May I, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURtSt. 
CEYLON AND INDIAN TEA IN AMERICA. 
THE CAMPAIGN TO OUST "CHINA'S" 
AND "JAPAN'S." 
HOW THE CASE STANDS NOW ? 
Travelling ap and down country and during 
an absence of nearly a fortnight from Colombo, 
we have heard a great deal about the pro- 
posed " Tea Campaign in America, ' and we 
had the advantage of being present with 
two gentlemen who know a good deal about 
business in America, Mr. P. R. Buchanan and 
Mr. J. G. Wardrop, Manager of the Colombo 
Commercial Co., Ld., and a prominent member 
of the Chamber of Commerce, when the whole 
subject was very fully threshed out. We 
have also had the advantage of listening to 
the opinions of a considerable number of 
planters, though, in view of the approaching 
meeting and the uncertainty attending the 
result, it will be best to mention no names 
nor indeed to particularize as to the views 
expressed. 
We should, indeed, be very much astonished 
if a "do-nothing" policy were adopted by 
the Planters' Association. We cannot, for a 
moment, believe that a vote can be carried 
to put a stop at this time to the "Tea 
Customs' Cess" as well as to the voluntary 
"Tea Fund." Maintain the former and 
wind up the latter is, so far as we know, 
the prevailing opinion and we trust Saturday's 
meeting will yield a corresponding result. 
Last mail brought to Ceylon an Estimate 
from a well-informed quarter, showing that 
245 million lb. of Indian, Ceylon, China and 
Java teas are expected to be imported into 
the United Kingdom during the current 
year ; and the question is very properly 
asked, how is this to be taken off '? Without 
help from outside countries — and especially 
America — the result would certainly be very 
serious for Ceylon and Indian planters and 
increasingly so year by year to follow. 
There is another point : we are all aware 
that, however much we may preach the 
danger of " over-production," a large number 
of proprietors both here and in India, are 
stU adding clearings, large or small as the 
case may be, to their tea plantations. Now, 
in the face of the statistical facts of Tea 
Production and Consumption, this policy of 
the gradual extension of cultivation would 
be quite unjustiiiable, unless the proprietors 
are prepared to support the campaign to 
get our teas introduced into new countries, 
it is only by both Ceylon and India entering 
heartily (whether unitedly or separately) on 
this American Tea Campaign to drive out 
" China's and Japan's" that their increasing 
cultivation and crops can at all be justiiied, 
and we can conceive of no clearer or more 
imperative duty before producers at this 
time than to do all in their power to cap- 
ture America for Ceylon and Indian teas. 
In this light we are glad to understand 
that the Chamber of Commerce is by no 
means to be taken as opposing an American 
Campaign through the agency of the Tea 
proposal can be formulated. This is Mr. 
Wardrop's opinion and notwithstanding the 
utterances of the Chairman, he is borne out 
by the motion actually carried in favour 
of a joint Committee of the Association and 
Chamber to consider such proposal. One 
important fact in this connection seems to have 
been overlooked, namely, that it is much more 
the place of the Planters', than of the Mer- 
cantile, representative body, to take action 
towards securing the continuanc of the 
Tea Cess. It was at the instance 0! the 
planters that the Cess was originally imposed 
and it is certainly for the Association 
(rather than the Chamber) now to ask the 
Government to be good enough to continue 
to collect the Cess after the Chicago ex- 
penditure is fully met, and to hand the pro- 
ceeds over, monthly or quarterly, to the 
Committee of the Planters' Association as the 
natural trustees for the tea producers of the 
conutry — the same to be expended in intro- 
ducing our tea into America (jointly with the 
Indian Fund ?) or generally into new coun- 
tries. That, we take it, is the first duty 
imposed upon Saturday's meeting. It is, 
indeed, embodied in a motion carried at the 
Dikoya Planters' Association, and we cannot 
see any possible opening for objection on 
the part of Government, or of the merchants, 
if the Planters' Association resolve on such 
a course of procedure. 
We have next to consider the much mora 
difficult and controverted question of how 
to go to work in America, in order to get 
our teas far more rapidly into demand than 
would be the case if everything at this 
crisis were left to private enterprise. First 
of all, anything like interference with re- 
tailers, or the opening of special Ceylon or 
Indian Tea Stores is now generally con- 
demned, We have not the slightest doubt 
— notwithstanding the sneers of " Old 
Colonist" among others — that the pioneering 
work of Messrs. MacCombie Murray, Pioeo, 
Arthur, Elwood May and others, is bearing 
much good fruit in the present day and that 
there is a steady demand for a certain quantity 
of our teas in the Eastern States which is 
almost solely due to the labours and adver- 
tisements of these gentlemen. Not one 
rupee of Ceylon money spent over them hasj 
in our opinion, been wasted. [A curious, 
interesting and important fact brought out 
by Mr. P. K. Buchanan is that British- 
grown teas (whether Indian or Ceylon) are 
almost universally spoken of as " Ceylous " 
by dealers throughout the States. One 
scarcely ever hears of the term " Indians."] 
Still, tne stage at which we have now arrived 
is emphatically one for dealing with, and 
through, the Wholesale Dealer. 
There is then another point which has 
gradually been brought out and which we 
believe has influenced the members of the 
Chamber, as it has a number of thinking men 
upcountry, and that is, that the work now to 
be done in America must be through the 
agency of experts. Following on the group of 
pioneer tta storekeepers and advortiaors, 
