2 COCONUTS, KERNELS, AND CACAO. 



tended more and more to replace dairy-butter, which, 

 although far dearer than before the war, is no more 

 nourishing and frequently less palatable. Careful analyses 

 show that the vegetable fats and oils from kernels and 

 copra have a higher nutritive value than most butters, 

 especially those imported. Yet there is still a prejudice 

 against " margarine," which it is desirable to remove. 



More important still, is the necessity for arousing 

 our Government, capitalists, and public alike to the 

 vast and scarcely tapped wealth of our tropical colonies 

 in foodstuffs and other valuable commodities of the 

 Empire. Especially, perhaps, is it desirable to attract 

 attention to West Africa. In its wealth of vegetable 

 oils and fatty substances, West Africa stands out pro- 

 minently as an important region of the earth's surface. 

 Only about 5 per cent, of its wealth in vegetable oils 

 has been tapped, and although this great commerce 

 has been barely a hundred years in existence, it had 

 already contributed trade to the amount of over fifty 

 million pounds per annum to the world's markets before 

 they were disorganised by the war. Yet, as Sir Harry 

 Johnston has pointed out in criticising the constitution 

 of the Commission appointed by the Government to 

 inquire into the oil-yielding plants of West Africa, " not 

 a single trained botanist appeared amongst its members/' 



Even to-day, our Government scarcely realises the 

 value of West Africa, and there is a section which would 

 willingly make over all Togoland and the Cameroons 

 to France, or perhaps hand them back to Germany, and 

 would stand by while the independent republic of Liberia 

 is annexed or exchanged, or would internationalise all 

 Tropical Africa. 



