The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-29

The British taXpayer appears to be TAX
Ing alarm at the prospect, now opening be.
fore him, of having to pay for the main.
tenance of the empire out of his own pocket.
While the extension of the boundaries of
British dominion seemed to bring clear
profit, he acquiesced with careless indiffer.
ence in any and every method employed in
widening the domain. His vanity was
tickled and his pride tlattered by the assur-
ances sedulously given that each addition
10 the empire was self.supporting, would
add to its wealth, that he would individu-
ally benefit, and that his colonizing capacity
and his imperial position were the envy
and admiration of the rest of the world.
Clouds, however, are gathering IN the
horizon OF his dissatisfaction. The Indian
Government, after hopelessly struggling
with the problem of how to keep up an ex-
travaRant expenditure for the benefit of
England with diminishing receipts from
the impoverished people of India, has given
notice of its intention to ask the British
Government for "a grant in aid" amount
ing, it is reported, to $4,000, 900, for
famine relief and the prosecution of the
war against the border tribes.
The term grant in aid" is used to avoid
the appearance of it's being in any way a
contribution by the British taxpayer, but
no one studying the situation will have
any difficulty in coming to the conclusion
that it is nothing but n pull, and perhaps
not the last, at his pocket, to cover up the
shortcomings of the Indian administration
for a little while longer.
Turning from the East to the West In
dies, we find that the British taxpayer is
going to be invited to make a grant of
. 300, 600 in aid of the failing sugar indus.
try of the West Indian Islands. That this Is
to be a last as well as u first contribution for
a similar purpose is a proposition that will
be entertained only by a person of highly
optimistic imagination and limited knowl-
edge OF the causes that have brought these
once fourishing islands into their present
impoverished condition. The Edinburgh
Scotsman, in q remarkably wcll-reasoned
article on the recently issued report of the
West India Commission which was ap-
pointed ten months & to inquire into the
condition and prospects of the sugar col
onies of the West Indies, takes his pessi-
mistic view of the situation:
1.-The gravity OF the danger that besets these colo.
hlcs Ii unlOrtuhhttIv beyond dispute. Ana serious a9
is the present industrial and social situation. there
Is reason to fear that 1t Is the prelude to the more
formidable evils that must arise II the process thai
has been going on for years should continue. and the
depressed and falling cane.sugar industry OF the Brit
ish West Indies should come to practical extinction.
A catastrophe of the kind. already plainly In the air,
would bring with 1t political and social as well as
commercial consequences OF such Importance that II
would be well that the people of this country. who
are at the last resort those who arc responsible and
those who will suffer. should give earnest heed TO tho
contents OF tho report"
There is no doubt that the writer in the
Scotsman correctly diagnoses the position,
but it is very improbable that the sum pro.
posed to he given in aid to the colonies will
prove sufficient under the actual conditions.
There is a shifting not only of the bases of
industry going on in the West indian
islands and of social conditions, but of their
political and commercial interests also and
1t may well be that the lettering of those
interests that may arise from the cxpcndi-
ture of the British taxpayers money in
improving the social and Industrial condi-
lions of the inhabitants of the British West
Indies will prove more to the benefit of the
trade Of the United States than of the Brit
ish taxpayer.
If we look at the relations between the
other British colonies and the mother coun.
try, we do not find that the British tax.
payer has much cause for satisfaction. In
Canada, while the l~oyalist faction is always
calling for imperial troops to be sent over
in order that it may derive the benefits to
be enjoyed from the expenditure of the
British taxpayers money, the Canadian
Nationalist protest against the sacrifice
of Canadian blood and Canadian money
in England's wars for English purposes (;
and of the money to be expended in
new fortiticatiOns in Canada, the English
Government is called on to furnish its
quota. In Australia the military forces are
kept up for Australian defence, and not in
aid of English aggression. When recently
n military contingent was asked for, only a
d~erisory offer of a hundred lancers was
made, and now an imperial COMMISSIONS
is on his Wy out to Australia to urge on
the Governments of that country the ne