66 



given much impetus to home industries, and would have 

 afforded employment to our labourers and helped home 

 trade considerably. With half the sum, for instance, the 

 port of Mar del Plata could have been made useful, could 

 have been fitted out with an elevator system on modern 

 lines equal to any in the world, capable of handling all 

 the crop from the southern zone, and permitting the ac- 

 cess of the huge modern deep draught ocean going steam- 

 ers, which at present cannot enter a solitary Argentine 

 port. 



Finally among other facts which have had a share in 

 making business highly complicated have been the needs 

 of the State as regards revenue. 



EXPORTATION DUTIES. 



In order to raise the resources for conducting the 

 affairs of the State it has been found advisable to recur 

 to exportation duties on all our chief products. 



Needless to say, despite the fact that every effort 

 has been made to make them as little onerous as possible, 

 these have not tended to facilitate either further .profit 

 to the contributors, that is the home producers, or solved 

 any of their previous problems. The nett result to the 

 State coffers has also, neither been as extensive as prog- 

 nostications led the authors of the taxes to suppose, nor 

 as beneficial to the budgets. As regards the estimates of 

 income from cereals, the delays in exporting grain which 

 have been experienced since the enforcement of the law, 

 have largely contributed to defraud expectations. 



In the meanwhile prospects for any favourable 

 change in the near future are not very brilliant. 



As I remarked before, owing to the absence of Ar- 

 gentina from the councils of the European States and 

 from the Food Control, there is not likely to be a great 

 demand for our food stuffs, except as a last resource, 

 filling in shortages of others, which means that the work 

 of moving our crops will proceed slowly, even more 

 slowly thaii in normal times. Already things are mov- 

 ing far too slowly, and any undue optimism is quite out 

 of place. An intelligent anticipation of events would 

 have saved us the embarrassments of the present mo- 

 ment, for it must be evident to everyone that without 

 facilities for storing our crop, without means of rapidly 

 despatching them abroad, in the few boats at our dis- 

 posal, it is not unreasonable to expect great augmentation 

 in the value of cereals here, however favourable the con- 

 ditions of the consuming markets may be. Before we can 

 anticipate higher prices at home we must rid our market 



