94 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST 
[August  i,  1892. 
Deeding  to  a very  great  extent.  He  has  spen^ 
between  two  and  three  million  dollars  in  advertise 
ment.  Everyone  here  will  have  noticed  from  the 
tone  of  the  letter  which  has  been  read  that  Mr. 
May  is  not  particularly  pleased — that  he  does  not 
think  he  has  received  sufficient  support  from  Ceylon 
men.  And  he  is  not  alone  in  thinking  that  (Hear  hear.) 
Several  leading  Ceylcn  men  have  said  to  me  that 
they  think  he  has  not  been  sufficiently  well-treated 
in  the  Chioago  business  (Hear,  hear.)  If  he  and  our 
Commissioner  could  pull  together  all  would  be  well. 
The  funds  at  the  Commissioner’s  disposal  are  Bmall, 
and  they  alone  will  not  bring  Ceylon  forward  in 
America  ; but  if  Mr.  May  and  our  Commissioner  are 
ready  to  be  both  pulling  together  we  may  most 
effectually  get  the  thin  end  of  a very  large  trade  into 
America.  (Cheers.)  I do  not  know  that  Ceylon  can 
afford  any  more  money  than  has  already  been  put 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Commissioner.  But  I think  if 
we  back  up  Mr.  May  a little  more,  and  strengthen 
his  hands  a little  more,  it  may  have  the  best  effect. 
(Cheers.) 
The  Chairman  Will  my  friend  Sir  George 
Campbell  offer  any  suggestion  as  to  how  we  can 
strengthen  Mr.  May’s  position  ? 
Mr.  W.  M.  Leake  said  —I  have  seen  a great  deal 
of  Mr.  May  while  he  was  in  London  recently,  and  I 
quite  agree  in  the  opinion  of  the  previous  speakers  as 
to  his  ability  and  as  to  the  probable  value  to  Ceylon 
of  all  he  has  done  in  the  way  of  pushing  Ceylon  tea 
in  Amerioa.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  the  real  diffi- 
culty at  the  present  time  lies  in  relations  between  Mr. 
May  and  our  Chicago  Commissioner.  It  is  no  use 
blinking  the  fact  that  for  some  reason — I know  not 
what — these  gentlemen  are  not  working  oordially 
together.  Everybody  is  talking  about  the  matter,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  discuss  it  to  any  good  purpose 
unless  the  true  position  is  recognized.  (Hear,  hear.) 
If  Sir  George  Campbell  could  propose  some  effective 
method  of  bringing  Mr.  May  and  the  Comissioner 
into  cordial  co-operation,  all  would  be  well.  I hope 
I have  not  been  too  bold  in  speaking  thus  openly 
of  the  state  of  affairs. 
Sir  George  Campbell,  in  reply  to  the  Chairman 
said: — Mr.  May  himself  suggests  that  some  of 
the  Ceylon  men  and  the  men  in  London  in- 
terested in  Ceylon  might  give  their  names  as 
directors  of  the  Ceylon  American  Tea  Company  ; 
also  that  the  planters  should  take  a few  more  shares 
than  they  have  taken— showing  their  interest  in 
Ceylon  affairs  not  only  in  this  way,  but  by  giving 
some  of  the  money  required  to  be  expended  at 
Chicago  in  conjunction  with  his  efforts.  He  says 
that  he  can  get  plenty  of  support  in  America,  but 
people  there  hang  baok,  saying  : “ If  your  own 
men  in  Ceylon  and  London  take  so  little  interest 
in  the  enterprise  it  cannot  be  such  a good  thing 
as  you  say  it  is.”  (Hear,  hear.) 
Mr.  J.  Whittall  said  that  he  had  had  many 
conversations  with  Mr.  May,  who  had  tried  to  get 
money  for  his  undertaking  in  America  and  in  this 
oountry.  He  had  not  succeeded  in  doing  so  ; and 
he  (the  speaker!  thought  his  failure  in  this  respeot 
was  owing  to  the  high  prioes  at  which  it  was  proposed 
to  sell  the  tea  in  the  United  States.  Ceylon  people 
wanted  to  see  large  quantities  of  cheap  tea  sold. 
(Hear,  hear.)  If  Mr.  May  did  not  alter  his  tactics 
and  sell  tea  at  lower  prices,  Ceylon  would  derive  very 
little  benefit  from  his  efforts,  and  he  would  do  very 
little  good  with  his  company.  That  was  his  (the 
speaker’s)  view  of  the  case. 
The  motion  was  oarried  unanimously. 
The  Chairman:— I have  how  to  commend  to  the 
Association  another  motion,  and  one  whioh  I 
Ifust  iB  not  likely  to  be  received  with  any  dissent. 
