Imperial Expansion 9 



the scheme as a whole as laid before us up to January 31, 

 and making every allowance for the modified statements 

 uttered by Mr. Bigland at the Chamber of Commerce 

 regarding the elimination of profit-grasping, middle-men, 

 either it has been proposed that the tropical industries 

 already started by individual effort are to be absorbed by 

 the State, and worked with the help of the planters as 

 well as of the merchants, through the monopoly or board, 

 or else the State is to start planting and producing the 

 crops on their own account. If neither of these schemes 

 be the ones sought for, the whole proposition as regards 

 the Tropics is unfeasible, and is in fact an attractive fairy 

 tale which may please the mind of the public over here 

 as it seemed to please the labour organizer who spoke in 

 defence of it. Even if the entire proposition is only a fairy 

 tale, no one can deny the fact that the resources of this 

 Empire of ours sadly need developing, and that it the 

 rising generation were properly trained from the start, that 

 is, whilst they are still at school, but more especially when 

 they have left to attend the secondary schools and colleges, 

 they could help us enormously. Again, rhany of the 

 younger ex-soldiers, provided that the Tropics did not 

 afifect their health, should be induced to take an interest in 

 such work as with their assistance our Overseas Possessions 

 can and will give in many cases, so far as Dame Nature 

 goes, five and ten times the present output and thus 

 increase our National and Imperial wealth to a degree that 

 will prove very useful when the time comes to liquidate 

 the War debt. So far, however, I have found nothing in 

 the schemes put forward to show how any increases can be 

 secured in the near future, say within the eight or ten 

 years that Mr. Bigland mentioned in the Chamber of Com- 

 merce, and until we have been satisfied to the contrary 

 we must take it for granted that the vastly increased out- 

 put that we are asked to look for can be obtained only by 



