34 ^ 
from the Federated Malay States. The exports of cotton from the 
United States of America amount to not less than an annual average 
°f £35 > 000 < 00 °i while Egypt and India annually export on an 
average £12,000,000 and £7,000,000 worth of cotton. The im- 
portance of the cotton trade to the United Kingdom can be guaged 
by the fact that while their imports of raw cotton amount, as I have 
said, to not more than £40,000,000 worth, the annual exports of 
manufactured cotton goods are valued at £75,000,000 ; ( b ) in regard 
to the steadiness of prices, in spite of varying supplies, it may be 
mentioned that except in the case ot temporary enhancement of 
prices (owing to purchases made in order to meet speculative sales) 
the price per pound of cotton classed as Sea Island can be taken 
year by year for the past twenty years at similar seasons as varying 
less than 20 per cent. 
6. The improbability of cotton being ousted from its present 
position as the staple fibre of the spinning industry is instanced by 
the difficulty of finding a market for ramie — which is stated to sur- 
pass cotton in nearly every essential respect, as a fibre. 
Seeing, howevei , that ramie cannot be woven by cotton machi- 
nery, it is a drug in the market at a third of the price given for 
ordinary cotton. 
7. To describe tersely the comparative merits of cotton and 
any other staple product which can be generally cultivated through- 
out the Federated Malay States, it may be said that the yield of & an 
additional 1,000,000 acres of cotton would not very appreciably 
affect the cotton market, whereas the successful cultivation of the 
same acreage of any other product with which we need be con- 
cerned, would cause a collapse in its price. 
8. Though I have been at some pains to collect data regarding 
the experimental cultivation of cotton in the Malay Archipelago, 1 
regret to say I can quote no authentic figures, but I am in posses- 
tion of a few facts that appear to me to ^dispose of the statement 
that the soil and climate of the Federated Malay States are not 
suitable to this cultivation. 
9. I would refer particularly to wh 
the “ Kala-kala.” (1 understand from 
pore Botanical Gardens that this shrub 
herbaceum .) 
at is known by Javanese as 
the Director of the Singa- 
is a variety of the Gossypium 
10, I have seen this plant carefully cultivated and have seen it 
practically untended producing what appeared to me to be fairly 
large crops. In no case of which I have heard, has an unsuccessful 
attempt been made on this Peninsula to grow it. The question of 
whelher its cultivation would result in success from a commercial 
point of view has, I believe, never yet been tested in the Federated 
Malay States; planters having seemingly accepted without question 
the statement that “ cotton requires a dry climate.” 
ri. in addition to the fact that plants 
parts of these States apparently thriving in 
may be seen in many - 
a moist climate, 1 would 
