V - COLONIAL TRADE

Summary

TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY NEWS.”

Sir,—Allow me to call your attention to the following paragraph of an article in The Times of Tuesday last on the subject of our trade. Its reference to the present controversy and its purpose are sufficiently obvious.

“Our best customers, beyond all comparison, are our own Colonies. One-third and upwards of our entire business is done with them. They took from us last year goods to the value of £42,000,000, our whole exports being computed at £125,000,000. India stands for £16,000,000, Australia for £10,000,000, and British North America for £3,000,000. Together, these three customers represent £30,000,000, out of the £42,000,000, and their purchases have been but slightly affected by the disturbances of the year. In fact, the Australian trade shews an actual increase of a million. From this beginning we go through a long catalogue of more than twenty names till we come to Heligoland, which expends in our markets about £300 a-year. Without this list our trade would dwindle to comparatively small proportions, and the fact may be held to count for something in our political estimate of these dependencies. It will be replied, however, that all these countries would deal with us still, even if they were not our Colonies; and we do not deny that evidence to that effect might be gathered from the tables before us. Foreign West Indies, for instance, deal with us still more largely than British West Indies.