Lord Leverhulme, in the course of an interesting address to
the shareholders of his company last week, sharply criticized the' Colonial Office for maintaining the export- duties on West African produce and especially the differential duty on palm- kernels. There was something to be said for the differential duty as a temporary War measure. The object was to prevent Germany, immediately after the War, from regaining bur:virtual monopoly of the palm-kernel trade, and to enable crushing mills to be firmly established in Great Britain. Exports from West Africa to any foreign country were therefore heavily taxed, and Germany was shut out. But the effect has been to make Germany draw on rival sources of supply, especially in the Dutch East Indies, and artificially to depress the price of West African palm-kernels se that the natives have- been discouraged from developing their industry.
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