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convention under which it was founded. It is an official 

 institute, managed by different officials appointed by the 

 delegates of the different Governments, who sit there per- 

 manently and govern it. It is a wealthy institute, and has an 

 income furnished by those Governments, in addition to the 

 12,000 a year which the King of Italy has most generously 

 subscribed towards it. The total income this year is estimated 

 at 47,000. The adhering states pay of that amount 35,000, 

 and I may mention, parenthetically, that the states of the 

 British Empire adhering to that institute pay of that sum about 

 3,900 a year, or about one-twelfth of the total. The states 

 group themselves into five groups. Those in the first group 

 pay 1,600 a year, and so on downwards, until we come to 

 those in the fifth group who pay only 100 a year. Each of 

 the states appoints a delegate to the permanent committee, so 

 that the institute is governed by official delegates of all the 

 adhering countries. There may have been a sort of impression 

 that the institute is run more in the interests of temperate 

 than of tropical regions. That perhaps is to be expected 

 in a sense, because the temperate countries are more advanced 

 in these matters, and the'delegates coming from those countries 

 are generally very experienced and intelligent men. But 

 the institute by no means confines itself to the temperate 

 regions. As a matter of fact, each of the tropical countries 

 adhering is represented on the tropical committee, and 

 perhaps, if I am not detaining you too long, you will let me 

 read you a list of those tropical countries which subscribe to 

 the institute and have representatives on the governing body. 

 To begin with America : Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, 

 Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, 

 Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil. In Africa: Algeria, 

 Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt, Abyssinia, Eritrea, Union of South 

 Africa, Mauritius. In Asia : Turkey, Persia, India, China, 

 Netherland Indies. Australia also is one of the adhering 

 countries. So that you already have on the institute a number 

 of representatives of tropical countries. Then if you look at 

 our three bulletins published monthly you will find a good deal 

 of information given with regard to tropical crops, including 

 statistics, etc., relating to rice, sugar, cotton, tobacco, and 

 maize collected from all the different countries of the world. 

 In fact, these bulletins contain the most accurate and up-to-date 

 information which could be put together by any body. Then 

 in the technical and economic bulletins you will find frequent 

 quotations from documents published by tropical countries 

 and references to tropical interests. Now there is no doubt 

 that the institute might pay more attention than it does to 

 these subjects, and the best way in which to attain that end 



