J68 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, 
[SiiPT. i, 1903. 
safeguard was prepared in the scheme to prevent 
any combination sueli as Mr Rutherford sugge.:ted 
from taking plaee between any two factors, buyers, 
wliarlingers or importers. It was clear that in the 
working of tire Tea Clearing House the people 
who received the main benefit were the buyers. 
(Hear, hear,) The only wish that was expressed by 
the importers was that they should take a hand in 
the mat-iagement of the Tea Cleaving House to 
prevent a conibination of tiie wirarfingers and 
buyers such as had been prevaler>t for some years, 
and it was therefore thought advisable that the 
executive council of the Clearing House should 
have conferred upon it greater powers. He threw 
out the suggestion at the Association's meeting on 
this question that what they required was an 
association of Indian and Ceylon im- 
porters, and he was glad that that suggestion 
seemed to meet with acceptance from a good 
number of those present. Well, he thought 
that might go forvv'ard in time. It was 
one of those things in regard to wbich onie 
had to wait to see how the wind blew. Perhaps the 
time had cot yet co:iie, bub that it would come he 
felt confident. Tbey saw the need for it more 
every day. There were some points that arose on 
which they wanted to shaw a bold and ur.ited 
front ; as business men they wanted to be able to 
' tackle ea3h question that came up affecting their 
pockets. There was one question which he did 
not touch upon at the recent meetins;, but it was 
almost like throwing down the battle gage in 
that room ; he meant the question of freights. 
(Hear, hear.) There was a combination to raise 
freights. It began with a very soft-gloved hand, 
and those who owned the hand had put one thirmb 
down. Rates had risen to 27s 6d, and would prob- 
ably go to 30s before very long. But at present 
those who stood to lose by this were disunited ; 
they presented no common front, and no body of 
business men in the trade were prepared to meet 
together for the purpose of opposing the combina- 
tion, (Hear, hear.) He would like to see an asso- 
ciation of importers in which the principal importers 
could come together and say what they would do 
and what they woirld not do. If they were not leady 
to meet such a state of things, if they were 
content to sit still and say " The prices of tea 
have gone up " —well, he was not content ; he was 
a malcontent. (Hears hear.) He con-ideved that 
upon tlie statistical " position the price of tea 
o-ighh to be better than it is, and it was because 
of the lack of combination and union among 
thenr lliat they <Ud not see the price of tea today 
at least one penny per lb, higher. (Hear, hear.) 
The Indian Tea Association had found them- 
selves incapable of effective combination. But 
some of its members had formed a small associa- 
tion of about ten or twelve importers — he could 
not give the exact number ; bub fortunately for 
him he had been able to get a little bit behind 
the scenes and had got to learn what they had 
been doing and how they had done it, and he 
aanted to say that they of the Ceyloa Association 
owed to the Indians and their conabination and 
firm front the present rise in tea. They did not 
owe it to themselves or to the statistical posi- 
tidii, but to the firm front tha Indiitns showed. 
A!id they had found that it paid them. (Hear, 
Lear.) He hoped ihe Indian Association would 
do the s.;me nrxt year, and (hat the Ceylon 
importers would follow their example. he two 
trades of Ceylon and India were diverse in so 
respects, but they had one thing in conim 
and that was their pockets. He asked that 
Ceylon Associaiion should draw closer to the f 
dians. (Hear, hear.) He would lay great stress 
upon that. One of his Ctylon friends in England 
dropped a remark the other day which he 
meditated upon — as he would meditate upon the 
remarks which had fallen from Mr, Ratlierford. 
This friend said, "India doesn't w.iut Ceylon 
tied to its tail." But that was not a correct dess- 
cription of the position. Tliey met on con)mon 
ground for the common interest, and no one irad 
suggested that Ceylon should be tied to the tail 
of Itidia— (hear, hear)— and to s.ay such a thing was 
like trying to draw a red herring across the track. 
They had a red herring last year, at a sub-comittee 
which met and did much work— and anived at 
no result. The Indians drew the herring across the 
track by asking Ceylon importers to close their 
factories for three weeks. It was an absurd pro- 
posal, but the Indians were on the horns of a 
dilemma ; they thought they would have an enor- 
mously big crop ; they honestly believed it, but 
it did not come off^. It was no good one . party 
bringing forward an absolutely definite proposal 
and saying, "If you don't accept it we won't go 
with you." Let proposals be brought forward 
with a view of seeing if they were feasible. 
He would have liked to have met the In- 
dians half-way, and so, if it had been possible, 
have done something to meet the question, and, 
so to speak, scratch their backs and keep them 
in a good humour; bub they had stut-,k to theii 
guns with a proposal which, to lay before Ceyloa 
men, was absolntely absurd. They knew the 
danger of coarse plucking. In one of his letters to 
Ceylon he had suggested that every day in the 
daily papers there should be the words, in black- 
leaded type, " Lest we forget." (Laughter.) He 
did not quite agree that the day was passed when 
they might see over-production. At any rate, 
tiiey must realise that ohe trade had learned to 
live on much smaller stocks thau in the old days. 
They lived much more irom hand to mouth, both 
the planters and the trade in this country, and it 
was said that the trade weie fifteen millions short 
of supplies. If they were, he must say they 
seemed exceedingly comfortable under it, and did 
not excite themselves at a'l ; if they did the 
importers might see their prices rise Id in the lb. 
Let this be as it might, they must nrarch with the 
times. Tliey must not sit still aod let tilings 
drift. That was what they had been inclined to 
do in the past, and- he hoped that during the 
coming year they might be able by good 
management to draw nearer to India and 
its Association, and feel that they were work- 
ing hand in hand with one common objee: — 
they were both importers, and as importers they 
could have the position iu their own hands pro- 
vided they showed a common front, (Apf)lause,) 
Mr Sholto G D Skrine : I rise to support the 
motion for the adoption of the report, and, in 
doing so, first let me congratulate the Association 
upon what I consider to be the very sensible way 
in wliich it approached the difficult and conten- 
tious question of the raising of the tea cess. 
Feeling undoubtedly ran high in Ceylon, and 
this Association, which in my opinion repve- 
cents the paj'ers af the tea cess very much more 
completely than does the Planters' Association in 
