COLONIAL EMPIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 23, 27 July 1934, Page 18

COLONIAL EMPIRE

ECONOMIC SURVEY '

STORE OF INFORMATION

FIRST ANNUAL ISSUE

(From "The Posts- Representative.) LONDON, Juuo 14. Tho .Colonial Office has prepared, and JI.M. Stationery Office has published, a new and remarkably comprehensive "Economic Survey of tho Colouial Empire," dealing with every phase of economic life in each of the non-self-governing colonies, the dependencies of certain of those colonies, the protectorates (other than the protectorates of the South African High Commission), the protected States in Malaya and Borneo, and the mandated territories administered under the authority of the British Government. Some, eighteen mouths have been spent in collating the store of information, for a volume which'runs to 575 foolscap pages. Much of the matt<*r has never before been published, and as far as the general public are concern, ed, is available for the first time. The survey claims only to bo in respect of 1932, yet iv a number of cases 1933 figures are given, while in some instances it has been possible to bring the information right up to, March, 1934. Publication of the survey is to be annual, and in future' it is believed that it will be possible to give all figures and facts up to within, at the outBide, sis months of the dato of local compilation. ' TRADING POLICY. The survey points out that selfsufficiency is in no sense the policy of the British Government or the local Governments for tho Colonial Empire. Everything possible is being done to encourage and develop tho export trade on sound lines. Although 1932 is the basic year, the fact that some of the returns relate to an area of' 1,860,000 square miles indicates the magnitude of the effort made for the general enlightenment. The entry of population at 50,700,000 is sufficiently portentous of undeveloped resource's and of space for population of British stock. The' aggregate Public j Debt, less the value of sinking funds,! is about £.126,610,000. Revenue, which j totals £,44,843,574, works out at 15s i 9Jd per head and ranges from 3s 9|d per head in' the case of New Hebrides to £27 7s IOJd in the Falkland Islands. Expenditure at £.47,888,000 averages 16s 104 d per head. In this case the range is from 4s 7'< d for Nigeria to £24 6s 6d, again for the Falkland Isles. . I Imports reach an aggregate slightly in excess of £175,316,000 and is equivalent to £3 Is lOd per head. Hero, again, tho Falkland Islands head the list with £76 18s 9d, while Nigeria with 7s 3d shows the; smallest figure. Domestic exports maybe taken at £ 79,343,767, or £1 Ss per head. Total exports are £151,529,980. It would appear, therefore, that taking tho colonies as a whole, there is an unfavourable balance of trade of soms £23,786,440. At the same time it has to ba borne in mind that the figures are based upon the' actual imports and exports of individual dependencies. ' ' COLONIAL EXPORTS. \ For a number of years, down to 1931, j the most valuable colonial export pro- j duct was rubber. In that year the groat. I i'all in the prico of rubber reduced the j value of exports to such an extent that | minerals, although their export value ■ also was greatly reduced, owing principally to the fall in the price and production of tin, took tho first place. In 1932 tho great group of oilseeds and nuts and vegetable oils, although they, too, had lost much of their value, took tho second place, passing rubber for the first time. From many points of view this group is the most important of the export products to the Colonial Empire as a whole. Rubber is, the survey shows, of little or no importance outside Malaya and Ceylon, and the minerals are almost exclusively an export product and of importance only to comparatively few dependencies. The oilseeds group is of major importance both to tho internal economic life and to the external trade of much more than half the Colonial Empire. An entirely new featuro in Governmental statistics-is introduced into the survey in the form of "staggered" tables. These tables, which show exports of tho most important products from the various centres over four years in both quantities and values, with destination, are so set that each successive set of figures is placed fur-; ther to the right. This arrangement; jis designed to facilitate reference and i i comparison. , ■ i Every dependency is dealt with sop- i 1 arately, in the first portion of the book,; ;in a series of-economic, memoranda j j which have been prepared on exactly! '; uniform lines. This ensures that the; i same essential facts are given in each ; case and should prove,, of increasing: value for comparison with subsequent j editions of the work. .A special see-) tion in each memorandum relates to | finance and is divided into two sub-sec-j tictns. The first, gives a brief account; of the currency system of the dopen- J dency, a list of the banks doing busi- \ ness therein, and an account of any work of a banking nature performed by the Government. PUBLIC FINANCE. j Tim second sub-section relating to! public finance gives: (a) A brief state-; ment of - tho'public debt of the dependency; (b) an analysis of the revenue! for the latest year for which figures aro available, showing the .proportion of tho revenue derived from, various sources; (c) an analysis of the revenue derived from Customs, showing, where the information is available, the proportion of the revenue derived from imports from various countries; (d) an analysis of the expenditure of the dependency " for the last year for which figures are available, classified under the following general heads:—l. Deficit (if any) on the operations of selfbalancing Departments, such as the Post Office, Government Railways, etc. 11. Public debt service. 111. Administration. IV. Economic development. 3 7. Social services. VI. Defence. VII. Non-effective (pensions and gratuities). A statement of the reserve funds of tho dependency, is also given and also of the financial assistance granted to the dependency by the British Government in recent years, either by direct grant or loan-in-aid or by grant or loan from the Colonial Development and Empire Marketing Fund's. The compilers of the survey comment: —"Self-sufficiency is in no sense the policy of his Majesty's Government or tho local Governments for tho Colonial Empire; on the contrary, everything possiblo is being dono to encourage aud develop the export trade on sound lines; but if the time over came when a policy of economic nationalism in those foreign countries which j have- ' hitherto afforded Jnrjjo ranrkrts for colonial products developed to such j an extent as to close a number of thoso j markets, tho Colonial Empire would fare a great deal better than many other countries, and the evcr-i.ncren.s- i ing .development "of; trade within the] Empire would do much to restore the balance." Pride of place for the vuluo of the export is held no£ by xubbor bjut ihy

the group of palm-oil and ground-nut products, which were exported to a value of over £13.000,000 in. 1932 i (£29,000,000 in 1929). But the ?uvf vey here sounds a warning note. Oil? from crushed plants are very inter- { j changeable and fluctuations of supply ido not help, the producers of any paiticiilar oilseed. Most of the product is used for soap and margarine, and the margarine market has shrunk with the cheaper butter supplies, but this shrink-1 | age has b?!en accompanied by an in-; [ crease in the output of oilseeds and nuts. ■ ' ■ ; ■ -..■•'. I There is also a very comprehensive index. For students and lecturers the volume will provide an extraordinary I mass of most useful and enlightening material. ■ '