TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 37 



details in favour of the West Indies, viz., their cheaper 

 and quicker access, cheaper living without losing caste, 

 great soil fertility, equal if not greater facilities to study 

 all tropical crops on a commercial scale except tea, and 

 even tea is met with in Jamaica. All I do claim for the 

 West applies equally to the East, and it is this : If your 

 embryo planter wishes to go planting in the West, then 

 train him in the Western Hemisphere; and I am, as you 

 have heard, most anxious to see a large number of 

 young Britishers distribute themselves throughout Latin- 

 America. But if he wishes to go East, then train him 

 in the East, so that each will receive his tropical agricul- 

 tural education amidst the same surroundings that he will 

 have to encounter when he sets up for himself. Neither 

 have I called in the aid of others to support my claim, 

 but I do not do so as time is short, and also because I 

 know that all of you, or nearly all of you who are 

 present, have closely followed the agitation ever since 

 Professor Dunstan first mooted the point in a prominent 

 way at the late Mr. Ferguson's lecture at the Royal 

 Colonial Institute in December, 1910; and I discussed 

 his proposition at some length in Tropical Life in the 

 now well-known leader which appeared in January, 1911, 

 when I proposed that a Tropical Agricultural College 

 should be established as a memorial to King Edward VII. 

 All those who have followed the question as I have can 

 tell you how the Times, Westminster Gazette, Nature, 

 and other papers on this side have supported the claims 

 of the tropics for agricultural colleges, and the West 

 Indies in particular. 



In conclusion, I would add that if this Government, 

 or, shall I say, any Government that rules this country 

 and its dependencies, were as keen on wringing out the 

 labour and empire-building capacity that is latent within 

 us all (though some are very loth to make use of it) as 

 they are of squeezing out our money for taxes, I reckon 

 that the development of the resources of the tropics and 

 sub-tropics would go ahead at a much more rapid rate 

 than it is doing at present. Why not adopt the idea of 

 conscription to compel everyone to do his (or her) share 

 of the work of the country, so as to develop the resources 



