IMPERIAL CONSIDERATIONS 183 



foreign countries ; and in our present linancial crisis 

 it is disastrous. 



For example, and taking one case alone, in 1914 we 

 bought /]^o,ooo,ooo worth of tropical products from 

 countries outside the Empire ; we have vast areas of 

 land within the tropics from which these products could 

 come if a little thought were given to the matter. I am 

 not pleading for a Zollvercin, but rather for the wise and 

 patriotic investment of British capital, and for some 

 organization of the sources of supply. 



\\'hy invest millions in developing foreign countries, 

 when the land of our own Empire stands in such need 

 of development and would repay the outlay a 

 thousandfold ? 



Why provide the capital which enables foreign 

 countries — often countries in which there is much sweated 

 labour — to compete with our own citizens, when that 

 capital could be used in placing our own people upon 

 our own land, thus increasing the production thereof 

 and strengthening the Empire ? 



In spite of the war, there are still people who say that 

 we must have cheap food, and cheap raw material, from 

 whatever source it may come. Agreed, that we must 

 have cheap food ; but, if we make up our mind to do so, 

 we can produce as cheaply within the Empire as in any 

 other part of the globe. Unless, indeed, these people 

 deliberately wish us to be fed by sweated labour, and 

 from countries where the present producer may be pro- 

 ducing cheaply by means of robbery — robbing the soil, 

 and robbing the next generation, because they take all 

 from the soil and put back nothing ! 



If one considers the question of our sources of supply 

 there is only one conclusion that can be arrived at, viz. : 

 the fact that we are not self-supporting as an Empire 



