[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:I
SIR,—What struck me as the most significant passage in Mr. Balfour's address to the members of the British Cotton- Growing Association on Monday seems to have escaped the attention of the reporters. Mr. Balfour laid stress on the fact that the important factor in securing steady prices for raw cotton was, not increase of supply merely, but that this supply should be grown over widely separated areas which were unlikely at any one time to be subject to the same climatic conditions. Illustrating this, he instanced the serious and demoralising fluctuations in the price of wheat in England at the time when we were mainly dependent for our supply on our own resources, and pointed out that this con- dition of affairs had only been remedied when we commenced drawing our supplies from all over the world. It was a significant comparison for Mr. Balfour to choose, and the significance was not diminished by his interjection, made with the most deliberate emphasis, and immediately following his statement of our indebtedness to the policy of world-wide consumption. "And Heaven forbid," said Mr. Balfour, "that it should ever be otherwise." Those who advocate the restriction of our sources of food-supply, and still fondly regard self-sufficiency as the ideal condition, seem, after all, not to have quite succeeded in " corralling " Mr. Balfour.—I am,
Sir, &c., H. M. H.
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