Imperial Expansion 5 



to produce these enormous amounts (in spite of the anger 

 of Mr. Wilson-Fox against those who use the word 

 "exploit" in reference to his suggestions), or else such 

 propositions must be ruled out of court altogether as 

 being impossible to attain within reasonable time to meet 

 our debts. If these are the only results that we can look 

 for, what is the good of asking us to adopt such a policy 

 when on the very face of it the proposition is impossible 

 on account of the lack of labour and the many years, 

 if ever, that it will take to achieve. Having read or 

 listened to four statements given forth I believe with the 

 approval of the entire Committee interested in drawing up 

 schemes for developing the resources of the Empire, I 

 gather from what we have been told that neither Mr. 

 Wilson-Fox nor Mr. Bigland have been speaking for 

 themselves, but on behalf of the Committee which we are 

 told is composed of leading men with world-wide experience 

 in economics. If this is so, why have we been told on 

 more than one occasion that the members of the Committee 

 are not experts, and until we get a satisfactory answer 

 to this query, I think the British Public would be wise to 

 ascertain whether every member of the Committee is or 

 is not an acknowledged expert as regards the affairs of the 

 Empire, and therefore should be and must be either 

 ignored or else held responsible for the results that will 

 arise for good or for evil from every word that they utter, 

 and the proposals that they lay before the British Public 

 for their acceptance. 



At the present stage of the controversy I feel sure that 

 we should have much more confidence in the Committee if 

 it were to issue a joint manifesto and let us know the 

 names of all those who are interested in the scheme so 

 far as the Tropics are concerned, and whether both at the 

 present time and in the future they intend to carry on the 

 work individually or collectively merely out of love for 



