At a meeting of the Colonial Section of the Society
of Arts on Tuesday night Mr. Emmott, M.P., discuised a queition which is becoming one of our most urgent economic problems, —the cotton supply-grounds of the future. At predent we are too much dependent upon the United States, and as the demand for cotton may be expected to double itself within the next twenty years, it is most important to look round' Ter new sources of supply. Mr. Emmott described the efforts ''44 the British Cotton-Growing Association, which was in corre- spondence with all parts of the Empire. The most hopelkil field lay in our African possessions, especially in Nigeria, where he urged the construction of a light railway, and a system, not of latifundia, but of small native farms. Sir Edward Grey, who presided, declared that the recent cotton crisis in America would be a blessing in disguise if it called our attention to the necessity of finding new supplies of the raw material, and so creating a great industry within the Empire and providing for the development of our vast tropical possessions.
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