10 TEA 



time we left the home docks, until this hour of arrivmg 

 at our foreign destination, we have given no serious 

 thought to the object of our trip. 



But now we are reminded of our quest by a very 

 effectual medium of suggestion. See, yonder is the 

 land of Ceylon, ^^^len, in our infant days, we asked 

 '' \Miat is tea ?" were we not told that " It comes from 

 India, Ceylon, and China " ? Moreover, in our elemen- 

 tary schooldays we learnt that Ceylon is an island to 

 the South of India, noted for tea. As a result of 

 being fed early in life on these easily digestible scraps 

 of knowledge, did we not grow up with the idea that 

 there was a Siamese-twin relationship between Ceylon 

 and tea ? 



Whilst we are nearing Colombo, the poUtical and 

 commercial capital of the island, I want to give 3'ou 

 some idea as to how important is the part that has 

 been played, and is being played, by Ceylon in the 

 tea industry. Ceylon ranks a very good third amongst 

 the tea-producing countries of the world, when she is 

 placed solely by the test of quantity. The superiority 

 of India and China under this test condition is shown 

 by the official records of the annual competition for 

 the world's custom. For instance, in 1909 India 

 exported 234,796,000 pounds of tea, China during 

 practically the same period exported 199,733,000 

 pounds, and Ce^'lon 192,887,000 pounds. 



Valuable light is thro'mi on Ceylon's status as a 

 competitor in the quantity test by the achievements of 

 the other principal tea-producing countries during the 

 same year. Japan took fourth place, but as she only 

 exported 40,579,000 pounds she was, as you can easily 

 see, very far behind the leaders ; Java was fifth with 