It  is  a motion  in  whioh  I am  myself  specially 
interested.  I have  to  move  that  Mr,  Whittall  be 
re-elected  Vice-President.  (Cheers.)  I hope  you 
will  pass  that  motion  and  so  strengthen  my  hands 
as  President  of  the  Association  (hear,  hear). 
Mr.  Alex.  Brooke  seconded  the  motion,  and  it 
was  carried  unanimously  amid  cheers. 
Mr.  J.  Whitiall  :— While  thanking  you  for  the 
honour  you  have  done  me,  I must  say  that  after 
three  years’  service— except  for  your  unanimous 
wish— 1 should  be  very  reluctant  to  aocept  the 
post.  The  position  of  Vice-President  to  such  en 
Association  a3  this  is  not  ail  beer  and  skittles 
(laughter)  : and  I am  not  getting  younger.  I hope 
that  before  we  meet  next  year  a younger  and 
more  able  man -(No,  no) — will  be  ready  to  take 
my  post,  but  you  may  always  count  upon  my  best 
support  and  assistance  to  the  Association.  (Cheers.) 
Sir  Arthur  N.  Birch,  k.c.m.g.,  moved  the  re- 
election  of  Mr.  W.  M.  Leake  to  the  post  of  Secre- 
tary to  the  Association,  (dheers.) 
Sir  George  Campbell,  k.c.m.g.,  seconded  the 
motioD,  which  was  carried. 
Mr.  W.  M.  Leake  said  that  he  was  much  obliged 
to  the  gentlemen  present  for  once  more  eleoting 
him  as  Secretary.  There  was  a touch  of  sadness 
in  it  to  him  on  this  ocoasion,  for  it  was  his  fourth 
year  of  re-eleotion  and  every  previous  year  they 
had  had  the  same  President,  the  same  from  the 
beginning  till  now.  He  hoped  that  he  would  not 
be  altogether  out  of  order  in  referring  again  to 
the  late  Sir  William  Gregory  and  to  the  resolu- 
tions that  had  been  passed  in  regard  to  him. 
(Hear,  hear.)  He  had  notioed  that  no  representa- 
tive of  the  Planting  Community  had  spoken  in 
support  of  the  resolutions,  and  he  would  not  like 
it  to  go  out  to  Ceylon  that  this  meeting  had  closed 
with  no  attempt  to  remedy  this  omission.  (Hear, 
hear.)  There  were  many  in  the  room  who  bad 
more  right  than  himself  to  speak  on  behalf  of 
the  planters  of  today,  but  going  baok  to  the  date 
of  Mr.  Gregory’s  Government  of  Ceylon  he  felt 
himself  entitled  to  speak  for  the  planters  of  that 
date,  for  only  a week  or  two  before  his  arrival  in 
Ceylon  as  Governor  he  (the  speaker)  was  elected 
Chairman  of  the  Planters’  Association,  and  with- 
in a month  or  two  he  was  nominated  by 
the  planters  (a  novel  thing  then)  their  represenia- 
tive  in  the  Legislative  Council.  Now  what 
particularly  struck  him  at  that  time  in 
Mr.  Gregory’s  attitude  towards  the  planting  enter- 
prise was  his  foresight  and  caution,  attributes 
which  he  thought  had  not  been  specially  men- 
tioned in  the  speeohes  that  day.  (Hear,  hear.) 
The  new  Governor  arrived  in  Ceylon  at  the  very 
height  of  the  coffee  era:  for  three  years  the 
island  had  exported  a million  hundredweights  of 
coffee,  a quantity  never  reached  again : new  pro- 
ducts were  hardly  thought  of.  Mr.  Ferguson  was 
just  on  the  point  of  beginning  his  agitation  for 
a railway  to  Uva  based  on  prophecies  of  largely 
increased  crops  in  the  future — an  agitation  which, 
though  based  on  delusive  data  so  far  as  coffee 
was  concerned,  was  yet  to  be  of  such  benefit 
later  to  Ceylon.  (Cheers.)  Arriving  in  Kandy 
under  such  circumstances  as  these  one  would  have 
thought  that  Mr.  Gregory’s  first  wish  would  be  to 
visit  some  noted  coffee  estate  to  learn  about  the 
cultivation  of  that  plant.  On  the  contrary  his  first 
trip  made  before  he  had  been  a month  in  the, 
Island  was  to  Looleoondura  estate  to  see  a)l  that 
was  being  done  there  in  the  cultivation  of  cinchona, 
and  tea.  (Hear,  hear.)  The  new  Governor  from  the 
first  felt  the  gravest  doubts  as  to  the  permanence 
of  the  cofiee  industry,  and  though  for  a few  years 
owing  to  an  extraordinary  rise  in  prioe  there  was 
a sort  of  “ boom  ” of  prosperity  in  which  the 
Colonial  revenue  shared.  Sir  William  Gregory  was 
never  deceived.  Coming  as  he  did  a perfeot  strange^ 
