The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-22
AN APPEAL TO BRITAIN
SUGAR PLANTERS OF THE WEST IN
Ola COLONIES IN DISTRESS.
Assistance Demanded I'm Order that
They May Compete with other
GrOwers-COnference at Barbados.
of the Associated Press.

Correspondence Of the Associated Press.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados. Sept "A
conference of delegates from the several
sugar producing colonies in the West Indies
was held here to-day in the council cham
her,. Through some erroneous reports the
meeting was announced in the United States
and elsewhere as being a conference called
= TO consider the question of the annexation
Of the West Indian islands to the United
States or Canada j. Gardiner Austin pre-
sided. a number of long speeches were made
and the following resolution, introduced by
Il. c. Duncan, OF British Guiana, was
adopted:
Resolved, That this meeting of delegates
from British Guiana, Trinidad, Jamaica.
barbadoss and antigua, while fully recog-
nizing the EFFORTS OF the right honora bic
the secretary OF state for the colonies to
afford relief to the West Indian colonies
suffering from the serious depression OF the
sugar industry, regret that so far the at
tempts TO arrange reciprocal relations be-
tween the United States and the West
!holes, as well as TO obtain the abolition of
the bounty system, have met with no sue
cess. This meeting would strongly urge
upon the British government that nothing
short of the speedy rehabilitation of the
West Indies and British Guiana, and they
respectfully demand, as British subjects, the
right to compete in the home markets at the
natural cost of production with sugar i'm
ported from foreign countries and urgently
can upon ner Majesty's government as the
only eHectlVe remedy to take such steps as
Will either prevent the importation of all
sugar on which export bounties are given
or annul by the countervailing duty all the
advantages derived from such export boun-
ties
Mr.. Duncan, in the course of his remarks,
said: 1.-THE patience and loyalty of the peo-
pie Of the West Indies and British Guiana
have been put TO a severe test by the delay
that has arisen on the part of the mother
country to grant justice to the sugar in
dustry. year has elapsed since the report
of the royal West India commission placed
the British Parliament and people In full
possession of the facts. And yet nothing
has been done to relieve the injustice we
have been suffering from and stem the tide
of ruin that we ali know Is rapidly overtak-
ing our sugar industry. The British Parlia-
ment and people are aware that these colo
MES are drifting to ruin, and they cannot
plead that they have not had full warning
and knowledge of the facts If these colo
MES are allowed by England to perish, it
will be black page in her history that
records the fact that the foreign growers of
beet sugar on tine continent were enabled,
by means of bounties, to command the mar
kets of the mother country, while the loyal
West Indian colonies were suffered to go to
ruin and starvation.
I'VE have pleaded again and again for
Justice and for fair play, and we demand
them as right. We have asked for simple
justice and right to compete in the markets
OF the mother country at the natural cost of
production OF sugar imported from foreign
countries. Mr.. Chamberlain recently stated
in a speech in the House of Commons that
the best managed estates in the West Indies
and British Guiana. were able to make
profit, and he admitted that this was due
TO the favorable treatment offered us by
the United States. 1t Is surely an invidious
position for responsible British ministers to
be placed in to have to plead that a British
colony is being justly dealt with by a for
eign nation who give them fair treatment,
while the mother country DELAYS If the
chances of our future prosperity depend on
America. what can be our feelings, as loyal
British colonists. given over by the mother
country to depend on the justice of a for
eign nation? And, unfortunately, we all
know that our present position with regard
to America rests on very unstable founda-
ton. which might at any moment be swept
away Can any of us doubt that America.
with the colonies that will be under her pro-
lection. will in short time supply all the
sugar required for her consumption? And
there is no doubt that when that takes place
our sugar will be shut out by solid wall of
protective tariffs"