158 HoiC to Pay for the IWii 



chaptp:r XXV. 



The Woman in the Case. — Miss Edith A. 

 Browne on "British Trade Prospects in 

 South America after the War." 



Tropical Life, January, 1917. 



It is typical of the times that in the third year during 

 which this stupendous War has been raging, and thereby 

 taking up the time and attention of every man but the 

 most unconscionable slacker, a woman stood up in the 

 rostrum of the Royal Colonial Institute (at the Hotel 

 Cecil) to tell us how we were losing ground in Latin 

 America, ar\d how we can regain it. Told them, too, 

 from first-hand knowledge of the subject, and in a clear, 

 practical way, that will go home to every man and woman 

 who takes a real interest in their country and its welfare, 

 as will be seen when the next issue of United Empire (the 

 organ of the Royal Colonial Institute) appears with a full 

 report of the paper read and the discussion that followed. 



Typical also was it of the Royal Colonial Institute 

 to have given Miss Edith Browne the opportunity of 

 addressing the Fellows, both those who faced her on 

 December ig, as well as those who will read the paper 

 in United Empire, to which we refer our readers, trusting 

 that they will all secure a copy. 



The lecturer's remarks confirmed our opinion as to the 

 need of publishing " The Rubber Industry of the Amazon," 

 viz., to show how suicidal it would be for these two giants, 

 the old and the young, in the rubber world, i.e., Brazil in 

 the West, and Ceylon and Malaya in the East, to grow up 

 with the idea that they must fight a fight to the death 

 until one of the two sinks from exhaustion. When giants 

 fight, the winner suffers as well as the loser, and in this 

 case, whilst it is impossible for the plantation rubber 

 industry to go under, it would be extremely harmful to 

 our interests in the East to see it emerge from the en- 

 counter, victorious maybe, but badly winded and battered 

 in the fray, as it certainly would be in a fight to the finish 

 with Brazil, where, be it remembered, we have far more 

 capital at stake than we have invested in plantation rubber 

 in the East. 



