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Republic, did so much, through his intimate knowledge 

 of the scientific problems of tropical agriculture, to 

 promote its advancement in the French tropics. 

 Fortunately we have continued to enjoy the advantage 

 of M. de Lanessan's advice and assistance in the 

 affairs of the Association which owes so much to his 

 guidance. We all regret that continued ill-health 

 prevents us from welcoming him, the doyen of the 

 Association, among us to-day. 



I accepted, with considerable diffidence, the honour 

 so generously pressed on me by my Continental 

 colleagues, as among the many responsibilities it in- 

 volved was that of carrying out the unanimous wish of 

 the members of the Association that the next Inter- 

 national Congress should be held in London. 



Whatever success the present Congress may achieve 

 is due to the co-operation in the work of organization 

 of the few members of the British Committee who are 

 resident in London, and above all to the unremitting 

 labours of the Honorary Organizing Secretaries, Dr. 

 Henry and Mr. Harold Brown. It is satisfactory that 

 as a result of a year's arduous work an assemblage of 

 distinguished men of all nations and an embarrassing 

 wealth of communications on every aspect of tropical 

 agriculture are the salient features of the Third Inter- 

 national Congress of Tropical Agriculture. 



His Majesty the King has shown his interest in our 

 proceedings, and has recognized their importance by 

 graciously consenting to become Patron of the London 

 Congress. We have among the Honorary Vice- 

 Presidents, the Ambassadors in London of the Powers 

 concerned in tropical agriculture, His Majesty's Prin- 

 cipal Secretaries of State, the" Viceroy of India, and 

 other distinguished men who are or who have been 

 connected with administration in the tropics. 



The idea of co-operation and interchange of opinion 

 among those of different nationalities who are engaged 

 in the same work and who are working for the same 

 end is undoubtedly a valuable one, and its realization 

 has been productive of most useful results in several 

 important instances, so much so indeed that Inter- 

 national Congresses of all kinds, great and small, on 

 all sorts of subjects have become very numerous in 



