Jan. 1, 1900,] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTUEIST. 
45S 
ago when it was firsb attempted they were told, as 
they were now being told in Germany and 
France, that Ceylon was not known as a tea- 
growing country. It was very mucli the same 
thing in Russia. But the Thirty Conimittse had 
made known the fact that there was an island 
called Ceylon which grtw tea and asked all 
those who were in the habit of drinking tea to 
try the Ceylon growth. The very fact tliat they 
began in a small way to make Ceylon tea 
known brought before tiie atteation of the Kus- 
sian buyers and — he would not say cornpelled 
but, — induced them to give Ceylon tea a trial. 
Now that the work had commenced and now 
that the Kussian buyers had formed a trade for 
themselves it was probably no longer necessary 
to make grants, but he was perfectly certain 
that the first effort made seven or eight years 
ago on behalf of the Thirty Committee laid the 
foundation stone and had been the means of 
bringing the Russian buyers here (applause). 
With reference to wliat had been said as to 
shipping the broken teas and putting 
only the leafy teas on the Colombo market, 
could not the Russian buyers do as those 
in other countries did, and try to a certain 
extent to cure , or alter the taste of their 
constituents so that they might be able to buy 
a proportion ot broken teas. If other markets, 
such as the Australian, English and Irish, were 
■willing to take a percentage ot broken teas, why 
could they not alter the Russian taste too. Surely 
they would learn in time that the quality of 
tea did not merely depend upon its appearance. 
Surely if it was too .strong it was only a case 
of watering it down, was it noD ? 
Mr. Heath said it did not suit them at all. 
As buyers they had simply to buy what they 
were told. If a man sent an order for pekoe at 
40 cents and he sent bioken pekoe it weald 
probably finish the business. 
Mr. Renton.— But could they nob be induced 
to buy broken pekoe ? 
Mr. Lampard said that every house in London 
interested in the trade kept their own special buy- 
ers both for leafy and broken teas and so on ; 
they were absolutely separate things. 
Mr. Renton was very glad to hear that ; it 
was something worth knowing. He would like 
to suggest, however, to the Russian buyers tliat 
they should try to make a market for the 
broken teas. 
Mr. ToKMAKOFF said he had sent samples 
of small lines and got orders for broken pekoes, 
and he wondered why other iirms did nob do the 
same thing. (He was understood to add that 
some of the biggest firms bought broken teas 
on the London markes. ) 
Mr. Renton thought it would be a drawback 
to put one or two or three lines of tea on the 
market here and send the rest home. Estates that 
shipped tea here would want to sell the whole lot. 
If they did so there would be an accumulation 
of broken teas in the Colombo market, for they 
Would not be able to hud buyers. If this were 
carried out too much broken tea would come on 
this market. That was a point on which he was 
glad to hear that Mr. TokmakofF had tried the Rus- 
sian market and to make the tea known. He feared 
that it would be difficult to get leaf teas sent 
here and broken teas sent home, estates prefer- 
ring to sell all or nothing. Buyers here knew 
very well that teas put up -in Colombo and with- 
drawn were tabooed in London and would never 
get their proper value, 
Mr. Heath thought that Mr. Thomson of 
Messrs. Finlay Muir & Co. would probably be 
able to give tliem some information on that point, 
as he understood that v/hea they could not get 
the price they wanted for breaks here, these 
breaks were sent home. 
Mr. Thomson took exception to that remark. 
It was very seldom that they withdrew teas, and 
if they were withdrawn that did not make the 
slightest difference to their selling in London. 
The Chairman asked whether the trade in 
London would be able to discriminate whether 
tea was not going home through third hands. 
Mr. Thomson did not think that any broker' 
in Loudon having printed the tea as being sold 
on any company's account or estate account, 
would question the fact at all. They would take 
it as estate tea. ^ 
Mr. Lampard said they had to study the re* 
quirements of the Russian market, and the point 
that weighed with him was that although there' 
were very cheap internal rates, still with these 
advantages frequently tea could be bought very 
much cheaper in London than in thi/s ma,rket« 
He was not speaking from any particular point 
of view about this thing, because his interests were, 
quite equal. The same point really applied to the 
whole of the foreign trade whichdepended upon the 
supply of the local market. He thought Mr. 
Lane, the Chairman of the Planters' Association, 
vrould bear him out when he said that was a point 
he had been hammering at ever since he camo 
to Ceylon. He came here chiefly with the idea 
of pushing tlie Russian business which had gradu-. 
aMy grown to a point which made the men who 
dealt with it say that they must go on the samo 
lines with regard to Ceylon as they had hitherto 
done with regard to China, It was the saraa 
feeling all the world over. They preferred to pay 
equal rates and get their goods direct, rather 
than get them via London and it must be ia 
the interests of the producers here to study 
the local market. They had to study the 
rates of produce from here to London, and 
they would find that it would cost them at 
the cheapest a fraction over one penny. Roughly 
speaking it was one penny three farthings, 
and from here direct, it took about one half- 
penny per pound, and in addition to that they had 
nsore favorable internal rates for transit to 
Moscov/. If they consider these points and alloi* 
the market to be supplied with a larger quantity 
of suitable tea, it stood to reason, that the trada 
would go forward with leaps and bounds. In 
studying the local market, they were not study* 
ing the interests of one particular country, but 
the only possible chance of getting the tea up 
to paying level, and that was by opening fresh 
markets. The danger that Ceylon had was in 
concentrating the supply in one particular market. 
If they supplied this market they would gradually 
get away with the surplus, and drive it into 
countries direct where all the surplus would ba 
taken up and tea kept at a paying level. 
Mr. Thomson said that every house of any size 
was represented in one way or another by agents 
in this matter, as well as probably every foreign 
trade out.side England. 
Mr. Heath thought there was no doutt 
that buyers on the Continent generally 
w-ould far rather import their teas direct than 
buy in London, if they could get equally good 
value. He thought it would be the experience of 
all the buyers here, that preference was given (o 
importing direct, ^ 
