exporter. India raises millions of tons but has to import some to
fill all her needs. In the United States, Louisiana, Texas, and some
parts of Florida produce about 6 per cent of what we use, but our
dependencies, Porto Rico, the Hawaiian Islands and the Philippines all
export to us, and together with Cuba, make up the deficiency.

The war has changed entirely the peace-time distribution. The map
shows what the battle-lines have done to the beetfields of Europe.
Belgium and the northern part of France, in which practically all
the beets were grown, are in German hands. In 1914 the battle-line
eliminated 203 of the 213 French sugar-factories. In 1916-17 the
falling back of the Germans had returned 65 factories to the French,
but now again some of these have fallen into the enemy's hands. The
French crop in 1915-16 was only one-fifth of the crop before the war
and the following year it was only a fourth. Italy's crop was 25 per
cent less in 1916-17 than before the war and the estimated yield for
this year is 50 per cent less. England, of course, can no longer get
sugar from the continent.

So the allied world must import cane-sugar or have almost no sugar
at all. The cane-sugar supply is largely dependent on shipping. Ships
cannot be spared to go to the East. Therefore the sugar of Cuba and
the rest of the West Indies, our main source of supply, must be shared
with the Allies. It is to the credit of all involved that every effort
is being made to see that the division is a fair one. A commission
representing the Allies, the United States, and Cuba apportioned the
1917-18 Cuban crop and fixed its price. Competitive bidding by the
many purchasers, with the danger of forcing up the price of the
limited supply, was in this way prevented.