44 HoiV to Pay for flic War 



opinion of the value and ability, of the Civil Service, 

 since they have discussed their removal as well, so that 

 " effective business management would be assured, together 

 with protection from political interference." Old Leopold 

 in the Congo was free from political interference I believe ? 



•\: * :;: * 



I have said enough, I trust, to warn our readers and the 

 British Tropics generally of what is in the air, so we will 

 now get on to pleasanter but not less important matters, 

 and discuss the cacao market whilst there is still enough 

 freedom left to enable us to have something to talk about. 

 Rumours concerning the limitation of the price of raw 

 cacao thicken in the air, but so far they are confined to 

 British growths because, on paper, foreign kinds are not 

 imported. There is, however, such a thing as Prize Cacao, 

 and when one looks through the weekly returns, taking 

 London alone, and you think about the fat piles of foreign 

 cacao that have been offered from time to time, you cannot 

 help wondering whether Cameroons are to remain at the 

 astonishing price they realized the last time they were 

 sold, or whether Arribas will stop at ii2s. and Bahias at 

 g8s., whilst fine Ceylon are put below 85s., West African 

 under 55s., and Trinidad, Grenada, &c., proportionately 

 low. I mention these figures because they are in the ether 

 of the air, and even if they are not registered, when the 

 message comes to be put down on paper there are those 

 who would like to see them agreed to. When one thinks 

 of the height to which raw cotton has reached without 

 being checked (because the bulk comes from America), 

 and when one watches the widening out of the proposal of 

 Mr. Wilson-Fox and his friends, care must be taken lest 

 the proposal to make the British Tropics pay for the War 

 may not fail in its object owing to British capital and 

 enterprise going to anywhere and everywhere outside the 

 Empire in order to carry on their new plantations away 

 from such trade stiflers, and so leave those who cut down 

 prices and grab old-time industries " for the good of the 

 State," as Germany has always done, in possession of the 

 deserted fields. Of course, those who cannot move will 

 have to stay, but the rush to plant and to help feed the 

 Empire after the War can be, and will be, diverted to 

 places outside the Empire to an astonishing degree if those 

 who have the ear of the Government, as well as the 

 Ministers themselves, are not careful. Cacao planters and 

 others, in West Africa and elsewhere, have done well for 

 the Empire in every way ; it remains to be seen how these 



