Empire Trade and Industry Committee. 53 



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parts of the Empire particularly interested. This scheme is now under the 



consideration of the Eoyal Commission and" this Committee is still engaged, at the 

 request of the Commission, in collecting information bearing on the proposal. 



Through Transportation by Sea and Land. — The Committee has continued to 

 emphasize the necessity of estabhshing a system of through bookings of goods by 

 sea and land from any one part of the Empire to another. The desirability of bringing 

 the producer into the closest touch with the consumer in overseas markets is an obvious 

 advantage to British trade and, on the other hand, of placing the producer in the 

 Dominions and Colonies in the closest business relations with traders in this country. 

 This can only be done by improving transportation facilities and replacing the present 

 cumbrous system of booking by a simple and direct one such as exists in Germany 

 and the United States. 



Uniformity in Empire Statistics. — The Committee has for some time urged 

 the necessity of taking steps to bring about closer uniformity in the methods in use 

 throughout the Empire of collecting, collating, publishing, and printing Imperial 

 statistics so as to give them common values and to make the figures of one part 

 comparable with another. As a result of a resolution, passed at the Imperial Conference 

 in 1907 the Imperial Government made some suggestions to the Dominions with a 

 view to closer uniformity and some of these have been adopted, but, on the whole, little 

 real progress has been made in the matter. The Committee is of opinion that 

 uniformity will be better and quicker realised if a common system were evolved, the 

 main principles of which had been agreed to at a Conference of Statisticians of 

 the Empire rather than by continuing to urge upon the Dominions the adoption of 

 the statistical system used by the Home Government. 



British Trade with India. — Special attention has also been devoted to increasing 

 British export trade to the Indian Empire, and certain recommendations have been 

 made to the Imperial Government with this end in view, and the attention of the 

 Government has been drawn to special efforts that have recently been made by the 

 United States to extend American trade in that market. Amongst other suggestions 

 the Committee has urged the Imperial Government to appoint a Trade Commissioner 

 in India for the purpose of keeping British manufacturers and traders informed 

 from time to time as to the openings of trade, local conditions, and the extent and 

 nature of foreign conditions prevailing. 



British Trade with the Crown Colonies. — Somewhat similar reports have been 

 made to the Imperial Government concerning the trade and resources of the Crown 

 Colonies and Dependencies. The foreign proportion of both the import and export 

 trade with these portions of the Empire has enormously increased of recent years 

 and, in addition to urging the appointment of Trade Commissioners to groups of 

 Colonies, the Committee have pressed the Government to issue periodical reports or 

 handbooks detailing the resources and the openings for British capital and enterprise. 

 Some little success has been met with in this connection, as the Commercial Department 

 of the Board of Trade has recently issued a series of reports by their special trade 

 correspondents in British West Africa, Straits Settlements, British Gixiana, and 

 Bermuda. 



The dominant note of the Royal Colonial Institute's work is concisely described 

 in its motto " United Empire." The Trade and Industry Committee exists to foster, 

 stimulate, and assist British commercial and industrial interests, with special regard 



