New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-02-12
MR.. FROUDE ON AMERICA.
AND ON THE RELATIONS OF THE WEo'
INDIES TO THE UNITED STATES.

AND ON THE RELATIONS OF THE WEo'
INDIES TO THE UNITED STATES.
LONDON, January %.
In "Occanan the book which preceded in0
Enplish in the West Indies Mr.. Froudc had son'0-
thing 70 say of the United States and the American
people, and said it in spirit OF 1riehoine'S
this present book he has less to DO oireo'iS W..
the American continent, but ms reieren0'o w VIZ
Republic are numerous. Inc "es' i"ui'9 %.
near enough TO the American continent 10 n''no
A,,or;oa, or;nion n factor in their future Mr
rroude seems TO concern himself more ABOUT 'he
matter than we ourselves do and by no means
m n shirt of hostility or of resentment 10 make
mia views clear it should be understood That ne
condemns the present English policy toward The
West Indies lie does not believe In the capacity
sf the negro for self government ana the question
ever present to his mind is Since the Engnsh
will not and the blacks cannot, govern, what Is
70 become OF these islands? lie knows as we'll as
anybody that America does not want them, yet
America is forever coming up in connection with
the problems that are pressing for solution. Before
be started he had begun to consider some OF them :
Il learnt that party had risen there at last
which was actually in favor Of u union with Amerr
O. and / wished to find an answer to question
,a nen nad M1 oteS
Of the probable accession Of Canada to the Amerl-
gan Republic asked him il he was sure ,, tna'
sWould like the house Of Barring TO take me
into partnership
Mr.. Froude thought it as great thing to be
. partner in the British Empire as to be State
under the stars and stripes. and he asks in passing
what Canada would gain:
WAS it that Great Britain did not take the
nolonies into partnership at ALP Was 1T that
while in the United States the blood circulated
freely from the heart to the extremities. SO that
n one member suffered all the oody W WIN ba
calcd plantations, Oshoots from the old STOCK SET
oct down as circumstances had dictated In various
parts of the globe but vrtualy detached and eIt 10
Erow or to wither according TO thelx own lnhereht
Strength"
In England it is a surprise to hear that there Is
4 publjc opjniop in some of the West Indies In
favor Of un on with America. Mr.. FL, ude does mob
say that this opinion is general or strong IL may
not be the opinion Of many people, but 1t exists
Coupled with 1t Is the conviction that, whatever
might be the feeling In the islands, American
feeling is against annexation. He mentions Sir
Graham Briggs. perhaps the most distinguished
representative Of the old Barbadian families
The sugar question In Barbados, as in other
islands, is vital. The people are sore and angry
because England would not agree 10 the proposed
sugar treaty with the United States; treaty
which, they think, would have saved perishins
industry, one on which the prosperity, almost the
existence of Barbados and other islands depends.
Says Mr. Froude:
Sir Graham had called upon me at Government
House. and had spoken fully and freely about the
offered American sugar treaty; As severe IF
er, he naturally irrltated at the reJectlon 0i
IL and in the mood in which found him, should
think il possible that If the Americans would hOid
their hands out with an offer of admission into
the Union, he and good many other gentlemen
would meet them half way. lie did not say so;
conjecture only from natural probabilities and
- aal fhp1
position Happily, the temptation cannot fall In
their way. An American official laconlcally
summed up the situation to me: AS satellt's SIT,
as much as you please; but as part OF the primary
no. SIR"
lie meets at St. Lucia, or rather on board ship
IN the harbor a clever young American who
agrees with the American official:
He had been much in the West Indies and
seemed to know them well; lie said that an inc
whites In the islands wished at the bottom of their
hearts to be taken into the Union, but the Union
Government was too wise to NEEDLE with Them.
The trade would fall to America of itself The re-
sponsibility and trouble might remain where 10
was"
In Jamaica. the same story. The authority
whom Mr.. Froude here quotes is a Jamaica gentle
man Of some consequence sugar planter win
an estate worth not long ago 100000. which does
not now pay the expense Of cultivation, and can
not be sold:
"In this gentleman. too, found to my sorrow
that there WAS the same longing lOr duuiioSioH w
the American Union which had left behind me az
the Antilles. In spite of soldiers and the naval
station, the old country was still looked upon as
a step mother, and of genuine loyalty there was
according TO him, little or nothing IL the west
Indies were ever to become prosperous again, IL
could only be when they were annexed 10 inc
United States"
This gentleman, however, admitted that Tor
the present at least. annexation was impossible
Not on account Of objection by the British Gov
IL &c tn
Jamaica does, nor wholly on account of American
objections to annexation, but because In the
existing state of feeling such change could not
be carried out without civil war. In Jamaica, at
least the blacks and mulattoes would resist
And ne tells us why they would resist There
are 700 600 of them against 1000 whites. They
have every year everything more and more their
own way in short time they expect to have
the island to themselves and England will not
interfere:
They might collect arms; they might do what
they pleased and no English officer dared TO use
rough measures with them; While, II they be-
longed TO the Union. the whites would recover
authority one way or another. The Americans
were ready with their rifles on occasions OF dis
order The blacks, therefore, preferred the liberty
which they had and the prospects to which they
looked forward, and they, and the mulattoes also,
would fight, and fight desperately, before they
would allow themselves to be made American
citizens
Pregnant testimony indeed to the reputation
which America has acquired not in the Wesf Indies
only. but the world over. We stand good deal
Of mild nonsense, but when the occasion comes
Americans are ready with their rifles" Other
authorities, Mr.. Walker, for ono, who is Colonial
Secretary. told him that the feeling for annexation
to America was, if it existed at all among the
Jamaican whites, confined to very few persons
The island has other business than sugar. The
fruit trade with the United States was growing.
American capitalists had come in and were ex-
perimenting on various industries. So perhaps
the number Of whites in favor Of annexation may