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recent years. This is a significant development of the 
times which no one would desire to deprecate on general 
grounds. Yet from their great number the danger now 
is that the importance of those which deal with subjects 
of great public moment is apt to be overlooked. 
There is no subject at the present time in the whole 
’ field of human activity which demands greater attention 
than the organization of those agencies which make for 
the agricultural productivity of the tropical regions of 
the world. The subject is of importance to the native 
races of the tropics who are coming more and more 
under European control and influence, and who look 
to European knowledge and experience for guidance in 
increasing the productivity of the soil. 
It is of no less importance to all Governments of 
tropical countries, which are principally concerned in 
securing under good governance their material and 
commercial advancement. 
Moreover, the temperate world has to depend on the 
tropics for the supply of numerous materials which have 
become necessaries of life and the basis of some of the 
most important manufacturing industries of modern 
times. 
A Congress which meets to consider and discuss the 
problems of tropical agriculture in their widest bearings 
is therefore of the highest importance to all civilized 
nations. It has been our endeavour to make this, the 
Third International Congress of Tropical Agriculture, 
which meets for the first time in the principal city of 
the British Empire, a thoroughly representative and 
successful one, of value not only to this country and 
to the Empire whose tropical interests are so extensive, 
but also to those other nations whose representatives 
we welcome here to-day. 
I should like very briefly to indicate the principal 
objects which the British Committee have kept in view 
in organizing the present Congress. The topics of 
first importance to the advancement of tropical agricul- 
ture have been given a prominent place in the proceed- 
ings of the Congress. Education, research, legislative 
enactments relating to plant diseases,. tropical sanitation 
and hygiene, credit banks and co-operative societies, 
are to be considered at meetings of the Congress, 
