562 



NA TURE 



[August 9, igo6 



■to the intimate connection of our science with the problems 

 •that await solution in connection with the utilisation of the 

 raw materials and economic products of our Colonies, and 

 especially those of our tropical Possessions. There is a 

 .pressing need that the Imperial Government should 

 recognise much more fully than it has hitherto done, and 

 at least as fully as foreign Governments are already doing, 

 the claims of scientific investigation to be regarded as the 

 pioneer instrument of this work, and as the essential first 

 step in the material and commercial development of our 

 Possessions. 



Although my remarks will be chiefly directed to the 

 importance of chemistry in this connection, my plea will 

 be more general. It is that the scientific method of experi- 

 mental research should be systematically applied in each 

 division of the sciences concerned. In the case of raw 

 materials, however, whether vegetable or mineral, their 

 commerci«ri value must depend chiefly, if not entirely, upon 

 their composition, and sooner or later the method of 

 chemistry must therefore be applied. 



In determining the value of the mineral resources of a 

 country other specialists are also concerned, and the assist- 

 ance of the geologist, the mineralogist, and eventually of 

 the metallurgist may be required. Similarly with vegetable 

 and agricultural products the services of the economic 

 botanist and of the entomologist will be needed. It will 

 therefore be necessary for me in dealing with the subject 

 as a whole to touch upon several aspects in which other 

 sciences are concerned, and with which the science of 

 chemistry must cooperate in attaining a practical end — 

 namely, the material development of the countries con- 

 cerned. I need make no apology for many allusions to 

 scientific agriculture, for this subject is this year attached 

 to this Section, and indeed the science of chemistry is of 

 fundamental importance to agricultural practice both at 

 home and in the tropics. 



In the first place I must ask you to allow me to say a 

 few words as to the very wide interests that are involved 

 in the proper solution of the problem of colonial develop- 

 ment. 



It is all-important that the wage-earning community of 

 this country should have an adequate supplv of tea, coffee, 

 cocoa, rice, tobacco, and other commodities, and that our 

 manufacturers should be able to count upon a regular 

 supply of cotton, jute, rubber, and other raw materials as 

 far as possible under their own control. All these products 

 are derived almost exclusively from the tropics, and ex- 

 perience shows that it is a great disadvantage to the 

 manufacturer not to be able to exercise control in the 

 direction of securing the regular production of these 

 materials, and especially not to be able to avoid the great 

 and sudden fluctuations in their price, which are often the 

 result of financial speculation on the part of a foreign 

 capitalist who has secured the control of the output of a 

 foreign country. 



The almost entire dependence of the great textile indus- 

 tries of Lancashire upon the cotton crop of the Southern 

 States of America has placed this industry at the mercy 

 of American speculators, whose tactics mav lead, as in 

 1903, to such a rise in the price of the raw material as 

 to render it imperative for the manufacturer to close his 

 mills, and by throwing large numbers out of employment 

 to bring poverty and misery to many thousands of people. 



The great principle which must now necessarily guide 

 our system of administration and expenditure in our tropical 

 Colonies and Protectorates has as its purpose the utilisa- 

 tion of natural resources and the creation and development 

 of native industries with the aid of European supervision 

 and advice. Adequate supplies of produce, natural and 

 agricultural, will thus be ensured to British manufacturers 

 and consumers from territories within the administration of 

 the British Crown. This principle of employing our " un- 

 developed estates " for the advantage of our manufacturers 

 and consumers, and at the same time for the benefit of the 

 natives who inhabit these countries, was put into action 

 by Mr. Chamberlain during his long tenure of office as 

 Secretary of State for the Colonies, and this recognition 

 of a vitally important principle must always be associated 

 with his name. 



Excepting India and the self-governing Colonies, the 



NO. I9I9, vol,. 74] 



Crown Colonies and Protectorates, for which alone the 

 Imperial Government is directly responsible, include an 

 area of about two and a half million square miles and a 

 population of about forty millions. The value of these 

 possessions to us at the present time may be judged from 

 the value of their iiuport and export trade with the United 

 Kingdom. The value of the exports of these countries in 

 1904 was estimated at about four and a half million pounds 

 sterling, and the imports from the United Kingdom at 

 about twelve and a half million pounds sterling. In 

 gauging the importance to this country of the development 

 of these Possessions, the export trade of which is only in 

 its infancy, it should be remembered that the profits arising 

 from the export as well as from the import trade are 

 chiefly domiciled in this country ; since practically the whole 

 of this trade is in the hands of British merchants, and 

 the entire profits, including those of shipping, &c., are 

 therefore subject to our national system of taxation, and 

 represent a very substantial annual contribution to the 

 British Exchequer. 



It is therefore only reasonable that a certain sum should 

 be expended from British funds to aid the applications of 

 science to the commercial development of these Possessions. 

 Such an expenditure in the light of the facts to which I 

 have drawn attention may be regarded as an investment 

 with the certainty of a profitable return. 



I have thought it necessary to give this brief account 

 of the position of our still undeveloped Crown Colonies and 

 Protectorates and the national importance to us of their 

 systematic development before proceeding to the principal 

 subject of this Address, which is to emphasise the aid 

 which science in several of its branches can render to this 

 work of development, and especially the science of chem- 

 istry, the capacities of which in this connection have so 

 far not been sufficiently recognised. 



The importance of utilising our own tropical Possessions 

 as sources of the raw material required by the manufacturer 

 is now generally recognised, and very considerable progress 

 has been made in recent years. The tea produced in India 

 and Ceylon has largely superseded the China tea formerly 

 used in this country. Similarly, coffee is extensively grown 

 in India, in the West Indies, and in several of our African 

 Possessions. The jute cultivation in India has been very 

 successful, and the demand for this fibre is so great that 

 the question of its cultivation in our West African Colonies 

 is now under consideration. India-rubber, hitherto chiefly 

 obtained from South America, is of increasing importance 

 as a commercial article, and the South American tree has 

 been introduced with success in Ceylon, the Straits Settle- 

 ments, and the Federated Malav States, which are rapidly 

 becoming important rubber-producing countries the produce 

 of which is competing successfully with that of South 

 America. The cultivation of cotton, hitherto principally 

 carried on in the United States, is being vigorously pro- 

 ceeded with in India, the West Indies, and in West Africa, 

 as well as in Egypt and the Sudan, and we may look for- 

 ward in the future to these countries supplying the British 

 manufacturer with a large proportion, if not the whole, 

 of the cotton he requires. 



There are, however, vast resources, both mineral and 

 vegetable, in our Colonies and Protectorates which are 

 awaiting development for an exact knowledge of their com- 

 position and properties, which can only be ascertained by 

 scientific means and chiefly through chemical investigation, 

 whilst the British manufacturer is in need of increased and 

 better supplies of the raw materials on which his industrial 

 activity depends. This demand for increased supplies now 

 affects nearly every industry in this country. Rubber and 

 fibres are well-known examples ; oils and fats for the 

 manufacture of soap and perfumes ; and tanning materials, 

 as well as numerous minerals, are other instances in which 

 our manufacturers are at present anxious to discover new 

 sources of supply. These sources can only be discovered 

 and their value ascertained by properly directed scientific 

 investigations. 



We have heard much recently respecting the assistance 

 which science can bring to the maintenance and develop- 

 ment of the industrial efficiency of this country, and the 

 Imperial Government is being urged to give its help 

 especially by providing increased facilities for the educa- 



