SUGAR BOUNTIES.
[To THE Roma or THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Will you allow me to reply to your article in the Spectator of January 1st in regard to the Egyptian sugar factories ? You point out that two new factories are now nearly ready for work, and you ask—practically—why, if new factories be started profitably in Egypt, sugar factories in the West Indies should be given up. I think you forget that sugar factories about to work in Egypt must have been planned and arranged for certainly not less than three years ago, when the prices of sugar were on a higher level than they are now.
It is almost certain that if these factories had been at work last year they would have lost money. Mr. Hamilton Lang, in his evidence before the West India Royal Commission, explained how the exceptional profit of 1896 arose, and estimated the loss on the factories of the Daira Sanieh for 1897 at Ll per ton on the sugar produced, and I may remind you that the Daira Sanieh produces about three-fourths of the total sugar produced in Egypt. The evidence before the West India Royal Commission, published in the appendix to their Report, shows that the cost of production of sugar factories in Trinidad and British Guiana is about El per ton less than that of factories in Egypt.—I am, Sir, &c., Billiter Square Buildings, January 12th. N. LUBBOCK.
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