Arizona republican., 1899-06-26
Islands of the West Indies Be-
 ing Brought Closer.
INTERESTING FIGURES GIVEN
"A New Chain Of Islands In inc Brit iSh West Indies Which Will Contribute 10 inc Commercial advancement Of inc United States The Reciprocity Treaty Signed.

Washington. June 25 (SpecfaD-The
 fact that a reciprocity treaty intended
 to bring portion of the British West
 Indies into closer commercial relations
 with the United States. has just been
 signed. and that others of that group
 of iSla1gdS are suggesting similar ar
 engagements lends interest to q series
 of tables which the Treasury Bureau
 of Statistics will present in the forth
 coming number of the Summary of
 Commerce X Finance These show
 that the great semi-circle of islands
 which stretch from the southern coast
 of Florida to the eastern coast of We're
 uela, numbering hundreds. having an
 area of nearly 100000 square miles,
 and population of 5,000,O00, have an
 annual commerce of $150,00O,CG0.
 While the events of the past year have
 brought the most important of these,
 Cuba and Porto Rico, into closer re- ldtions with the United States. these eveEts were quickly followed by sug- gestionS for closer relation on the part of others of uiie group which nat ura!ly look to the United States as the nearest market lp which to dispose of their products and from which to ob- tain their supplies.
 In this great chain of islands con meeting continent with continent. Great Britain controls by far the larg- est number. The Bahamas, which stretch sOutheasterly from Florida, all most to Porto Rico, with twenty inhab- ited, and scores of uninhabted islands. have been under British control since ITS, and at the close of the RevoIu tionary war became the home of many families of English Goyalists from the south of the United States The Vir- sin group, just east of Porto Rico, is partly under the corrrOl of Great BrfJ- ain. The long line of islands stretch ing southwardly from Por,o Rico to the northeast coast of South America, land, are mostly under the control of Hhe United Kingdom, while Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, lying south l west of Cuba, and British Honduras, l on the adjacent mainland of Central 1 America, are likewise a part of Great CT Britain" Thus the large proportion of the semi-circle of islands swinging | from the coast of Central America past the southern point of Florida to the | northeastern point of South America, emitting CuLa and Porto Rico, are uEdsr British control
 The British colonies thus lying com l mercially adjacent to the United States ! at the south, including those upon the mainland of Central and South Amer | ica, have an area of over 125,O0O | square miles, q population of nearly D. 000,000 and their purchases from abroad amount annually to nearly $49,- 000.G00 in value, and their exports to f about5a like sum. Their productions | are mostly sugar, tropical fruits, coffee, caca0, and liners, of which the United States is large importer, while their purchases are chiefly breads;uffs, clothing, manufactured goods, mineral oils, coal, lumber, and other articles of which we are large exporters. At pres ent our sales to them amount to about $12,O00,O00 per annum CT about 30 per cent of their total purchases While our imports from them amount 70 about S15,O00,000, annually, or nearly 10 per cent. of their total exports.
 While the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies in 1882, the French West Indies in 1S4S, Porto Rico n 1873 and Cuba in 1886, followed by the de velopment in Europe of beet sugar pre- duction, and eXpOrtati0n, reduced the area devoted to sugar growing in the West Indies, it increased at the same time the variety of the tropical pro ducts which they had to offer in eX change for the food stuffs, clothing, and manufactures which they annu- ally purchase from the temperate zone.
 The chief purchases of the people of tire British Wes's Indies are cotton goods, dried fish, flour, meats, rica, lum Der. Hardware and furniture and Other manufactures. In 1897, Jamaica imported cotton goC,;s worth $1 ,Gf3.- 779; fish $5G5. 5.6S2; four $790,.12: and rice $196.762. Trinidad imported. -four $619 ,9G3; textiles $1. .5Cr. .721: rice S724. 023: Bahamas, cottons, $191, ,915; four S125, ,691; Barbadoes, cottOns, $64O, ,246; flour, $2S1, ,492; rice $246, ,556; fish $491, PIT; St Lucia. cottOns $113, ,42S; four SS6,4 ,409. St Vincent, flour, $41,9W. Leeward Islands, cottons, $20S, S,422 four. 22S. 725; Grenada. flour, SIP, ,69S. The British West Indies as a whole, imported from Great Britain in 1897, merchandise valued at $S,6S2, ,T36, of