July 4, 1918] 



NATURE 



;4o 



liave l)een made by them to help them- 

 selves by the aid of science. But they suffered 

 under one great disadvantage as compared with 

 European producers. Whereas Continental Govern- 

 ments, and especially that of Germany, fostered 

 the industry and afforded it financial support, 

 favouring it in a variety of ways by legislative 

 action, the West Indian planters were left, to a 

 large extent, to shift for themselves. Few Colonial 

 Ministers have had the wisdom and foresight of 

 -Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. In the face of a bounty- 

 fed system, the West Indian planters naturally lost 

 heart, ,and many sugar estates went out of cultiva- 

 tion; other planters, owing to lack of capital and 

 consequent inability to provide themselves with 

 modern machinery, were brought almost to the 

 .verge of ruin. Parliament, under the influence of 

 a hscal policy which had no real appreciation of 

 Imperial needs, turned a deaf ear to their com- 

 plaints. It was cold comfort to be told that they 

 were the victims of economic and industrial pro- 

 gress, and of the changing conditions of social 

 dev'elopment. The masses were so enamoured of 

 the idea of a free breakfast table that they continu- 

 ally returned to power the politicians who misled 

 them with that specious cry. 



In the meantime, Germany was steadily maturing 

 her plans to secure world-wide power. Her manu- 

 facturers were paid a bounty by their Govern- 

 ment to enable them to export sugar at a lower 

 price than the cost of production in the hbpe of 

 finally ruining the Colonial planter. In 1884 

 German beet-sugar was first "dumped " in this 

 country. It was useless to point out the real 

 meaning of this action and what the inevitable 

 consequence would be. As Mr. Heriot says, 

 "Great Britain looked only at the immediate 

 advantage of cheap sugar, and cared nothing about 

 the future. " . 



We have now had a rude awakening. It is true 

 that the Brussels Convention of 1901--2 abolished 

 bounties on beet-sugar by international agreement. 

 But by that time the mischief had been done, and 

 we had become practically dependent on Continen- 

 tal sugar. Germany could well afford to sign the 

 'agreement. She Had largely achieved her purpose. 

 In the year before the outbreak of the war we 

 imported nearly two million tons of sugar, of which 

 less than 4 per cent, was British cane-sugar. 

 Vested interests had meanwhile grown up in this 

 country and had acquired a certain amount of 

 political influence, which a democratic Government 

 was powerless to withstand. W'hat we have suf- 

 fered from this condition of things scarcely needs 

 to 6e stated. We have been compelled to transfer 

 our custom, and still to assist, at a heavy cost to 

 ourselvfes, in the production of sugar elsewhere 

 than within the British Empire. The Colonial 

 industry has, no doubt, slightly increased its pro- 

 duction during the war, in spite of many difficulties, 

 and we have rewarded its efforts bv taxing it on 

 excess profits. 



The whole position in regard to the future of 

 I^riti.sh sugar production needs to be reviewed. The 

 limpire is certainly' capable of inakino- nil, and 

 NO. 2540, VOL. 10 1 1 



more than all, the sugar it requires. Sugar is, and 

 must continue to be, partly a tropical production 

 and partly home-grown. The sugar-cane can only 

 be grown in the tropics and with the aid of coloured 

 labour. In h)!^ the West India Committee ascer- 

 tained tliat ctrlain of our Colonies and Dependen- 

 cies, which now collectively produce about 880,000 

 tons of cane-sugar annually, could produce 

 4,000,000 tons if all the land suitable for the 

 growth of the sugar-cane were cultivated. And 

 this estimate did not include India, Egypt, and the 

 captured German colonies. 



The sugar-beet succeeds best in temperate 

 climates, where whit^ lalx)ur is available. But 

 Canada is, at present, the only portion of the 

 Empire where the beet-sugar industry has been 

 established, although it has been conclusively 

 demonstrated that the sugar-beet will flourish in 

 Great Britain, in Ireland, in South Africa, and in 

 certain districts of Australia. Up to the present no 

 very serious attempt has been made to introduce 

 its cultivation into England. The Cantley scheme 

 was a financial failure, as it depended on local 

 farmers. Another attempt is now being made at Kel- 

 ham, in Nottinghamshire, under other conditions, 

 and the Government has advanced money for th'j 

 purchase of 5600 acres of land, which seems almost 

 insignificant when compared with the 70,000 acres 

 which Napoleon, in 181 1, ordered to be planted. 

 But everything has a beginning and we must 

 "wait and see." 



It is abundantly clear that there is an ample 

 sufficiency of land within the Empire to supply 

 the world with sugar if the industry were properly 

 organised, and reasonable steps taken to ensure 

 the supply of labour and to attract capital. As 

 regards the tropical production of sugar, more 

 might be done to tap the immense reservoir of 

 labour which exists in India. Home-grown sugar 

 can, probably, only be produced at a higher cost, but 

 the community would gain in other ways by the 

 establishment of a large and important industry 

 producing many valuable by-products, and requiring 

 much machinery and agricultural implements. 



To a large extent the problem is a question of 

 tariffs, and its satisfactory solution can be settled 

 only by boldly facing this issue. The country 

 must make up its mind that the era of the cheap 

 sugar of pre-war days is at an end. People who 

 have found it no great hardship to pay ~^\d. 

 per lb. for their sugar can surely be induced to pav 

 at least half that sum, exclusive of duty, if they and 

 their successors are assured of a continuous supply 

 produced within the Empire. 



The British Empire Producers' Organisation, 

 which was founded in 191 5 to encourage the pro- 

 duction of foodstuffs, raw materials, and manu- 

 factured articles within the Empire, and for the 

 welfare of the Empire as a whole, has dealt with 

 this matter of tariffs, and its proposals include 

 the following : — 



(i) That Empire sugar be granted preferential 

 treatment to the extent of 50 per cent, of any tariff 

 that may be in force. This means a reduction of 

 the dut\- In- \d. per Ih. 



