The ridiculous suggestion, attributed, rightly er wrongly, to an American
politician, that we should repay our American debt in kind by ceding the West Indies was repudiated by the Prime Minister on Monday. The Government, he said, had not the slightest intention of bartering or selling any. part of the West Indies, whose inhabitants were intensely proud of their member- ship of the British Empire. It was, of course, the only possible answer. What, surprises us is that such a proposal should ever have been made, even in jest, in the country which is credited with a profound belief in the principle of " self-determination." The people of the British West Indies, who number two millions, have not expressed the faintest desire to change their allegiance, nor have they been consulted in the matter. As Colo:iel Amery says, the British. Empire is not for sale.
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