114 Timehri. 



should do was to give to each man a bonus of a lot of land, and they 

 would find that most of them would settle down and cultivate it. He 

 mentioned these things to let them see that lie was alive to their problems 

 of population, and he thought Canada would do something to help them. 

 He had seen a great number of trained Chinanfen going over to France , 

 and they were some of the huskiest fellows they could hope to get, and 

 if they got them, they would have some cause for congratulation. 



Another thought he wished to bring forward, though with con- 

 siderable hesitation was that he understood that on the Brazilian side of 

 the frontier there were savannah lands. If this was so, British Guiana 

 united with Canada could entertain the idea of having it annexed com- 

 mercially. The only outlet the Brazilians had to the sea was the Amazon, 

 but they knew that river boats were not the best things for the trans- 

 portation of cattle. If they had the railway into the interior they would 

 provide Brazil with an outlet to the sea from that part, and he had a day- 

 dream in his mind that one day a great live-stock centre could be estab- 

 lished to which all the stock of the Guianas could come and the cattle 

 from the Brazilian side of the line ultimately go — something like what the 

 American packing houses had established down in the Argentine. 



If British Guiana was associated with Canada so that for commercial 

 and customs purposes they were one country, Canadian goods would 

 come right down to Georgetown at the same cost as in Canada, with 

 nothing added but the cost of transportation, and naturally the colony 

 would become the purchasing place of all the other places in that portion 

 of Brazil, because if they had a railway there, the Brazilians would 

 unquestionably buy from British Guiana. 



Another point was that he would like to see a preferential treaty 

 entered into between British Guiana and Brazil. He could imagine that 

 if British Guiana went to Brazil and asked for such a thing, Brazil would 

 say that they saw no use for it, that there was nothing to be gained as 

 the products of the two places were the same, but if Canada was with 

 British Guiana, the position would be different as the parties on the 

 one hand would have the products both of Canada and British Guiana. 

 That also would give them an excellent chance of clinching the nails of 

 annexation. He had a vision of tremendous possibilities for British 

 Guiana and Canada working with her, and for the Empire through them. 

 If they had a prosperous population growing it would be something the 

 British Empire would be proud of, and it would be a great addition to the 

 strength and power of the British Government. 



The Fly in the Ointment. 

 He was bound to tell them however that there was 

 a fly in the ointment, but it was for them to see whether, 

 the drawback was so serious that they could not agree to it. The 

 moment they abolished the tariff between Canada and British Guiana, 

 that moment the question of revenue began to come up. With the 50 



