Report of the Forty-Sixth Annual General Meeting. 329 



The Work of the Trade and Industry Committee. 



• 17. The Empire Trade and Industry Committee has continued its useful work 

 during the past year, and amongst other matters attention has been given to the 

 following : — 



Empire Development Board and Fund. — The evidence given orally before the 

 Dominions Royal Commission by representatives of the Committee will be found 

 at pp. 93 — 108 of " Royal Commission on the Natural Resources, Trade and Legis- 

 lation of certain portions of His Majesty's Dominions — Minutes of Evidence taken in 

 London during October and November, 1912 "' (Cd. 6517), which was published in 

 the course of last year. At the request of the Royal Commission, the Committee 

 prepared a supplementary memorandum dealing particularly with the existing 

 deficiencies in the Empire's maritime communications, with special reference to freight 

 accommodation, charges on emigrants, and speed of steamship services, and the cost 

 of accelerating them. A note was also submitted on existing deficiencies on telegraphic 

 communications. In the Second Interim Report of the Royal Commission, issued in 

 January last, reference is made to the proposals of this Committee, and it is stated that 

 " The subject in all its bearings is receiving . . . most earnest consideration." The 

 continued interest in the Committee's proposal is shown by another request which has 

 lately been received from the Commission for a further memorandum, on tlie subject 

 of Canadian freight conditions. 



Uniformity in Empire Statistics. — The Committee has been urging the necessity 

 of taking steps to bring about closer uniformity in the methods in use throughout 

 the Empire of collecting, collating, publishing, and printing certain statistics so as 

 to give them common values and to make the figures of one part comparable with 

 another. The Committee has represented that this end would be best achieved by 

 referring the subject to a Conference of Statisticians of the Empire, and it is satisfactory 

 to note that the Second Interim Report of the Dominions Royal Commission alread)^ 

 referred to contains a definite recommendation to that effect. The Committee is 

 now considering the best means of convening such a Conference. 



Hong-Kong University. — Reference was made in the last Annual Report to the 

 request received from the Dean of Faculty of Engineering for co-operation in procuring 

 equipment and subscriptions for this LTniversity. The Committee agreed to assist, 

 and its efforts met with .substantial success. On a request being made that a repre- 

 sentative of the Institute should be nominated on the London Committee of the Uni- 

 versity, Mr. Ben H. Morgan, Chairman of the Trade and Industry Committee, was asked 

 by the Council and consented to act. 



State-owned Atlantic Cable. — The Committee has continued to urge the establish- 

 ment of an all-British Atlantic cable, for which proposal the Committee has received 

 expressions of the cordial approval of the Governments of Australia and New Zealand, 

 as well as Canada. 



British Trade ivith India and the Crown Colonies. — The Committee has continued 

 to press on the attention of the Board of Trade the necessity of appointing permanent 

 Ti'ade Commissioners in those territories to report to British manufacturers and 

 traders on the state of, and openings for, British trade there. The Committee consider 

 that the present anomalous position of British trade with these territories would be 

 improved if the markets and trading conditions were properly investigated and reported 

 upon. 



