TUESDAY, JUNE 30—MORNING SESSION, 
10.30 A.M. 
Section V.—Cotton. 
Chairman: Tue Ricut Hon. Lewis Harcourt, M.P., 
Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
Tue PresipENt: Gentlemen—I have much pleasure in intro- 
ducing to you Mr. Harcourt, the Secretary of State for the 
Colonies, who has kindiy consented to take the chair this 
morning. Mr. Harcourt has taken a great personal interest 
in the success of this Congress, and has rendered it consider- 
able assistance. As you are aware, he is one of our Honorary 
Vice-Presidents, and he and Mrs. Harcourt came the other 
evening, at some personal inconvenience, to receive the 
guests at the Government reception. I can also assure you 
that Mr. Harcourt’s interest in our work is not merely nominal. 
Since the time of Mr. Chamberlain no Colonial Secretary of 
this country has shown more interest in everything that per- 
tains to the development of the tropical colonies than has Mr. 
Harcourt. On that account I am sure you will welcome him 
to-day, and I will now call upon him to take the chair. 
The CHAIRMAN, who was received with applause, said: 
Gentlemen—I take it as both an official and a personal com- 
pliment that I should have been invited to preside even for a 
short time—and I am afraid that with my other occupations 
it can only be for a short time—over your deliberations and 
your discussions to-day. As Secretary of State for the 
Colonies I am naturally and primarily interested in the great 
growth in the production of cotton within the British Empire 
which has been so remarkable a development of our tropicai 
agriculture within the last ten years. On this branch of the 
subject, with which I have perhaps something more than a 
departmental acquaintance, I will venture to offer some brief 
observations in a moment; but first of all let me say that I 
realize that this Conference, remarkable alike from the 
subjects of its consideration and the distinction of its delegates, 
is not solely of a British or a Colonial but of an International, 
