912 The Ageicultfral Council for England. [Jan., 



THE AGRICULTURAL COUNCIL 

 FOR ENGLAND: 



THE MINISTER'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



The following is the text of the inaugiu-al address given by 

 The Lord Lee of Fareham, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, 

 at the first meeting of the Agricultural Council for England, at 

 Essex Hall, London, on 9tli December, 1920 : — 



LORD LEE : — Mr. Chairman, my Lords, ladies and gentle- 

 men; may I explain, first of all, that I am only here as a guest. 

 I am not a member of this august body. It is, I think, a very 

 proper provision of the Act that this Council should be an inde- 

 pendent Council on which officials of the Ministry are in no way 

 represented. But you have been kind enough to invite me here 

 to-day. and I am proud to have this opportunity of addressing 

 the first Agricultural Parliament that has ever been called 

 together in this country. I entirely re-echo w^hat Mr. Royce 

 said when he suggested that this was really an historic occasion 

 — certainly historic so far as Agriculture is concerned. Whilst 

 this is, as I said, a Parliament, it is not a Parhament elected by 

 popular suffrage. But it is representative in the best sense of 

 agricultural thought and experience throughout the country; 

 and I should like, if I may, to congratulate all those who have 

 been selected by the County Agricultural Committees, and other 

 bodies, to meet here to-day. I will have a word to say later 

 about your responsibilities, but before coming to that I should 

 like also, if I may, to add one word of congratulation to the 

 Chairman, Lord Selborne, for the unanimous call which he 

 has received to-day to the Chair on the occasion of your first 

 Meeting. If I may say so, it seems to me peculiarly appropriate 

 that he should occupy this position to-day, because if any one 

 person is responsible for the inception of this Council it is Lord 

 Selborne and the Agricultural Reconstruction Committee over 

 which he presided three years ago. In the Report of that Com- 

 mittee — and both the Report and recommendations, I venture to 

 say, are also going to be historic in the annals of agriculture — he 

 made the following recommendation : " It is advisable to state 

 here that in our opinion the Agriculture Department of each 

 country should, in carrying out its duties, act in constant con- 

 sultation with a National Agricultural Council or Board which 

 we hope may be formed so as to represent the progressive agri- 

 cultural thought of the country and fulfilling analogous functions 



