THE TITANIC DISASTER 15 



prejudice any further measures. And on the point that injury would be done to the 

 nascent industry of beet-cultivation in England both he and the Prime Minister insisted 

 that the return to " economic freedom " would untie the hands of the Government and 

 enable the Treasury to give it financial assistance. 



So far as the production of cane-sugar in India is concerned, it will be remembered 

 that in 1899 countervailing duties on bounty-fed imports were actually imposed by the 

 Indian Government; and, if necessary, the same course would presumably be adopted 

 again. In the West Indies, apart altogether from the improbability of the renewal of 

 the Continental bounty-system, the whole situation had materially altered since the 

 Brussels Convention had come into existence. Though the efforts successfully directed 

 towards establishing the cultivation of other agricultural products cotton, cocoa, fruit, 

 etc.-^-in the West Indies could never do away with the fact that the growing of cane- 

 sugar is their staple industry, yet they had done much to add to the resources of the 

 islands. But, what was of more importance, the market for West Indian sugar had been 

 extended and seemed likely to become more profitable in the United States, and, under 

 the new system of Canadian preference, exports to Canada were being stimulated. The 

 possibility therefore that the British withdrawal from the Convention might injure 

 West Indian prospects in the British home market had no longer the same terrors for 

 West Indian sugar-producers. They had come to look to the American and Canadian 

 market, and West Indian imports to Great Britain had consequently diminished even 

 while the Brussels Convention protected them there, a point which English opponents 

 of the Convention entirely misinterpreted as involving its failure to benefit the West 

 Indies at all. What the Convention did to promote British home interests, so far as the 

 West Indies were concerned, consisted primarily in restoring confidence and a sense of 

 security to the cane-sugar industry, so that British capital again flowed into it, and 

 orders were regularly given, to a considerable amount, for machinery from British 

 manufacturers. The principal danger to be anticipated from Great.Britain's withdraw- 

 al would be the renewal of that want of confidence in the security of the industry which 

 had done so much harm in the years preceding 1902, and a corresponding loss to home 

 traders and manufacturers; but on the whole such a result is now improbable. At the 

 same time, from a British Imperial point of view, it was not a comfortable reflection that 

 the economic prosperity of the British West Indies was being secured by reliance on 

 Canada and the United States, with the mother-country standing aloof and introducing 

 what, on the face of it, was an element of insecurity. 



THE TITANIC DISASTER 



No single event in 1912 could compare, in the intensity of its universal appeal to 

 human emotion, with the awful disaster to the " Titanic." At 2.20 A.M. on April i5th, 

 that great White Star liner, the largest afloat, on her maiden voyage, went to the bottom 

 of the Atlantic in lat. 41 46" N., long. 50 14" W., about i\ hours after striking at full 

 speed on an iceberg, with a loss of 1,513 souls out of 2,224 on board. 1 It had been sup- 

 posed that such a vessel was unsinkable, and the tragedy has raised numerous questions 

 as to methods of ship construction, and additional provision of life-saving equipment, 

 reference to which is made elsewhere in the YEAR-BOOK (under " Ships and Shipbuild- 

 ing "). Whether much good however can be expected in this direction simply from 

 increased provision of boats appears highly doubtful. The " Titanic " had nominally boat 

 accommodation for double the number saved, and the 20 boats launched were meant to 

 hold 1,178 persons instead of the 652 they actually contained when they left the ship; 

 moreover the disaster occurred under exceptional conditions for getting people safely 

 off, in the way of smooth water and fine weather. The most salutary lessons would 

 seem to lie in the following directions: first, improved design and construction so as to 

 provide a really unsinkable ship; secondly, greater precautions in navigation and look- 

 out, for the " Titanic " was going at 18 knots (according to Lord Mersey an " excessive 

 speed "), though it was known that icebergs were exceptionally numerous on the 



1 The exact figures are doubtful, but those given are from Lord Mersey's report. 



