The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-10

preparation Of the crime has been brought
home to the defendant.
Tho Impending Ruin of the British
West Indies.
A Blue Book dealing with the present
condition Of the British West Indies has
been published recently, Of which a digest
has been made for the November number of
the London National ReuieU. Dismal. in
deed, is the actual plight Of these islands,
which played so large a part in the worlds
politics during the seventeenth and eight
zenith centuries, and retained considerable
Importance up to sixteen years ago. 1t
will be remembered that in the negotia-
tions which preceded the peace of 1868 Eng
lish statesmen seriously debated whether
they should not give back Canada to France,
receiving in exchange the rich sugar
producing island of Guadeloupe. 1T has
been asserted also hat after Admiral
BLAKE'sc conquest of Jamaica, CROMWELL,
DESTROYS Of befriending the Puritans of
Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut, Of
fered to transport the whole of them
to that island. The contents of this
Blue Book show that the refusal of
the Puritans to entertain this pro-
posal was fortunate for their posterity.
We may even say that the Independence of
the United States is due in no small meas.
ure to the superlative value formerly at
tached to the British West Indian islands;
for, had the British war vessels employed
in defending those possessions been sent t.
the Chesapeake, CORVALLIS could not
hava haan forcaI IN o,rranla,
The Blue Book sets forth the report of the
royal commission which was directed to in
quire into the condition of the prospects of
the sugar-growing West India colonies. OF
the commissioners, one, Sir HENRY NOR
MAN, was lately Governor of Queensland,
having previously declined the Viceroyalty
of India; the second was Sir DAVID BAR
BoUR, the well-known expert in India
finance, and the third was Sir EDWARD
GREY, formerly Under Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs. After a conscientious
investigation, conducted for the most
part in the islands, the commissioners
announce the imminence of a great
industrial collapse in communities once
regarded as precious constituents of the
British Empire. 1t Is pointed out tina
In the British West Indies, which ex-
tend from British Guiana in the south
west to Jamaica in the northwest, there
Is no prospect of manufacturing in
dustries being established on any con-
siderable scale, nor is there any mineral
wealth, except an asphalt lake in Trinidad,
and the recently opened gold mines on the
confines of Venezuela. The former pros
perity of the West Indies was due almost
exclusively to sugar and rum, and, al
though the export of fruit n cocoa
has of late made some progress, the
cultivation of the sugar cane is still
their principal industry, and its fast ap.
preaching collapse will involve them in
utter ruin. Apart from Jamaica, which is
helped to n certain extent in other ways,
and the gold of British Guiana, sugar.cane
products constitute 10 per cent OF the total
exports of the West Indies, and in some of
the islands. such as Barbados and An.
tigua, they form over 90 per cent.
The present appropriateness of the in
dustry, and the resulting general depression,
are attributed solely to the fall in the prices
OF sugar, molasses, and rum. The statistics
collected by the commissioners are con.
fined to the last sixteen years, for the
reason that only during this period have
the special causes of the actual de,
preston affected seriously the West Indian
colonies. In 1881 a hundredweight of un.
refine cane sugar was worth about $5 .25.
In 1895 1t was worth less than half rs
much. There are no grounds for believing
that any material rise in the price of cane
sugar is likely to occur in the immedi
ate future. AS a matter of fact, the
prices for 1897 have ranged below those OF
any previous year. There has been also q
great depreciation in the by-products OF
sugar, namely molasses n rum. The re,
suit is that the cultivation of the sugar
cane has already become Improbable in the
British West Indies, and it is threat
ened with such reduction in the near
future as in some of the colonies may moi
differ very greatly from extinction. The
effect of the collapse of the sugar industry
will be to throw out of employment the
greater part of the laboring class, md the
rates OF wages which, as it Is, rave fallen
will be still further reduced. The public
revenue will be so much diminished that
the Governments of some of the colonies will,
be unable to meet the absolutely necessary
public expenditure, and the general stand
ard of living will be lowered to a lamentablt
extent. Even now in Tobago a consider
able proportion of the inhabitants are com
PEELED to leave the island in search of work
and it is impossible to raise more revenu,