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(8) What policy should be adopted in dealing with attempts by enemy business firms to re-establish

themselves in the Colony after the War?

(b) By what means and to what extent should we endeavour, after the War, to reserve our exports

for the Empire and her Allies!

(c) By what means and to what extent should we keep enemy imports out of our markets after the

War!

(d) By what means and to what extent should we penalise neutral trade in the Colony for the benefit

of the United Kingdom?

(e) By what means and to what extent should we penalise neutral trade in this Colony for the

benefit of our Allies?

(f) The recovery of British and Allied trade lost during the War.

(g) Treatment of Enemy shipping.

3. Before proceeding further it is desirable I think to show briefly the nature and extent of the trade that we can throw into the scale. Generally speaking the income of the Gold Coast is derived from cocoa, which is cultivated in farms of varying sizes scattered all over the country; from timber, palm oil, palm kernels and rubber which are collected or prepared from souces of supply altogether wild and uncultivated; and from kola and copra which are derived partly from wild and partly from cultivated sources. values of these products exported during the last three years were as follows:

The

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6. As an importer this Colony is merely a market, although a very valuable one, for a variety of manu- factured goods, the values of the principal of which imported during the last three years were :--

1913

1914

1915

Cottons (1)

£725,530

£618,283

£750,138

Provisions

239,624

248,787

182,100

Hardware

121,064

120,985

87,946

Machinery

190,557

195,911

172,323

Rice..

111,233

96,578

119,144

Spirits (2)

214,202

215,617

215,775

Building Materials ..

95,795

104,921

84,434

7. The total values, exclusive of specie, of our imports in 1913, 1914 and 1915 were as follows:-

1913

£3,510,402

1914

£3,583,758

1915

£3,471,794

COCOB

1913

£2,489,218

1914

1915

£2,193,749

£3,651,341

Kola

144,705

142,190

139,163

Timber

366,094

240,878

90,661

Palm Kernels

159,128

88,671

50,512

Palm Oil

65,652

37,646

25,769

Rubber

87,915

21,631

25,167

Copra

14,292

11,825

12,821

and the total values, exclusive of specie, of those imports, in the same years, from the principal supplying countries were :—

1913

1914

1915

From United Kingdom

£2,468,604 £2,660,682 £2,734,991

,, Germany

386,670

289,288

France

44,299

32,979

37,285

"}

U.S.A.

Holland

251,742

270,176

349,106

189,165

170,810

199,644

4. Other exports, except gold, are insignificant, and for the purpose of this inquiry we need not consider gold. It is, and probably always will be, exported exclusively to the United Kingdom. Neither is it necessary to consider native food-stuffs which are raised for local consumption-although not in sufficient quantities for local needs. Apart from all these, the Colony at the moment may be said to be without very considerable commercial or industrial resources. Most of the resources named however are capable of development--which development will depend on increased population, better transport and shipping facilities, increased machinery, and more scientific methods of production and treatment.

5. The total values of our exports, exclusive of specie and locally produced gold, during the last three years were:-

1913

£8,387,538

1914

£2,782,134

1915

£4,032,308

and the total values of the same exports during the same years to the principal receiving countries were :--

United Kingdom

Germany

1913

£1,760,527

1914

£1,341,352

1915

£2,587,865

899,468

554,632

France

455,583

528,780

963,634

U.S.A

101,055

93,383

329,466

8. Nothing further is needed, I think, to prove that the Colony offers a market very well worth pre- serving as far as possible for British and Allied manufactures, and a source of supply for raw materials well worth the attention of manufacturing countries.

A. What Policy should be adopted in dealing with attempts by Enemy business firms to re-establish

themselves here after the War?

9. Before the War the local enemy firms were merely wholesale and retail merchants without the power, even if they had the will, to accomplish or even to influence any important economic purpose. They numbered eighteen, with 129 branches of various sizes, and all of them except two or three were in quite a small way of business. In fact only two could be described as old established, and only one as really strong financially. The business methods of all of them were very similar to those of our other merchants. They shipped produce to the British, German and other markets as seemed to them most advantageous, and they stocked British manufactures in their shops when such had any advantage over the corresponding German articles. But while all this can be said in their favour, and even admitting that their presence encouraged trade by increasing competition, it is beyond doubt that their associations with Germany and Austria had the effect of encouraging importations from these countries-importations which but for them would have come for the most part from the United Kingdom. It would be detrimental therefore to British interests to allow them to re-establish themselves here after the war. Their absence during the past two years has not been felt very much, and any slackening of competition that resulted from their expulsion is being removed gradually by the advent of new British and French firms. On the whole we can do very well without them, and to allow them to re-establish themselves again would be of little ad- vantage to the Colony, and would mean a waste of all the time and trouble that have been expended in rooting them out.

() ie. "Yarn and Twist" and "cottons other than yarn and twist'

(*) ia. "Gin and Geneva" "Rum" and "other"

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PLECO885/25

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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