Evening star., 1915-02-14

Canada sometimes has been called the
imperial granary of England The i'm
perialists in the Dominion and those
at home. have harped on the wheat crop
as a reason for maintaining the ties of
political union.
The extent of the Canadian north
west as a wheat producing region is
yet untested. The Dominion govern
ment has insured their fullest devel-
opment by the aid it has given to the
construction of transcontinental rail-
way systems to the Pacific, but the ul-
innate possibilities of the Canadian
northwest have little bearing on the
present problem of filing England's
bread basket for the next two or three
years.
Canada is able to supply the mother
country with above 50,000,000 bushels
of wheat for it's needs during the try
ing times that seem likely to come. The
import figures Of the United Kingdom
show that in 1912 above 40.00O.00O
bushels were imported from Canada,
and in 1913 approximately 100000
bushels.
The Panama canal is now open to
the vessels loading with wheat at Van
crop OF the northwest has some ad-
vantage in shortening the time of trans
portation. 1t also avoids what was
somewhat remote prospect of British
vessels with wheat cargoes being over
hauled by German cruisers in the South
Pacific or the South Atlantic. Former
ly the wheat that went out from Van
eouver had to find it's way around Cape
Horn.
The bread basket also gets a direct
contribution from Canada in the form
of -four. This goes out mostly from the
Atlantic ports of the Dominion. I'M
ports of Canadian flour in 1913 had
risen to above 100000 hundredweight
This meant. of course, that several mil
lion bushels of the Canadian wheat
crop were utilized for England.
Taking the imports of wheat into the
United Kingdom for the five-year
period beginning in 1909. it appears
that the British overseas possessions
fill about one-half the imported con-
tents of the bread basket.
*
In 1909, when the imports were ap-
proximately 1S5,000,000 bushels, the
British possessions supplied less than
100000 bushels, as against 100000
900 bushels supplied by other coun-
tries. In the following year. when the
imports were close to 200.008,000
bushels. the proportion of the colonies
was considerably larger, but it was
several million short of being equal
to that Of other countries.
In 1911, when the imports were a
fraction greater than in 1909. those
from the British possessions exceeded
other countries by about 100000
bushels.
The year 1919 was the banner year
for the British possessions. The United
Kingdom was very hungry that year.
and imported something like 20S,000,000
bushels. The British possessions pro-
vided 112,000,000 bushels Of this
amount
In 1913. when the Britons at home
were still crying for more bread. the
colonies fell back to s6,000.00O bushels.
while other countries provided 104,-
100000.
A close statistical analysis of the United
Kingdom wheat and -four imports in
detail, although the details are omitted,
shows in general way that during five
year period the United Kingdom was able
to draw on her own possessions for just
a little more than one-half of what she
needed to fill the imported contents of her
bread basket.
This demonstration In itself Is enough
to disprove the wild expectations Of the
political coalition which for years sought
to maintain that England could arrive at
the point where she could get all the