I^EB, 1, 1902.] 
THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
To the Editor. 
CEYLON TEA ON THE CONTINENT 
AND MR. RENTON'S VOTE FOR 1902. 
FRENCH CUSTOMS DUTIE.S ON TEA. 
Havre, Dec. 20th, 1901. 
Dear Sir, — I hope there is yet time to pro- 
test ngainst any increase in the vote to Mr 
liei'.toii for 1902. He tells us tliat his expen- 
dilure for 1901 will be £6,o00. If you deduct 
from that his sahuy, £1,000, and another £500 
for the bonus on importations of tea into France, 
iheie htill remains the important sum of £a,0©0 
to be acconnteil for. Is nobody going to 
ask liow this money has been spent ? The 
great feature of his campaign this year, 
I speak, of course, of France alone, has been 
the travelling show through the towns of Northern 
France for the purpose of distributing tea in the 
cup, sratis, " degusiation "— as it is called. 1 
know he has spoken of other projects ; he has 
told us of tea being now sold in the absinthe 
bars of Paris. I don't know what Ire means by 
" Absinthe Bars." I hav3 lived a good many 
years in France and never heard of such places. 
Anyhow I hope he has not devoted any large 
portion of the £5,000 to subsidising such establish- 
ments, if they do exist, for it would be a 
great waste of mocey. It may be, from a 
hunianitari'in point of view, a very laudable 
thing to try and convert tiie drinkers of this 
murderous and deleterious decoction to the use 
of tea as a substitute, but it is not business, 
and you will never found the prosperity of your 
tea trade in trance upon such a basis. No, 
the great triumph of Mr Renton in France 
this year has been the " degustation.' 
Show. It is tJie feather in his cap — the great 
hit of the season. He dwells complacently on 
the immense success that has attended it every- 
where. The populations flock to it in crowds 
and it is evident he intends, in process of time, 
it he only gels money enough, to make tea 
drinkers of tbeni all. f hope, therefore, your 
readers will beai' with me for a few moments 
while I dise\iss this degustation business. The 
show is real y only one man going about from 
town to town and making arrangements with a 
grocer or two in each place to allow the de- 
monstration and distribution of tea in his sh»p. 
I have seen something of it as it passed throus-h 
Havre. A rough crowd gathered in front of the 
shop where the degustation took place, interrupting 
the traftic on the footpath. The crowd was what you 
miglit suppose, a crowd of riff-raff, mostly of odori- 
ferous and vei miniferous riflf ratf. Here is Mr 
Renton's own desciipiion of such a gathering : " In 
one place the people collected in a perfect throng, 
each bringing some sort of household vessel, from 
a bed-room ewer down to an empty case, in which 
to carry away the tea they expected to be pre- 
sented with." Does Mr lienton really suppose 
that because these people have got a cup of tea 
for nothing they are going to become regular 
consumers of Ceylon tea? You might as well 
think that they would in future drink nothing 
but Chateau Lafitte because some silly wine 
niercl>anlj gave them a glass of that excj^uisite 
vintage. 
The clientele that you have to get at 
are the people vho go in for five o'clock 
tea, the ladies ol the upper classes. Now 
I ask any reasonable man, are ladies likely 
to be attracted by a squalid exhibition 
of this kind ? Does Mr. Renton want us to 
believe that a lady could be induced to join in 
this mob of rag tag-and bobtail and drink from a 
half rinsed cup that had previously been in the 
hands, and approaclied the lips, of a dozen of the 
great unwashed? Psha ! The whole grotesque 
masquerade is absurd and the money expended 
upon it, is money thrown away, Mr. Renton 
himself admits that the depots where these degus- 
tations have taken place do not sell much tea, 
" may not sell" is his way of puttingit, buttbat 
apparently is only a secondary consideration for 
him. So long as " the demonstration goes on right 
merrily" he is perfectly satisfied and he is cock- 
sure of knocking China tea out of France. We 
shall see. I observe that the gentleman who 
organised this show for Mr Kenton has written to 
protest against the reduction of the grant and to 
say that he expects to receive another £500 or 
£600 for next year. It is a good thing to be in 
the graces of the Commissioner. How long is this 
to continue ? Mr Kenton seems to plead for five 
years. I hope you will bring your powerful iniu- 
ence to bear to put a stop to such reckless extra- 
vagance. 
On the question of the future customs duties on 
tea in France, Mr Renton appears to be very much 
at sea. In his letter of '23rd October to Mr Eos- 
ling, he says : — 
" I much regret that there seems every possi- 
bility of the law which comes into force on th^ 
24th February doubling the duty of tea being 
allowed to take affect ; if it does, the result will 
be a disastrous blow to our campaign in France. 
The Central American States have been able 
to arrange treaties by which tlieir products will 
have the benefit of the most favoured nation 
clause, and, therefore, a large quantity of coffee 
will continue to come in at the minimum tariff. 
I cannot understand why the benefits of the most 
favoured nation clause which England possesses 
should not be extended to the English Colonies, 
but our Ambassador here says he can offer the 
French authorities no quid pro quo to induce 
them to extend the benefits of the clause to the 
Britisli Colonies. Last year he pooh-poohed the 
idea of a new law coming into force, this year he 
rubs his hands and says he can do nothing. I 
shall make a final desperate appeal, through the 
Colonial Office, when 1 go to London, but the 
outlook is distinctly bad." 
That is to say that he gives up Sir Edmund 
Monson as hopeless and that he is going to stir 
them up at the Colonial Office in the hope, 1 
suppose, that Mr Chamberlain, witli the tact and 
amenity which characterise his references to 
foreign nations, will find therein an opportunity 
of telling the French to mend their manners, or 
rather— on this occasion— to mend their customs, 
I may here remark, parentlietically, that Mr 
Kenton never saw the Ambassador, so that when 
he tells us of what His Excellency said and oi 
what he did in tlie way of pooh-poohing and rub* 
bing his hands, lie is only drawing upon his 
imagination. 
In another letter, dated Calais, 27tb October, 
which appeared in the Observer, Mr Renton re- 
(QOim^ndsi Iqp |)€Q^I^ to Uu'9ate» to put a prQ< 
