§ 16. Sir JOHN POWERasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if the lower price of raw cotton has had any adverse effect on the acreage devoted to cotton growing within the Empire?
§ Mr. AMERYIt is too early to estimate the effect of the heavy fall in the price of American cotton at the end of 1926, but the matter will be carefully watched. As regards earlier movements in prices, the effect oh acreage has not been marked; in Uganda, for example, the area planted in 1926 was 5 per cent. less than in 1925. Climatic conditions in Africa generally have in the past season been somewhat adverse to high production of rain-grown cotton.