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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

CO.885/25

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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21. In any future steamship mail contract between the West Indies and the United Kingdom provision should be made for the control of freight rates on all the steamers belonging to, or in any sense controlled by, the company securing the con- tract, and it is also suggested that a resposible board of control, under Government ægis, should be set up for that object. The abolition of the rebate system should also be insisted upon, a system which is unfair to the shipper, and pernicious in effect, by stifling free competition for freight traffic and so maintaining excessive rates.

22. The Governments of the West Indian colonies between them, if no form of closer union then exists, should, if such means is found to be necessary to keep down freight rates generally in the West Indies, maintain two or three freight steamers for West Indian trade. These would constitute a controlling agency over the monopolistic tendencies obtaining in the cargo-carrying trade which in the past have so injured these colonies.

23. The cable rates between these colonies and the United Kingdom and Canada were considerably lowered as a result of the arrangements made with the West India and Panama Cable Company in 1913, following upon the Canadian West Indian Reciprocity Tariff Treaty. The rates, however, are not yet cheap enough for effective commercial and Press purposes. At present they are 28. 6d. a word to the United Kingdom and Canada, and 1s. 3d. a word deferred rate. To the United States of America the charge is 1s. 6d. a word. It is submitted that the rate per word should be at least as low to the United Kingdom and Canada as it is to the United States of America, and that arrangements should be effected to this end when it is possible to do so. Opportunity might simultaneously be taken to lower the present rates as between the West Indian colonies themselves. It might also be suggested that the headquarters of this cable company would be more suitably situated in a British colony instead of St. Thomas.

24. We are also of the opinion that if some satisfactory form of closer union could be devised and accepted by the West Indian colonies for dealing with such of their affairs as are of common interest to them, and for co-ordinating customs, com- pany, shipping, and other legislation of like nature, settlers in greater numbers and capital in larger quantity would be attracted to these islands, owing to the greater confidence instilled in their future and to the abolition of the serious incon- veniences caused by the present multifarious and different forms of laws and regula- tions applying to business matters.

25. This Government ventures also to make one other recommendation which, though falling in a large measure outside the scope of local significance, is, in her circumstances of semi-development, as important to St. Lucia as to many of the numerous Crown Colonies and Protectorates for whose welfare and development Great Britain has made herself responsible. This recommendation in general terms is that (a) a development board, to be named the Colonial Development Board, should be established at the Colonial Office on the lines of the British Development Com- mission, for the consideration of all important problems of development in the Crown Colonies and Protectorates involving the expenditure of loan moneys, or dealing with questions connected with the introduction of immigrant labour or any other matters that the Secretary of State for the Colonies might think fit to refer to it. (b) The board should have at its disposal annually a minimum sum of money to be expended either (1) for assisting Colonial and Protectorate Governments to obtain loans on easy terms and so enable them to promulgate useful schemes of reproductive development which would otherwise have to be shelved or stand over for lack of funds or the immediate capacity to raise them, or (2) for promoting on its own initiative, and for the revenual advantage of the Imperial Treasury, develop- ment schemes of a business character on the lines recently suggested by Mr. Wilson Fox in a series of articles to the London Times.

26. The establishment of such a board would, we believe, tend towards a greater co-ordination of the experience gained in, and results obtained from, important schemes of development in the scattered units of the Empire, and also to a more comprehensive grasp and knowledge of what is necessary, possible, or desirable for the development of our Crown Colonies and Protectorates. This recommendation is, however, not made without some degree of hesitation, for it necessarily implies the tying up of a large amount of capital, which could only be provided from Imperial funds. At the same time it seems probable that such capital outlay, accompanied by a system of British preferential tariffs, would be distinctly to the advantage of the

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United Kingdom, as by the consequent speedier development of the resources of the Crown Colonies and Protectorates there would be provided more numerous and important outlets for British goods and manufactures. Proposals of a similar nature have, we are aware, been made in other quarters, but that constitutes no reason why they should not be repeated and emphasized here as one of the most effec- tive methods of regulating control in, and expediting the development of the resources of, the Crown Colonies and Protectorates of the Empire.

27. For the sake of convenience, the following summary is given of the recom- mendations made by this Government under head (c) :-

(1) For the purpose of increasing the population in St. Lucia there should be inaugurated after the War a system of assisted East Indian immigration under Government control.

(2) The materialization as soon as possible after the War of the proposed land settlement scheme in St. Lucia of better-class European settlers with small capital who have been serving in His Majesty's forces.

(3) Financial arrangements to be considered for the deepening of the harbour of Castries, St. Lucia, to a uniform minimum depth of thirty feet, and for removing certain obstructive coral shoals, also for extending the wharf accommodation.

(4) The establishment in the West Indies of a State-aided and partially State- controlled agricultural bank, for the assistance especially of planters with medium- sized holdings.

(5) In connexion with any future steamship mail contract to and from the United Kingdom, the following arrangements to be made :---

(a) The effective control of freight rates chargeable not only in any mail con- tract steamers, but also in all the steamers owned or controlled by the company securing the mail contract between the West Indies and the United Kingdom. The control to be vested in a responsible Government board to be set up for this purpose.

of the any

(b) The abolition of the rebate system in regard to cargo carried in

ships owned or controlled by the company securing the mail contract. (6) If necessary, the maintenance of two or three freight steamers by the West Indian Governments to cater for West Indian trade.

(7) Arrangements to be made

(a) For fixing cable rates between the West Indies and the United Kingdom and Canada at least at as low rates as those at present payable between the West Indies and the United States of America; and

(b) For the reduction of inter-West Indian colonial cable rates.

(8) The establishment of some satisfactory form of closer union between the West Indian colonies for dealing with affairs of common interest to them.

(9) The institution of a Colonial Development Board at the Colonial Office to aid in the development of the resources of the Crown Colonies and Protectorates.

28.

(d) To what extent and by what means the sources of supply within the

Empire can be prevented from falling under foreign control. Certain suggestions have been made under this head by the Society, with all of which, however, my Government is not able to agree. For instance, we believe that any measure so drastic as legislating for the total prohibition of enemy products from entering British countries would be objectionable and unwise, and that this matter should be controlled by a penal tariff, aided by such natural aversion to purchasing goods of enemy origin as consumers in British countries may be expected to possess for a number of years after the War.

29. For ten or fifteen years after the War we consider that no enemy subject should be naturalized in the British Empire, and in any case that the laws of naturalization should be much more stringent.

30. We concur in the view of the Agricultural and Commercial Society that no enemy subject should be permitted to purchase property or own land in freehold in British countries for ten or fifteen years after the War, but the proposal to prohibit trading in any form whatever with the subjects of a country with whom we are in a military sense at peace does not seem feasible or possible.

31. We are in cordial agreement with the principle that only British-con- trolled companies should operate in British countries, but do not think that any step should be taken that would tend to preserve the development of British resources entirely for British capital, which is likely to prove inadequate for the purpose. So long as the majority of the capital of any company registered, or operating, or

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