Canada and the West Indies. 109 



Value of Partnership. 



If they just traded together they should be able to solve those prob- 

 lems to a very large extent. 



By trading together they would help each other and their exchange 

 problems would be in a fair way towards being solved. He took some 

 figures concerning our trade which he hoped to be pardoned for quoting. 

 In 1915 British Guiana exported to the United States $528,000 worth of 

 goods and imported $2,337,000 about $4£ for every $1 we exported. In 

 1917 the exports were $770,000 as against $5,990,000 in imports. In re- 

 spect of the relations with Canada this colony in 1915 exported $5,478,000 

 to the Dominion, but only imported $1,346,000. In 1917 the exports to 

 Canada amounted to $7,528,000 and the imports to $2,237,000. He 

 thought that Canada could fairly claim to have a purely disinterested in- 

 terest in the West Indies and this colony. They were not looking at this 

 matter merely from the standpoint of dollars and cents, but from the 

 standpoint of the Empire to which they were all proud to belong. Look- 

 ing back over the past he saw that when the Motherland on account of 

 her Free Trade policy could do nothing to help these colonies, 

 Canada voluntarily gave them a preference which lasted for 

 fifteen years without a return of any kind whatsoever to the Dominion. 

 He did not want the people of this colony to think of the people of 

 Canada only as a number of money-grabbers whose interest was merely 

 from the financial standpoint. Canada was interested because she and 

 this colony were children of the same family, members of the firm of 

 John Bull and sons, (Applause.) He did not say that Canada would not 

 like to have her share of the trade ; that would help her along a little 

 bit better. On the point of foodstuffs, in flour, grain and smoked fish, 

 this colouy obtained about 70 percent, of her requirements from Canada 

 in 1915. Of biscuits, butter and substitutes a very small proportion was 

 obtained from Canada. Of salt pork and beef £461,000 worth came 

 from the United States and not a dollar from Canada. On this point 

 Canada's hams and bacon were streets ahead of those of the United States 

 the pigs of which are fed on corn and go to fat whereas those of Canada 

 are fed on dairy by-products, peas and shorts, and are preferred in the 

 English market. In respect of cement the Canada Cement Co. which 

 was just coming in was one of the best concerns of the kind. The centre 

 of the paper supply of the world was Canada. Americans were going 

 across and establishing mills and Canada was shipping enormous 

 quantities of pulp wood to the United States, yet in paper 862,000 was 

 imported from the United States and only $8,000 from Canada. 



His idea of Preference. 

 His idea of a preference was an arrangement which would mak 

 both parties perfectly sure of the markets of the other. No sort of 

 arrangement which did not make both British Guiana and Canada 

 perfectly sure of each other's market for the goods it produced would be 

 satisfactory to either countiy. All this was a preamble and brought them 



