36 
in Nyasaland, Uganda, in French West Africa, and in 
German East Africa, but the fact cannot be too strongly 
emphasized that what is needed is continuous effort and 
experimental work in each country in which cotton 
cultivation promises success. 
Whilst we in this country are naturally concerned in 
the first instance to improve and increase cotton culti- 
vation within the British Empire, it is to the advantage 
of all nations that the world’s supply of good cotton 
should be increased. It is of importance, therefore, that 
those engaged in this work in different parts of the 
world should occasionally meet together to compare 
notes and exchange views, and for this reason the value 
of an International Congress such as this cannot be 
over-estimated. 
In this country at the present time we are specially 
and financially interested in a large attempt, chiefly due 
to the initiative of Lord Kitchener, which is about to 
be made to grow Egyptian cotton under irrigation in 
the Gezira district of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, an 
enterprise which will require not only sound, practical 
management, but also careful experiment, close super- 
vision, and cautious advance under the advice of 
specialists in cotton cultivation. 
I think I may safely say that Lancashire spinners, 
while greatly interested in this enterprise, would view 
with satisfaction a similar development on the opposite 
shore of the Mediterranean. Asia Minor, which I 
visited a few years ago, appeared to me to offer a pro- 
mising and very large field for the growth of long- 
stapled American Upland cotton of a type which is in 
great demand not only in Lancashire, but also through- 
out the Continent of Europe. 
With the advent of irrigation in Mesopotamia 
additional possibilities for cotton growing in Asia 
Minor are opened up. With the development of 
cotton growing in these great tracts, in Egypt, the 
Sudan, and in Asia Minor the demands of Europe for 
two of the principal grades of cotton would in a very 
large measure be met, and the principal manufacturing 
requirements of the Old World largely derived from 
within its confines. 
In this connection importance must also be attached 
