FEDERATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 36, 11 February 1913, Page 4

FEDERATION.

A new scheme of federation for the West Indies is discussed in a pamphlet written by tlio Hon. C. Gideon Murray, Administrator of St. Vincent. Mr Murray’s scheme was, not long! ago, laid before the West India Committee, and subsequently before the Governments of the several colonies in the Caribbean Sea, but it did not provi acceptable, inasmuch as it contemplated the exclusion, of Jamaica, tin Bahamas, and British Honduras from its operation. An effort has now been made to work out a scheme which will be free Irom this defect and will include all the British West Indies. In deciding upon such a scheme the greatest difficulty, it is stated, is likely to be experienced in connection with th:> inclusion cf Barbados, whose Con-

stitution is different from that of the' other colonies, but it has been suggested that the difficulty may be overcome by making the island the centre of the proposed Federal Government. Latest information from the West Indian Colonies states that on the ground of economy alone it is considered very desirable that some such movement should be made. The cost of administration is at present out of all pro-

portion to the resources of the islands, a fact due entirely to the

number of separate Governments cadi

with'a superfluity of small separate departments. Federation, it is claimed, would lead to the establishment of a common treasury, and by enabling the colonies to dispense with Imperial doles would greatly improve their credit. It would also lead at once to the abolition of the existing system of Customs tariffs' and quarantine restrictions which the colonies have erected against each other, and it would necessitate the repeal of the present complicated code of Imperial laws and Orders in Council and the gradual establishment of uniform laws in their stead. A beginning has been made in the form of a proposal for a conference to consider how and to what extent the laws of the different colonies could be codified and assimilated.