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operation, and the rush to ruin was arrested. and the 31st December, 1906, only five sugar For these the Convention had come too late. and had to go.

Between the 30th September 1900, estates passed out of cultivation. They were too heavily involved,

5. Let me for a moment point out how the Convention has acted as a stimulus to the sugar industry. The value of machinery imports is regarded locally as a fair index to the condition of the industry. Whereas during the seven years, from 1st April, 1892, to the 31st March, 1899, when the tide of adversity was held back by the promised action of the Imperial Government, the average annual value of the machinery imported was $217,985, that average value had risen during the succeeding seven years to $300,847. Further, the area under cane cultivation which had fallen from 76,100 acres in 1892 to 66,582 acres in 1899, now stands at 72,390 acres. These figures show the rehabilitation which the Convention effected, and the rehabilitation manifested itself also in the improvement in the trade and commerce of the Colony. There has been more money in circulation, and a refer- ence to page 101 of the Colonial Office List shows at a glance the effect upon imports and exports.

6. Now, the state of things is suspended animation.. Owners of estates, fear- ful of what may be in store for them, are curtailing expenditure wherever possible to do so. They will neither extend their cultivation nor make further improvements in their machinery. This very excusable action on their part will, I doubt not, soon make itself felt in trade and commerce. I will mention cases in point, viz., plantations de Kinderen and Vergenoegen. Of these estates, which would have changed hands but for the present uncertainty, one is being kept in cultivation pending events on the condition that no improvements are to be effected, and no loss incurred, and the other is passing out of cultivation.

7. Anything which will have the effect of disturbing the equilibrium of the sugar industry-such as withdrawal from the Brussels Convention-will bring the Colony back to the state of things existing in 1899. The road to ruin will be resumed. There are at the present time 45 sugar estates in the Colony employing 10,510 East Indians and 42,300 unindentured immigrants, and these have 20,190 children dependent on them. There are also some 20,000 persons of African descent supported by wages earned on sugar estates. Of the 45 estates one-fourth (it is undesirable at this stage to specify them or their owners) will not take long to collapse once the shield of the Convention is withdrawn.

8. It may be argued that these estates are being kept going under a vicious system of protection. Is it protection, and if so, is it vicious? The advocates of the Brussels Convention do not regard the Convention as a form of protection. Their argument is that it places the sugar industry in the precise channels of a healthy free trade by getting rid of the cankerous growths of kartels and bounties. I personally consider that argument sound, and I say that apart from that argument, the system now in force is not vicious, for this reason, that the Colonies and the Mother Country cannot safely and equitably be dealt with as if they were on the same plane. In the United Kingdom if some measure is taken which adversely affects a particular industry to such an extent that it becomes patent that it must succumb, there are many other industries and ventures into which the capital embarked in the decadent industry can gradually be placed, and there are many opportunities for the transfer of the labourers. But in the Colonies-in the West Indian Colonies at any rate-that is not so. Alternative industries are not every- where available. There is certainly not a choice of them, and in British Guiana there are only two alternative industries. These are rice and gold mining. While the rice industry is steadily progressing, has not reached the stage when it can at once absorb the labourers who would be thrown out of employment by the clos- ing of sugar estates; nor can the rice industry ever take the place of the sugar industry in the provision of the necessary revenue for administrative purposes. The mining industry (which I may state is not an industry to which the East Indians resort) cannot at present take many additional hands. Further, the owners of sugar estates after getting out on the best terms possible will not re-embark their capital in the Colony. It is not to be expected that they would.

9. Therefore, in such circumstances as I have described, the Government will be brought face to face with a considerably lessened wages fund, with reduced trade, owing to the decrease of the money in circulation, with a large number of labourers thrown out of employment and clamouring for assistance, and, in fact,

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as I said in my speech already referred to, with such widespread distress as it will be difficult to cope with.

10. The Immigration Agent-General expresses his opinion as follows:-

"Bearing in mind that the only markets open to the West Indies at the present time are the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and that the recovery of Cuba and Porto Rico from their present embarrassments and the extension of the beet industry in Canada will tend to limit, if not close, two of these markets, I can come to no other conclusion than that the withdrawal of Great Britain from the Convention will lead to the early abandonment of every estate in the Colony; for even if the foreign Govern- ments do not revive the direct export bounties, the state of the laws in those countries enables the producers to gain an equally direct, although not so open, subsidy by means of the cartel. The English market will then be flooded with the surplus sugar of the Continent at less than cost price, and the British West Indian sugar-producing Colonies must go to the wall." 11. In support of this opinion, and of what I have said, I beg leave to refer to the report of the West India Royal Commission, dated less than 10 years ago, namely, the 25th August, 1897. There has been some advancement since then in British Guiana in industries alternative to the sugar industry, but in the main what the Commissioners said then still holds good. They reported in no uncertain terms as is clear from paragraphs 39 to 42. In paragraph 41, referring to the conse- quences of a failure of the sugar industry they say: "British Guiana would also suffer severely, and the problem to be dealt with in that Colony might prove to be one of exceptional difficulty." In paragraph 202, referring to British Guiana, there occur these words: "There can, therefore, be no question of the vital import- ance to the Colony of maintaining the sugar industry if possible, and of giving every encouragement to the planters in their efforts to do so." I trust, my Lord, that if there should be any intention on the part of the Imperial Government to reconsider its position with respect to the Brussels Convention, these pregnant words of the Royal Commissioners may not be overlooked, and that they may have the due force and effect which they deserve.

13285

No. 34.

BARBADOS.

I have, &c.,

F. M. HODGSON.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Received April 15, 1907.)

[Answered by No. 47.]

(No. 48.)

MY LORD,

Government House, Barbados, April 2, 1907. I HAVE the honour to transmit, for Your Lordship's consideration, the enclosed copy of a letter that I have received from the Barbados Committee of Commerce, in which they ask me to convey to Your Lordship the expression of their hope that the Brussels Convention may be continued.

SIR,

Enclosure in No. 34.

I have, &c.,

G. T. CARTER,

Governor.

Commercial Hall, Barbados, March 18, 1907.

I HAVE the honour to inform Your Excellency that the Committee of Commerce are very desirous to bring to the notice of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, through your medium, their earnest hope that the Brussels Convention may be continued, as they fully recognize the beneficial effects it has exercised over the sugar industry in this Colony in having restored confidence to it, by having secured to the West Indian producer an equality of opportunity with foreigners in British markets, which has been brought about without any material rise in price to the consumer.