The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-21

 of things is rapidly approaching in your majesty's West Indian possessions, and that the crisis will be reached in very few years. We have spoken of the abandonment of the estates as likely to be gradual both because the decision to abandon cultivation is not likely to be at once universal, and because on many estates where such decision is taken the work is not likely to cease altogether until the growing crop and the ensuing ratoon crop, or after growth of the canes, have been manu- factured. Where, however, the owners of estates Gas in Barbadoes) depend on loans for the carrying on of cultivation, the collapse of the credit of the indus try may result, in some instances, in the sudden cessation of all employment upon such estates"
 The majority of the commissioners do not recommend the imposition of coun- tervailing duties, not alone because 1t is contrary to the settled free trade policy of Great Britain, but because they do not believe that it will remedy the evil. | They say that the bounties are granted | on different systems in different coun- tries, that they vary very much in amount and are subject to alteration | from time to time, and that 'it will be impossible to calculate the exact | amount of the fall in price which is due to the grant of bounties, and it would be a hopeless task to attempt to deter | mine to what extent this fall In price | of unknown amount will be oounteract- ed by the imposition of countervailing duties on the import of beet sugar into the Kingdom Their report further ar gues that if the countervailing duties 1 caused rise in the price greater than the amount of the bounty in any coun- | try the beet in that country would be in better position than before, and if it raised the price by exactly the amount | of the bounty the beet would be in the same position as at present.. It further suggests that the rise in the price of I sugar brought about by the imposition | of countervailing duties would not only encourage the production of cane sugar throughout the world, but might have the special effect of "exhilarating" the growth of the sugar industry in the
 United States, and thus materially con- | tracting the market for West Indian
 sugar. The commissioners express the l opinion that the greater portion of the | fall of the price of sugar is not due to the existence of the bounties, and would
 not be prevented if they were abolished, l but is really due to the great increase l of competition in the production of su- I gar. They claim that in order to be eff
 fective in restoring prosperity to the su- gar industry of the West Indies the
 countervailing duties must have the ef- | of ictn pfina n tn
 extent which would cost consumers in
 the United Kingdom at least two mill
 lion pounds sterling year.
 Sir Henry Wylie Norman, in his mil nority report, does not claim to be cer-
 tain that countervailing duties will so
 raise the price of sugar in the West h.
 dies as to make the production profita-
 ble, but he thinks that the experiment ought to be tried. While they recom- mend the substitution of other indus
 tries, so far as practicable, the commits sioners agree that none can fully take the place of sugar. There is no other industry in these colonies that can em- ploy the same amount of capital and labor The complete substitution of any other product would mean starva- tion or emigration to fully half of the population. They recommend central factories and more improved methods of manufacture. In St. Kitts and Bar badoes each estate has its sugar mill,
 and these are without the most modern appliances. This recommendation, how ever is apparently no solution of the difficulty, as in Demerara there are cen tral factories and the most modern ma chinery. and the production Is still un- profitable.
 Barbadoes, realizing that England
 will be slow to change her settled pol
 icy of free trade, and that the represen-
 tatives of a constituency enjoying the
 benefit of the bounties on beet sugar without paying for them are not likely
 to vote for countervailing duties, has
 struck out an independent policy of her
 own Her government has asked the
 British ministry to negotiate reciproc-
 ity treaty with the United States which
 will permit the introduction of her su-
 gar into America free of duty, or at a reduced tariff. On December z, 1897,
 MT. Chamberlain, the secretary for the colonies, telegraphed to the governor of
 Barbadoes asking on what products she
 wished reduction of the American du- ty, and on the following day the legis-
 lature of the colony voted to recommend a reciprocity treaty with the American
 government providing for mutual re-
 duction of tariffs. There was a reel procity treaty in 1891 between Barba- : does and the United States, through the intervention, of course of the imperial government, which admitted Barbado-
 an sugar free of duty into the United States, and also provided for reduc- tion of duties upon American goods.
 The United States had two-thirds of the trade of the island, and the Barbadoes
 tariff was for revenue only, and by the : terms of the treaty is was so reduced as to make it difficult to raise the revenue
 It is universally admitted here that it is impossible to make a treaty on the
 same terms again with the United
 States. Nevertheless, the most intelli- gent business men here believe that a reciprocity treaty with America is the only remedy for their difficulties. Said leading merchant of Barbadoes: "A
 treaty with Barbadoes alone would hardly be regarded at Washington as
 worth while, but a reciprocity treaty with the entire British West Indies
 would be far more important consid-