113 
pretation of the Draft Convention, and that it is quite possible 
to adhere to the Convention and yet retain any particular re- 
strictions that may be desired. The Convention simply says 
that no country which adheres to the Convention will admit 
plants without a certificate; it does not say that all countries 
which adhere to the Convention will admit plants that have 
such certificates. I think you will understand the distinction. 
It is quite possible for a country like South Africa to retain its: 
own particular restrictions whilst adhering to the proposed 
Convention. 
Now I should like to say a few words about tropical 
countries. I have lived in India, and I naturally look upon 
the question from the point of view of India. Mr. Rogers has 
said that in India we have no restrictions at all. As a matter 
of fact, I think we do fumigate cotton seed, but I think that 
is the only precaution we take. As regards the importation 
of cotton plants from other countries, India would no doubt 
be quite willing to accept the Convention, and to require certi- 
ficates with plants imported. But there is this difficulty, look- 
ing at it from the point of view of India. The Convention says 
that the country adhering must promise to establish an efficient 
system of inspection of nurseries and places where plants are 
grown for sale or export. Now India is an enormous country, 
and to establish what in India we should call an efficient system 
of inspection for the whole country would mean an enormous 
expenditure, and would be exceedingly difficult to carry out. 
I tried to get an interpretation, at the Congress, of the meaning 
of the words “efficient system of inspection,’ but I was told 
that each Government must make up its own mind about that, 
that it was a matter for its own conscience, and that if the 
Indian Government thought it could say that it had an efficient 
system of inspection, there would be no difficulty with the 
Convention. That, [ think, would be the chief difficulty for 
the Government of India in making up its mind whether it 
could conscientiously adhere to the Convention or not. 
As regards the proposal that there should be a Committee 
appointed to consider the question further and to collect infor- 
mation about it, in the Draft Convention itself each country 
that adheres promises to arrange for the interchange of 
information between its expert staff and research! institutions, 
and the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome is to 
be the means of collecting and communicating this informa- 
tion, as indeed it already is, to all the countries which adhere 
to the Convention, which means almost all the countries of the 
world. We have a Bulletin published every month which con- 
tains an account of plant diseases, and the International Insti- 
tute is anxious to collect all the information it can about plant 
8 
