404 
my Government, and certainly of many of the foreign delegates 
to whom I have spoken, that we wish to congratulate 
most sincerely Professor Dunstan on the splendid success of 
this Congress. I noticed that there had been sent in about 
132 papers, and these came from about fifty different countries. 
I believe that is an achievement that has not been accomplished 
before, and we all know it has been due mostly to the great 
activity and the good organization that we owe to Professor 
Dunstan, so that I beg to present him with our congratulations 
on his great success. Now this Congress shows that tropical 
agriculture is going forward very rapidly. The first Inter- 
national Congresses on these matters were very simple. They 
were what I should call baby congresses with some ten or fifteen 
papers. There were some in France, some in Belgium, some 
in Germany, and in other countries, too, but they were as a 
rule rather restricted. We can now say that our congresses 
are full grown, and we must see that their organization results 
in the greatest usefulness. I would propose this for the next 
Congress—first of all that all the papers should be printed 
before the Congress opens, and that we should all receive, 
say about a week before the Congress, three, four, five or six 
volumes containing the papers sent in. I beg to say that that 
is done by many congresses on the Continent, and it is quite 
useful and very convenient. Of course, nobody dreams of 
reading these four or five volumes, but everyone reads those 
papers which are of special interest to him, and when he goes 
to the Congress he is able to discuss these matters in a way 
that we have not been able to do at this Congress. Secondly, 
I would propose that the reading of papers should be sup- 
pressed. That does not mean to say that the papers presented 
here have not been very highly interesting. From the first 
day to the last—even this morning—we have heard papers of 
the utmost importance for all colonies, and I must say that 
the papers we heard this morning were even better than many 
of those we heard on other days. But, unfortunately, if you 
start reading papers at full length, it is quite impossible to 
get through the work of a congress where there are 130 
papers. In order to do so we should have to sit up all night. 
Then it is very trying to hear an author read a long paper in 
which one personally has but little interest, especially if it is 
read in a language one does not understand. Therefore, I 
would propose that papers should be presented beforehand, 
and that members should only deliver a short abstract of the 
principal points in their paper. That is sufficient to start a 
discussion, and I believe there is as much or more to be learnt 
by discussion as by reading the paper itself. I would only 
give one illustration of that. Professor Carmody, of 
