the place it deserves there will be no more Cotton famines, cor- 
nering, gambling and the like curses. 
To conclude if you will appoint an agent here to investigate the 
possibilities 1 am prepared to convince him. and Mr. BAXENDALE 
will deserve well of his shareholders if they start the Ramie indus- 
try. Please reprint this and circulate it as you have kindly done my 
other letters and may 1 suggest you appoint a Committee to inves- 
tigate the possibility of starting the industry on Commercial lines 
I have offered my service on “the cure no pav‘ terms. I repeat 
Floreat Ramie. 
Yours, &c„ 
1 ). Edwards Radcliffe. 
Please send a copy of this to Mr. BAXENDALE Cuttings per 
same post. 
Jugra Estate, 
Selangor , April qth, 1004. 
In reply to Mr. Edwards- Radcliffe’s letter. of February 20th. 
Jpo 4, to Secretary Lo High. Commissioner, 1 beg to make the fol- 
lowing observations; — 
2. Ramie spinners have frequently told me that they have 
costly machinery fitted up out when I produced my China Grass 
(produced by Fau re machine) the best quotation was £l 7 a ton. 
This allowing for a reasonable loss in degumming works out to 
less than half the value of the best cotton. 
3. Mr. RADCLIFFE says lie can treat, brown ribbons. The Com- 
pany with which he was associated in 1900 said the same thing 
and did, I believe, filasse and spin one bale which was highly 
reported on but the treatment of brown ribbon appeared to become 
a lost art, for when we offered them several bales as a present 
they replied that the stuff was useless to them. 
4. I did not say I “expected’ success when 1 tried Flax 
methods, as 1 was fully aware at the time that every similar expe- 
riment/ had failed. I did it at the earnest request of a friend who 
was interested in flax spinning. If I was to blame for wasting my 
time over this, 1 was equally to blame for producing Ramie in anv 
shape or form as up 10 the time J started no ease had been 
recorded of any European planter making a success of it. 
5 . I do not see tnat my remarks anent gas mantles art' neces- 
sarily misleading because Mr. Radcliffe knows factories with 
orders booked 6 months ahead. I have heard that there are mills 
in England which think 2 tons a month quite a large order. 
6. 1 grant that 400,000 plants compare poorly with the magni- 
ficent acreage we read about in story books written by Company* 
promoters ; but in real life it took time and cost a good deal of 
money to get them together: and, at any rate, a small fraction of 
