FOREIGN COCONUT ENTERPRISE 167 



the growing importance of the copra industry, the 

 quantities imported would in future be separately 

 quoted. 



This has been brought about by the success 

 already achieved in the exports of coconut, copra, 

 etc., from various British possessions, particularly 

 from Malabar, Ceylon and Malaya, which has 

 served to emphasise the immense value of the 

 industry, a value that must increase tenfold when 

 the estates are transferred from native to European 

 control. Signs are not wanting that the British 

 investor is also waking up to the importance of 

 this industry. As in the case of rubber, we possess 

 many of the finest coconut-growing territories, and 

 there is no doubt that a vast impetus will be 

 recorded in their development during the next few 

 years. 



This question of German enterprise is not one to 

 be lightly dismissed, for the majority of students 

 of industrial development consider, and not without 

 some reason, that but for the saving grace of our 

 aptitude in the matter of colonisation and the fact 

 that we already possess vast territories in the 

 tropics, we should probably be outstripped in this 

 industry by our Teutonic neighbours. Undoubtedly 

 it is a fact that Germany was persistently and 

 scientifically striving to get to the heart of this 

 particular subject while other nations, including 

 our own, were merely dallying on the fringe of it. 



