38 How to Pav for fJic War 



absolute nonsense, that to trot it out after so important a 

 paper as that Mr. Wilson-Fox read before the .Royal 

 Colonial Institute this month or Captain Jebb (see Tropical 

 Life, June, 191 7, p. 89) a little time back, is as undignified 

 for a man holding so important a position as Mr. Bigland 

 does, as it is annoying to his audience.^ Also, it removes 

 all confidence in the entire scheme of these alleged non-* 

 experts when their "corner-man" indulges in such jokes. 



(3) It is a great pity also if the E.R.D.C. is to gain and 

 to hold the confidence of the public that it should be so 

 much of a one-man-show as it has been so far. Let us 

 hear what other members, especially Lord Selborne, has to 

 say. Earl Grey, now, alas! no more, would have filled the 

 biggest hall in London had he been advertised to speak on 

 the subject when the Committee was first formed. What 

 a pity he did not do so, even by proxy, just to let us all 

 know to what degree he was in a line with Mr. Wilson-Fox, 



(4) Why should the Committee expect those who know 

 the Tropics intimately, and not as the Trade Union officials 

 or even Mr. Victor Fisher know them, to tolerate the most 

 magnificent scheme in the world, when they know that its 

 foundations do not even rest on sand, but only on water, to 

 be washed up and hoisted on anybody who will accept it ? 

 It is absolutely impossible for Mr. Wilson-Fox to do what 

 he has outlined, or leads one to believe he will achieve, in 

 the near future unless he uses Germany's methods on the 

 native. He assures us that he never hinted at doing so, and 

 I am quite sure he did not. In face of this, however, he 

 will fail to carry his working-class followers, and I do not 

 envy him the consequences. When Tommy comes back 

 from the War, and each goes back to his trade, determined 

 not to pay the increased taxation as well as to fight our 

 battles, the more dazzled he is at the prospects held out to 

 him by the E.R.D.C, the fiercer will be his hatred, and 

 greater his punishment, on the heads of those who misled 

 him. Unless the E.R.D.C. base their estimates to fit in 

 with the depleted labour forces that still remain in 

 equatorial Africa and the South Sea Islands, the wrath 



' When addressing the London Chamber of Commerce on January 30, 

 Mr. Bigland commented on this statement, and then went on to read 

 paragraphs from elsewhere, showing that there was sufificient /atid in 

 British Guiana to produce 2,000,000 tons of sugar. This appealed to me 

 as being very " poor cricket." No one denies that the land is there and 

 waiting. It is the labour that is totally missing, as we say in this para- 

 graph, and as Mr. Bigland must know, since he poses as such an expert 

 (jn sugar production in British Guiana. — H. H. S. 



