SECTION M.— AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE AND THE EMPIRE. 



ADDRESS BY 



SIR ROBERT B. GRBIG, M.C., LL.D., M.Sc. 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



In this country, which Kipling has described as ' the last and the largest 

 Empire, the map that is half unrolled,' a Pan-African Congress of Agri- 

 culture is meeting side by side with the Agriculture Section of the British 

 Association, which is an Imperial Body for the advancement of science. 

 The Imperial aspect of Agriculture is surely therefore a subject for 

 consideration and discussion. 



Membership of an Empire such as ours is, like freedom, a noble thing. 

 The mere size of the Empire grips the mind and makes an emotional 

 appeal which, when fully realised, is a step towards a unified world. The 

 Empire is so widespread and so various that it can accommodate every 

 kind of mind or body. A man feeling cramped in Scotland can find 

 room in South Africa. He who finds his intellectual horizon limited in 

 New Zealand may find his spiritual home in Oxford or in Edinburgh. 

 Because the Empire includes so many diverse peoples differing in physical 

 and mental attributes, and because it yields such a variety of natural 

 products, it offers problems political, social, and industrial, of peculiar 

 interest and complexity. It can provide greater facilities than can small 

 homogeneous units, for within the Empire is every kind of external 

 stimulus that goes to promote mental development and intellectual 

 advancement. 



Moreover, its political structure is of peculiar advantage. The free 

 nations of the Commonwealth, along with the great non-self-governing 

 territories, can meet without difficulty or embarrassment for the discussion 

 of common problems. They have a focal point or centre in England from 

 which concerted action may, if desired, be taken. When action is taken 

 they have the largest outdoor laboratory in the world ; a field for action 

 which allows in some part or parts the investigation of problems of almost 

 every description. 



But citizenship of the Empire involves responsibilities. The principle 

 of trusteeship is admitted. The governments are trustees for rich terri- 

 tories covering nearly a quarter of the globe. They are also responsible 

 for hundreds of millions of native populations. These native populations 

 can rise in the scale of civilisation only according as they may be influenced 

 by education, sanitation, law and order. But "these influences can be 

 exerted only in proportion to the prosperity of agriculture and industry. 

 In our colonial Empire in the past we have concentrated chiefly upon 

 administration, and we have reason to be proud of the results. But the 

 native populations will judge us in the futm-e not by the excellence of our 

 administration but by the means we take to help them to a higher standard 



