Thomas Allnutt Brassey

“ We had free sugar before; now we are paying hard cash to help the Empire.' The British people must remember that they have great responsibilities in regard to the West Indies. The negro population was brought to those islands as slaves under the authority of the British Government; we are morally responsible that those people do not starve. The present distress in the West Indies is due, at any rate in part, to foreign protective duties and bounties, of which the people of the United Kingdom have been reaping the benefit, to the loss of their West Indian fellow-subjects. ”

“ The question before us is, Are British subjects to be ruined by artificial competition? Attempts have been made and failed to secure the abolition of bounties; the only remaining course is for the British Government to impose countervailing duties on bounty - fed sugar. The British people have made great sacrifices in order to abolish slavery ”

“ Whilst there may be some justification under the special circumstances for the grants recommended by the Royal Commission, I am strenuously opposed to dealing out doles of Imperial money, because such a policy is an inadequate remedy, and because it will tend to sap the energies and self-dependence of the people and the government of the Colonies concerned. ”