27 
Republic, did so much, through his intimate knowledge 
of the scientific problems of tropical agriculture, to 
promote its advancement in the French tropics. 
Fortunately we have continued to enjoy the advantage 
of M. de Lanessan’s advice and assistance in the 
affairs of the Association which owes so much to his 
guidance. We all regret that continued ill-health 
prevents us from welcoming him, the doyen of the 
Association, among us to-day. 
I accepted, with considerable diffidence, the honour 
so generously pressed on me by my Continental 
colleagues, as among the many responsibilities it in- 
volved was that of carrying out the unanimous wish of 
the members of the Association that the next Inter- 
national Congress should be held in London. 
Whatever success the present Congress may achieve 
is due to the co-operation in the work of organization 
of the few members of the British Committee who are 
resident in London, and above all to the unremitting 
labours of the Honorary Organizing Secretaries, Dr. 
Henry and Mr. Harold Brown. It is satisfactory that 
as a result of a year’s arduous work an assemblage of 
distinguished men of all nations and an embarrassing 
wealth of communications on every aspect of tropical 
agriculture are the salient features of the Third Inter- 
national Congress of Tropical Agriculture. 
His Majesty the King has shown his interest in our 
proceedings, and has recognized their importance by 
graciously consenting to become Patron of the London 
Congress. We have among the Honorary Vice- 
Presidents, the Ambassadors in London of the Powers 
concerned in tropical agriculture, His Majesty’s Prin- 
cipal Secretaries of State, the Viceroy of India, and 
other distinguished men who are or who have been 
connected with administration in the tropics. 
The idea of co-operation and interchange of opinion 
among those of different nationalities who are engaged 
in the same work and who are working for the same 
end is undoubtedly a valuable one, and its realization 
has been productive of most useful results in several 
important instances, so much so indeed that Inter- 
national Congresses of all kinds, great and small, on 
all sorts of subjects have become very numerous in 
