Page:Last Will and Testament of Cecil Rhodes.djvu/183

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HIS SPEECHES.
169
tection—they cannot get rid of it now. What is your trade with the United States—sixty millions of your own people? I will tell you. Your exports are about £40,000,000 per annum. Now, in Africa and Egypt we have only 600,000 whites with us, and I do not think the natives are very great consumers—but you are up to £20,000,000. I will take Southern Africa. You are doing about £15,000,000 with the Cape and Natal, almost entirely British goods, and about £4,000,000 with Egypt, where you have a fair chance for your goods; and you are doing £20,000,000 with those two small dependencies, as against £40,000,000 with another creation of yours which has shut your own goods out and only takes £40,000,000 from you. If it had given a fair chance to your trade you would be doing £150,000,000 with the United States, to your own advantage and to the advantage of the American people. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I can see very clearly that the whole of your politics lie in your trade, or should do so, because you are not like France, producing wine—you are not like the United States, a world by itself—you are a small province, doing nothing but making up the raw material into the manufactured article, and distributing over the world, and your great policy should be to keep the trade of the world, and therefore you have done a wise thing in remaining in Egypt and taking Uganda. You have to thank the present Prime Minister for that, and remember this, when it has to be written, that he has done that against probably the feelings of the whole of his party, which comprise the Little Englanders. He has taken Uganda and retained Egypt, and the retention of Egypt means the retention of an open market for your goods. (Hear, hear.) Why, the lesson is so