CANADA AND THE WEST INDIES. 



Mr. Thomas B. Macaulay, President of the Sun Life Assurance Co. 

 of Canada, the Canadian West Indian League and the Navy League of 

 Canada met representatives of the Chamber of Commerce at the Royal 

 Agricultural and Commercial Society Rooms, April 9th, 1919, and spoke 

 on the subject of closer trade relations between Canada aud this colony. 



Position in Canada. 

 In Canada they had been purchasing chiefly from the United States 

 although they had put up a special tariff giving a special preference to 

 the Mother Country which discriminated against the United States. 

 Because of the nearness of the United States to Canada and its having 

 all that Canada wanted, Canada had been purchasing very largely from 

 the United States and selling chiefly to the Mother Country. The same 

 problem had arisen for Canada as to how she would pay for her excess 

 purchases and it cost her $102 to pay for $100 in New York. 



The West Indian View. 

 The West Indies had been doing the same thing as they had been 

 doing in Canada. He was told that the rate of exchange down here was 

 very close on 103 per cent. The explanation for this was that Canada, 

 the Mother Country and the West Indies had all been purchasing far more 

 from the United States than they had been selling to her. He asked not 

 to be misunderstood for he had the warmest feelings for the people of 

 the United States, and if he could not be a British subject he wanted to 

 be an American citizen. They had to look at this matter from a business 

 standpoint. Canada and this colony had been buying from the United 

 States far more than they had been selling her, and if that was kept up 

 what would the end be ? They had been paying recently by selling 

 Canadian securities, but that was just temporarily and was both post- 

 poning the evil day and making it worse when it finally came. 



A great deal had been done in Canada by svay of appealing to the people 

 to be patriotic and support Canadian and British goods. But a great deal 

 more than that had to be done ; the matter could not be left entirely to the 

 wishes of the people They could make Government arrangements that 

 would do a great deal in the way of driving trade into the right channels. 

 Canada, for example, had been buying her tropical fruit practically entirely 

 from the United States. Perhaps 90 per cent, of their oranges and grape 

 fruit came from Southern California or Florida. All this should be sup- 

 plied by these parts. Canada's rice came largely from the Southern 

 States of America. She had been buying a great many things from the 

 United States which she could buy from her friends in the West Indies, 

 from the members of their own Imperial family instead of from strangers. 

 In like manner the West Indies had been buying a great many things from 

 the United States which Canada would have been able to supply. 



