Itiipcrial Expansion 7 



the public, supplemented possibly with private capital, as 

 was done in the case of the British Cotton Growing Asso- 

 ciation which, in its time, has eaten up quite a substantial 

 amount of money, though what benefit the Empire has 

 derived from it in comparison with the substantial capital 

 that the Directors have had at their disposal, is very diffi- 

 cul tto estimate. If the British Public gives the members of 

 the Board to be nominated in the hereafter according to the 

 views of the members of the Empire Resources Develop- 

 ment Committee, the capital that they will need it is to be 

 hoped we shall get a much larger return per /"loo invested 

 than has been received by those who subscribed to the 

 funds of the British Cotton Growing Association. If we 

 do not do so the whole aim and object of the E.R.D.C., 

 viz., to help pay for the War, will come to naught, and 

 the public will have to stand the racket and pay for the 

 cost of the War as well. 



This is an important item, especially as it comes on the 

 top of the lack of labour, taking the Tropics as a whole, 

 that already exists, and which will be further diminished if 

 the men needed to carry out the schemes of the Committed 

 on the scale proposed by its honorary secretary are to be 

 forthcoming. In face of this I do not think I am asking 

 too much when I want to know if the members of the Com- 

 mittee, who are mentioned by name in the October issue 

 of the Nineteenth Century Review (p. 836), are really 

 working to benefit the Empire, or whether, if they are 

 not careful, they will not rather be putting money in the 

 pockets of a privileged set whose names will, so I take it, 

 have to be made known to the public later on. 



In any case they should come forward as a group in the 

 same way as Mr. Wilson-Fox has come forward personally, 

 as well as Mr. Bigland, in a lesser degree,^ and state 



' It is only fair to state that Sir Starr Jameson was to have addressed 

 the London Chamber of Commerce, but owing to his death, so greatl 



