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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference:-

TITL wmmmm C.O.885/25

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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both, in a British place is British, as well as the Chairman or Managing Director. this should suffice to secure the maintenance of British interests and control of it: operations. Legislation with this object would be necessary, as also constant Government supervision to secure its fulfilment.

32. The Society, in paragraph 6 (7), suggest that the patent rights of enemy subjects should not be recognized in British countries for some period at least after the War. We do not know whether this is meant to be a recommendation that enemy patents should be altogether excluded, or only that they should not be regis- tered by or in the name of a subject of any enemy country. If the former, then it is questionable whether the Empire by the adoption of such a policy would not lose more than it would gain. If the latter, then we are in agreement with it. But, having regard to the scanty information at our disposal, we would in any case prefer to leave this important question in the hands of His Majesty's Government and their expert advisers, and be guided entirely by their decision in the matter.

33. At the same time, we would venture to recommend that legislative steps be taken to enforce some British Empire trade-mark on all goods of British manu- facture, so that consumers may be assured of the British source of origin of their purchases. It would be necessary in this connexion to provide for and settle such questions as to what constitutes British manufacture, but just as that point has been satisfactorily arranged in preferential tariffs already established within the Empire, so it may just as easily be determined in respect to this matter. Similarly, it is suggested that all goods from foreign countries should be marked with some legible words like "Made in Germany," indicating the foreign country from which they came. The tendency, in any event, should be, for a number of years after the War, for the British peoples to buy goods of British, Allied, or neutral origin, and Purchasers would be much assisted in to boycott those of enemy manufacture. this natural inclination if such marks were made compulsory to guide them in their choice.

34. In paragraph 6 (4) the Society recommends penal charges against, and disabilities upon, all enemy shipping. St. Lucia in her position as one of the most important shipping places in the British Empire--the year before the War, 1913, placing her fourteenth in the list of ports in the Empire in respect of tonnage calling As a matter of fact, at Port Castries-is peculiarly interested in this question. out of a number of eight hundred and thirty-five steamers which called at Castries for various reasons in 1913 only ten were of German origin, whilst of seven hundred and forty-one which arrived here in 1914 only eight claimed German nationality. From these figures it would appear not to be of vital importance to the material conditions of this Colony what steps are taken to penalize enemy shipping after the War, and, without access to, or sufficient knowledge of, conditions existing elsewhere in the Empire, my Government hesitates to pronounce any recommenda- tion in this matter, but are content to abide by the decision of His Majesty's Govern- ment and to adopt whatever measures they consider desirable to safeguard British interests. We believe, though, that any disabilities imposed should have for their main object the prevention of British cargo being conveyed in enemy bottoms, and that no policy should be adopted which merely consisted in penalizing enemy shipping by means of excessive charges or by the refusal to supply to enemy ships bunker coal, which would be easily obtainable at neighbouring foreign ports.

35. In conclusion, it is hoped that the recommendations embodied in this despatch may be of some assistance in solving the huge economic problems which The proposals are perhaps sketchy in outline must be grappled with after the War. and lacking in detail, but they will, it is trusted, afford at least some indication of what is considered requisite by this Government to develop the resources of this small outlying portion of the Empire in its relationship to the whole.

His Excellency

Sir G. B. Haddon-Smith. K.C.M.G.,

&c..

&c., Grenada.

&c.

I have, &c.,

GIDEON MURRAY,

Administrator.

P.S. At the date of the approval of this despatch by the Executive Council events are happening that may lead the United States of America to abandon her neutral attitude and to become our Ally in the prosecution of the War against the

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Germans. Should this occur, the United States of America will naturally after the War receive in full any benefits that we extend directly or indirectly to our other Allies. We feel, nevertheless, that nothing has been lost in setting out fully and clearly in this despatch the special trade relationship existing between the United States of America and the British Antilles.-GIDEON MURRAY, Administrator, 5th February, 1917.

Enclosure in No. 20.

Office of the Agricultural and Commercial Society of St. Lucia,

27, St. Louis Street, Castries, YOUR HONOUR,

29th December, 1916 In compliance with the request contained in Your Honour's letter of the 10th November, 1916, that this Society consider and state its views on the recommenda tions of the Paris Economic Conference, I beg to enclose a statement of its views formulated by a special committee appointed for that purpose. This statement was subsequently approved by the general body of this Society at a meeting held on the 19th December, 1916.

I have, &c.,

E. G. BENNETT, Chairman Agricultural and Commercial

Society.

His Honour

The Administrator

of the Government of St. Lucia.

The Agricultural and Commercial Society of St. Lucia, while welcoming the recommendations of the Paris Economic Conference of the Allies and urging the necessity of giving effect to them without delay, desires to submit to His Honour the Administrator the following considerations, in reply to His Honour's request for the Society's considered views upon the questions under the heads (a), (b), (c), (d) contained in enclosure 2 of the Secretary of State's circular despatch of the 25th September, 1916.

(a) What industries are essential to the future safety of the nation; and

what steps should be taken to maintain or establish them?

2. This question is one upon which the Society has felt some difficulty in expressing an opinion. It will assume that such commodities as the Colony exports in the shape of sugar, molasses, rum, cocoa, limes, lime juice, coco-nuts, logwood, and other minor products, represent some among those essential industries by the encouragement of which within the Empire the nation can be made self-supporting and independent of foreign supplies, and which may, therefore, be regarded as necessary for its future safety. The industries productive of the above com- modities are already established more or less satisfactorily among us; but there is much room for their improvement and development in an island like St. Lucia, of which a comparatively small area is under cultivation, but which may be said to offer a promising field for capital and enterprise on a moderate scale. Their development is believed to have been checked by the fiscal policy of the Mother Country, which has permitted foreign products to compete unfairly with British Colonial products in the markets of the United Kingdom, which has unsettled capital and credit in the West Indies, driven our labouring population to emigrate to foreign countries, and provided our enemies with the weapons which they intended for our ruin. In common with the rest of the West Indies, the Society feels that, in order to give capital and labour that measure of security and con- fidence which is necessary for the establishment or expansion of West Indian industries, and to maintain them on a sound basis, some preferential treatment for West Indian products in British markets is imperative. The Society would instance the fact that, while unfair competition by enemy countries in English markets has kept back the development of the sugar industry in the West Indies generally, and practically extinguished it in some of the islands, and while a little protection and encouragement would have enabled them, with British Guiana, to supply all the sugar now needed by the United Kingdom, the sugar industry of Cuba, owing to favourable tariff treatment by the United States, has, in the short space of sixteen years, grown from 500,000 tons to 3,000,000 tons, to the great advantage of the