitatingly in the negative. Very much land suitable for cane is in our present knowledge quite unsuited for cotton: and taking equal areas cotton is unable to employ the same number of hands as cane. Reliable statistics are not perhaps available, but we think that if we assumed that cotton would employ only 50 to 60 per cent. of the labour employed by sugar, we should be doing cotton no injustice.
These facts, were sugar to go out and cotton to come in, would raise grave problems in such a densely populated area as Barbados, and in a lesser but still serious degree in places within the hurricane zone, such as Antigua and St. Kitts, where sugar is necessarily the chief staple.
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