LANCASHIRE AND EGYPT. (To THE Burros or rue " SncraToa."3
Snit,—In your interesting article on "Lancashire and the Indian Cotton Duties " of April 2nd you quote Lord Cromer as having stated that " if India and Egypt were going to preach Pro- tection in the most effective way—that is, by adopting it—it might easily happen that they would convert Lancashire and end by getting protective barriers erected in our ports. In a word, if this game of ' beggar my neighbour ' were to begin, Egypt and India would suffer most by it." It is interesting to have at first hand the opinion of so high an authority as Lord Cromer, but it would be still more interesting to know what protective tariff could be devised in England which could do the slightest harm to the Egyptian export trade. Except for cigarettes, which only represent one seventy-fifth of the total export, practically nothing is exported from Egypt but raw material and agricultural produce, and of this nearly 80 per cent. is raw cotton. Egyptian cotton is a speciality with which American cotton does not compete, and no country—least of all England—would be so foolish as to attempt to exclude it. In fact, a country which exports raw materials will always find its market and need never be anxious about foreign tariffs. As to Egypt's only serious manufacture (cigarettes), she has not found in practice that her free trade policy has been of any use during the present century in restraining foreign countries from increasing their protective tariffs against cigarettes both in Europe (including England) and America.—I am, Sir &c.,
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