INTRODUCTION 



During the visit of the Brazilian Commercial Mission to Europe 

 in 1919, efforts were made to interest the European Cotton Spinning 

 Industry in the cotton produced by Brazil and for this purpose Mr. 

 Roberto Cochrane Simonsen, one of the members of that distin- 

 guished Mission, read a paper at the meeting of the International 

 Cotton Committee at Paris, on the 4th September, 1919, dealing with 

 the possibilities of Brazil as a cotton producing country. In concluding 

 his address he invited this organisation to send out to Brazil a Mission 

 with a view to studying the conditions obtaining in that country. 



The invitation was accepted at the Paris meeting and con- 

 firmed by the Tenth International Congress held at Zurich. The 

 writer and Mr. Max Syz (of Zurich, Switzerland) left England on the 

 18th March, 1921, for Rio de Janeiro, where they were met by Mr. 

 Fritz Jenny (of Ziegelbriicke, S\vitzerland) who had proceeded there 

 direct from the cotton belt of the United States of America. (He had 

 been engaged there in the study of American cotton.) These three 

 constituted the European members of the International Cotton Mission 

 to Brazil. Owing to the crisis in the European cotton industry it was 

 impossible to increase this number. Several Brazilian Government 

 officials accompanied the mission, and by invitation of the Governor 

 of the State of Parahyba, representatives of the cotton export firms of 

 Messrs. Kroncke & Co., and Julius von Sohsten & Co., took part in the 

 tour through the North-eastern portion of Brazil. 



His Excellency, Dr. Epitacio da Silva Pessoa, the President of 

 the Federal Government of the Republic of Brazil received us on April 

 12th, 1921, at his palace, Rio Negro, Petropolis, and stated that he 

 would like to see Brazil diversity her crops and that he would do 

 everything he could in order to make cotton one of her large export 

 products. His Excellency is a native of Parahyba, one of the cotton 

 Stat'^s of Brazil, and is well versed in cotton problems. 



His Excellency, Dr. Ildefonso Sim5es Lopes, Minister of Agri- 

 culture, Industry and Commerce, personally superintended the arrange- 

 ments for our journey ; he also kindly took the chair at my meeting 

 in Rio de Janeiro. 



We had the honour and privilege to be the guests of the Brazilian 

 Government and thus we enjoyed the greatest facilities in our travels. 

 Through the instrumentality of the various State Governments we 

 had the advantage of reliable guides and were able to organise through 

 the " prefeitos " (mayors) and " chefes politicos " (political heads), 

 msetings with the cultivators wherever we journeyed. In this manner 

 we came into close touch with the small and large cultivators. The 

 Cotton Department of the Ministry of Agriculture at Rio de Janeiro 

 delegated one of its officials to accompany us in each State and we 

 had the advantage of having with us, for a portion of the journey, the 

 Chief of the Cotton Department, IVIr. William Wil.son Coelho de 

 Souza. 



Unboimded hospitality was shown to us, not only by the Federal 

 and State Governments, but also by the Mayors and all the inhabitants 



