[To, the Editor of TIIE SPECTATOR.] Sin,----The two articles by
Sir Norman Angell and Mr. D. W. Brogan on the advantages .of colonial possessions to the great industrial Powers, make no mention of the part played in colonial development by the continual stream of capital services and goods with which the mother countries of the great imperial groups have supported emigration and native develop- ment in the past.
England and France have supported their empires with such streams of capital over a long period ; the investments of the chartered companies 'of the eighteenth century being the forerunners of colonial government loans that today represent a high figure per head of our Imperial population ; these investments provide the capital, that every settler in an unde- veloped country requires before his energies can be exercised to the best advantage.
In their present economic conditions neither Germany nor Italy could possibly provide the vast sums required to support any scheme of rapid colonial expansion, and if they entered the money markets of the world they would be forced to respect a policy of the " open door " and free trade in those areas before foreign investors would be, interested.
If Abyssinia is developed under a League mandate, with Italian interests recognised, will the example of League loans such as those made in recent years in Central Europe be fol- lowed out again ? Will the League undertake the orderly mobilisation of raw materials in backward countries to meet the grievances of certain nations to which Sir Samuel Hoare referred in his great speech at Geneva ?—I am, yours truly, . ANTHONY G. WRIGHTSON.
11 Phillimore Terrace, Allen Street, W. 8.
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