132 How to Pay for the War 



as those who are used to handle such goods in bulk 

 will tell you. Our demands alone, taking the Empire as a 

 whole, are immense and yet, like so many other leading 

 lines, the trade in them went to Germany — and so did the 

 profits, whilst we had almost to beg and pray for field 

 glasses with which to supply our officers, and to cripple 

 important work over here through having to commandeer 

 lenses for Government use. All this, however, I trust, is 

 a thmg of the past. In future, with the help of our 

 overseas workers, added to the assistance that will be 

 forthcoming on this side we shall be able to produce not 

 only all the lenses and optical goods that we need within 

 the Empire but should also be able to produce a large 

 surplus of better grade goods to sell to others against 

 Germany. I say better grade goods, because I take it that, 

 if the glass from Birmingham was not the best procurable, 

 a more suitable quality from elsewhere would have gone to 

 America and not our own. I am making these suggestions 

 in no harping or mean spirit, or out of petty spite against 

 Germany for carrying on her war in such an un-cultured 

 way, but on account of the pressing need that exists to 

 develop such latent industries in our own midst and to 

 cause life to be instilled into them to enable the glass and 

 optical goods trade to take its place among so many other 

 industries, that we have hitherto neglected, to " Help pay 

 for the War." 



And this brings me to India, for our Eastern Empire 

 could do valuable work in the cutting, grinding and polish- 

 ing of optical goods, as it offers a class of work which is 

 very suitable for a large proportion of her millions of 

 patient, plodding, industrious and painstaking people, who 

 will need help to pay their share of the cost of freedom 

 from the yoke of Prussia, just as we shall, if we are wise, 

 do equally useful work in India with regard to the output 

 of sugar. 



The other day His Excellency, Sir Hugh Clifford, the 

 Governor of the Gold Coast, told that Colony through his 

 speech to the members of the Legislative Council that the 

 Gold Coast had advantages over other centres in connec- 

 tion with the production of cocoa, advantages which the 

 native producers (the whole industry is in the hands of the 

 natives) would be wise to note and make use of, and not to 

 spoil or cast on one side through neglecting their estates. 

 It was a good speech, well delivered, so I would ask to be 

 excused if I introduce the following words from it in this 

 article on the production of optical goods and sugar in 



