128 LEGISLATION AGAINST PLANT DISEASES AND PESTS 



it would be at liberty to do so, though it would, of 

 course, expose itself to the risk of retaliation. States 

 which do not adhere are expressly debarred from getting 

 better terms than those which are parties to the Con- 

 vention. So far the procedure is based on ordinary 

 administrative methods which are common to all countries 

 alike, but an interesting and important provision is intro- 

 duced by Article 10. It was felt by all present at the 

 Conference that it was impossible to draw up a list of 

 pests which should be specified in the Convention for 

 reasons which are sufficiently obvious. It was, therefore, 

 decided that each country should be authorized to prepare 

 a list of pests against which it wishes to be protected, and 

 to require that the certificate should state that the plants 

 to be introduced are not affected with or have not been 

 exposed to the infection of these pests. But lest the list 

 should be made too long and should include a number of 

 trivial diseases, it was stipulated that the list should be as 

 restricted as possible, and should not include any plant 

 diseases which are of old standing and are widely spread 

 in almost all countries; that the pests should be epidemic in 

 character and destructive, or at least very injurious in 

 action, and should be capable of being easily conveyed 

 by living plants or parts of such plants. Finally, no 

 country may schedule any pest whose host plant is not 

 found in the country to which the consignment is to be 

 sent. There are several other articles which deal with 

 administrative details, but they do not affect the policy 

 of the Convention, which is contained in the part already 

 described. 



We may now compare the scheme contemplated by 

 this Convention with the regulations already in force in 

 the more important tropical countries, including those 

 States which have part of their territory in the tropical 

 zone. India, the most important of all, has, as far as I 

 am able to ascertain, no regulations of any kind, though 

 a law recently passed gives authority to issue orders, and 

 it is understood that a scheme has for some time past 

 been under consideration. In the case of others, the 

 simplest form is that which requires that all consignments 

 shall be fumigated on arrival without any other formality. 



