390 



The PRESIDENT : The committee would report to the Inter- 

 national Association, and its report would be printed for 

 circulation among the members of the Association. Or, if it 

 is judged desirable, if would be made as a report for adoption 

 at the next International Congress. The reason for making 

 the inquiry, as I understand it, is that it is thought that some 

 consideration should be given to the question of the applic- 

 ability of this Convention to tropical countries very few of 

 which were concerned in drafting it. 



Sir DAVID PRAIN : Then it would be necessary, I presume, 

 for a resolution to be submitted to the Government of this 

 country, and probably at an early date, because, so far 

 as I understand the position, it is this the Convention 

 has been arrived at by a properly constituted conference of 

 delegates representing various countries invited to attend, and 

 the conference, having come to the conclusions which are 

 embodied in that Convention, have presented those conclusions 

 to their various Governments in such form that the Govern- 

 ments concerned must either accept the Convention as a whole, 

 or they must put it aside as a whole. Any suggestion! such as 

 is made in this resolution seems to indicate that it is possible 

 that that Convention can be modified. I do not think that it 

 is possible for the Convention to be modified. I simply wish 

 to call the attention of the meeting to that point before a vote 

 is taken. 



The PRESIDENT : I do not think that consideration should 

 affect our action, because in any case it is very desirable that 

 it should be stated on good authority, if it is true, that the 

 Convention, whether officially adopted or not, is not applicable 

 to all tropical countries. This committee would not in any 

 sense be an official committee; it would be a committee 

 appointed by the Congress to add to our knowledge, and 

 would not in any way conflict with any action that the Govern- 

 ments affected by the Convention might deem it desirable 

 to take. 



Sir DAVID PRAIN: Still, do you not think it a very good 

 thing that the representatives of tropical agriculture should 

 empower you, as President of the Congress, to transmit a 

 copy of the resolution to the Government ? 



The PRESIDENT: When the report is made it will still have 

 to be considered, and if approved, adopted by the. International 

 Association. It will then be a question whether it should be 

 transmitted to the Governments concerned and also to the 

 International Agricultural Institute at Rome. But I do not 

 think it is necessary at this stage that the committee should 

 be instructed to send its report in any particular direction. It 

 is for this meeting to decide what shall be done with the 

 resolution it is now asked to pass. 



