Report of the Forty -Seventh Annual General Meeting. 361 



England, Gloucestershire is the only one that has over 100 Fellows and Associates — 

 due to the formation of the Bristol Branch. Kent is the next highest with 96 members', 

 most of whom are in the London area ; Sussex with 68 comes next, which is partly in 

 the London area ; and Surrey with 60, entirely in the London area. In Lancashire, 

 with a population of nearly two millions, we have 11 Fellows and 4 Associates ; Man- 

 chester having only 3 Fellows and 1 Associate, and Liverpool 4 Fellows and 1 Associate. 

 In Yorkshire, with its population of over three millions, there are only 20 Fellows and 

 8 Associates, of which Leeds provides 3 Fellows and 1 Associate, and Hull 2 Fellows ; 

 but in neither Sheffield nor Bradford -is there a single representative of the Royal 

 Colonial Institute. In Warwickshire we have 12 Fellows and 6 Associates, of which 

 the great Imperial city of Birmingham contributes 5 Fellows and 2 Associates. The 

 facts as regards Scotland, Ireland and Wales have been already stated — the whole 

 membership of these par^s of the United Kingdom making up a beggarly total of 114 ! 

 From this statement of the distribution of our members in the United Kingdom it is 

 apparent that the Institute derives its support from London and the country for fifty 

 miles around, and that from the great cities and towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire^ 

 and cities like Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the Institute derives practically 

 no support. Overseas nearly everjrwhere we have made good progress. Five years 

 ago the Non-resident Fellows were just over 3,000 ; to-day they are well over 7,000. 



Besides the recommendations of the Committee of 1909, the Council have taken 

 other steps for the advancement of the work of the Institute. In 1910 it constituted a 

 Standing Committee on . Emigration 'at the request of all the societies engaged in 

 emigration, which was presided over by the Duke of Marlborough as Chairman. It has 

 founded an Eilipire Trade and Industry Committee, with Mr. Ben H. Morgan as 

 Chairman, which is doing excellent work, capable of great extension. It has also 

 enlarged the Council and added to it as Vice-Presidents members from the various 

 Dominions. In 1912 another important step taken by the Council was when the Duke 

 of Connaught was appointed Governor-General of Canada, and became Vice-Patron of 

 the Institute instead of President, ttte Council took the opportunity of inviting Earl 

 Grey to becohie its President^-a position which he accepted with so much advantage 

 to the Institute. 



I have already stated that one of the most important suggestions of the Committee 

 of 1909 Avas the formation of local branches throughout the Empire. It is desirable 

 that we should clearly understand the object for which we want these branches. 



Comparisons have been made between the Institute and other societies, such as the 

 Royal Geographical Society and the Royal United Service Institution. The former of 

 these is a scientific society for the encouragement and diffusion of the science of 

 geography ; the latter society confines its members solely to officers in the Army and 

 Navy, who meet from time to time to discuss and hear papers read on naval and 

 military subjects. 1 have been a member of both of these societies for many years, and 

 I have not yet discovered that either of them had any political object, or that they were 

 anything more than scientific societies formed for a definite object. On the other hand, 

 the Royal Colonial Institute has a great political object, the " preservation of a per- 

 manent union between the Mother Country and the various parts of the Empire " ; it 

 is also a great patriotic society with an inspiring ideal, expressed by its motto " United 

 Empire." Its political object can only be gained by pushing our propaganda, not only 

 in the Mother Country, but among British subjects overseas and in foreign countries ; 

 and this can only be done* effectively by decentralising our efforts by means of local 

 branches wherever there are a sufficient number of monibei-s to form 'them. There is 



