A SELF-SUPPORTING EMPIRE 121 



defence, and that if England could grow all the 

 wheat she required it was certainly her paramount 

 duty to grow it. 



But these people who fear that a constructive 

 policy such as I have outlined would work unfairly 

 to our Dominions have shown themselves strangely 

 indifferent to the sources from which our supplies 

 of food have come in the past. 



They have not protested although we have 

 bought millions of pounds' worth of food from 

 foreign countries which might have been purchased 

 within the Empire ! But even if we could — and did — 

 produce another £200,000,000 worth of food within 

 the United Kingdom it could be done without injury 

 to our Dominions if our sources of supply were 

 properly readjusted. 



Of the ;£200,ooo,ooo worth or so of food which we 

 import, £'56,000,000 come from our Dominions. 



We further import : Products of the soil other 

 than food for human beings, £170,000,000. 



Of this £113,000,000 worth come from foreign 

 countries, yet all this vast amount of produce could 

 come from within the Empire itself. Imperial 

 interchange would therefore not only not suffer by 

 our producing the extra £200,000,000 worth of food 

 in the United Kingdom, but it would gain, and the 

 Empire, because self-supporting and sclf-sufticing, 

 would be immeasurably stronger. 



:|c :ic 9|t 4c % 



Again, if we organise the flow of population as 

 it should be organised, if we devote our spare 

 capital to developing our Dominions instead of 

 developing foreign countries, our Dominions will 



