On Friday, April 14th, Mr. Chamberlain made a sympathetic speech
to a deputation which desired him to prohibit the intro- duction of spirits into districts of West Africa where liquor had not yet been introduced. Though, as he said, neither a faddist nor a sentimentalist, and "certainly not a teetotaler," he was strongly convinced that the liquor traffic in West Africa was not only discreditable to the true Imperialism—"the sentiment which I desire to inculcate in all my countrymen" —and derogatory to the British name, but also disastrous to British trade. After dealing with the strange statistical anomalies of the spirit trade in West Africa, and noting how greatly the duties varied in the French colonies—in Dahomey they are 9d. per gallon, and on the Ivory Coast 3s. 9d.—Mr. Chamberlain declared himself in favour of a prohibitive zone. In places where spirits were not now known, as in Nigeria, they should not be introduced. The whole problem is most complicated, and we are not very hopeful of results ; but credit must be given to Mr. Chamberlain for his courage and sincerity of purpose in attacking the question.
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