56 Hoii' to Pay for the ]Var 



packed audience, which included the then Governor (the 

 late Sir Hubert Jerningham), described the future possibili- 

 ties of trade between the United Kingdom with Latin- 

 America and our West Indian possessions, which would 

 make Trinidad the Hong Kong of the West, to receive and 

 pass on this trade of the real El Dorado, which so many 

 had dreamed of and risked their lives for, and where 

 wealth untold still lies unknown and unappreciated, await- 

 ing its day of discovery. Trinidad, owing to its proximity 

 to the Orinoco, and the important trade centres along us 

 course, will always be very popular and nuich sought after 

 as a transhipping depot, especially now it has such con- 

 venient harbour accommodation and a dry dock, to say 

 nothing of possessing the best hospital, we believe, for a 

 vast area around, both island and mainland. Barbados, 

 already connected by steamers with Manaos, will, with 

 tact and wideawake management, secure her share, and 

 having the bigger river and the most important traffic 

 to draw upon, she may yet secure as valuable a connection 

 as Trinidad, although further away from her quarry. 

 With the Canal open and trade rapidly increasing between 

 Latin America, Australia, Japan, and the East, no one 

 can yet estimate what can be done with the other islands 

 if capable heads and willing hands go thence. East and 

 West, to say nothing of the island entrepots in between, 

 to develop, encourage, and guide the trade-to-be, and see 

 that it goes to their own folks. Such work will benefit 

 both themselves and the Empire as a whole. To do this, 

 however, the Empire must help them a little at the start, 

 and up to now no one can pretend that the Old Country 

 has done much in that way, nor does it show many signs 

 of even recognizing that it should. So fierce has been the 

 game of grab at home (we are talking, of course, before 

 the War, or outside war politics) that no party seems able 

 to find time to attend to the Tropics which none of them 

 can do without for a month, or if they could spare the 

 time and money, they want so much for their own fads 

 and fancies that there is, apparently, nothmg left (even 

 with a /2oo,ooo,ooo Budget in peace times) to help trade- 

 builders" overseas, or who want to go there, although they 

 are often better men and more deserving of help than those 

 who get the money at home. Let us hope that when the 

 War is over a grateful nation will realize that this Empire 

 of ours will have a little annual bill, running around some 

 thousands of millions, to pay for interest and principal as 

 the cost of this War. Knowing how necessary it will be 



