42 Hoiv to Pay for Ihe War 



(2) The distinguished statesman who presided (name not 

 given for some reason) on October 31, 1916, expressed the 

 view that probably the only remedy for the situation was 

 to be found in development by the State for the State of 

 the natural resources of the Empire. 



(3) (P- S37) " in some instances it might be advantageous 

 for the State to take direct and singte-handed action on its 

 own account.'" 



(4) (p. 837) " It must be emphasized that the committee 

 does not command the services of an expert staff." If this 

 is so, why should this committee (which is standing up 

 against century-old experts who have made the British 

 cacao and other industries abroad what they are) be 

 listened to and tolerated as dictators of how the latent 

 resources of the Empire can be best developed to the 

 advantage of us all ? We say this because of what Mr. 

 Fox himself pointed out at the Society of Arts. In face 

 of this, if we are not asked to lean on a reed that has 

 already been broken, and is therefore unequal to the strain, 

 we are at least invited to trust our fortunes and the 

 prosperity of the Empire to one that has a bad "kink" in it, 

 and is not as strong as one would wish. " I have heard it 

 said " (see the report of Mr. Fox's remarks in the Jouyiial of 

 the Society of Ai'ts, December 15, p. 79), " how is it, if State 

 development is practicable, that the British South Africa 

 Company cannot show better results after all these years ? " 

 Evidently Mr. Wilson-Fox has a conscience, and on that 

 occasion it was pricking him, and thus caused him to make 

 this statement, headed by the words, "Physician heal 

 thyself." Evidently there have been internal as well as 



'This sentence taken as a whole said, "and that while, in some 

 instances it might be advantageous for the State to take direct and 

 single-handed action en its own account, in the majority of cases co- 

 operation with persons already engaged in, and having special experience 

 of particular branches of production, industry and trade, might be 

 expected to give the best results." This seems to me to flavour of one 

 set of middlemen, who have acted for years as pioneers of our Imperial 

 enterprise, and have "made good" at the risk of health and wealth, 

 earning and drawing their pay " by results"' obtained by their ability and 

 enterprise, being pushed aside in favour of a body of Government paid 

 officials, similar I suppose to those engaged by a body like the British 

 Cotton Growing Association, whose work is well known to all equatorial 

 .\fricans. If this is the idea, and the public can study the statements in 

 the original if they doubt my views, then I would claim that the State 

 Development of the Tropics, its vegetable oil, cacao and other industries, 

 will be as successful and well thought of by others as the undertakings 

 known as the British Cotton Growing Association and the British South 

 African Company are to-day. 



