International Agricultural 



Institute. 



23 



opposition to, the national agricultural interests of particular 

 countries. It then becomes a matter of reconciling things 

 which are apparently irreconcilable; of harmonising and 

 blending, if possible, interests which are seemingly at 

 variance with each other; of transforming complicated 

 methods into a uniform and simple procedure; of joining 

 the parts which unite and separating those which do not; 

 and, finally, of discovering means of dealing with any 

 economic factor in such a manner as to convey the absolute 

 conviction that its adoption would tend to the benefit and 

 progress of agriculturists throughout the world. 



The next step is to know whose mission it will be to defend 

 those universal interests; the authority, whether public or 

 private, national or international, which will be authorised 

 to organise the system considered as the best for their 

 protection. 



It was in order to solve these difficulties that a diplomatic 

 Conference met at Rome in the month of June, 1905, on the 

 initiative of H.M. the King of Italy. 



Two different opinions were expressed at that Conference. 

 One, representing private interests, would have left to private 

 organisations the duty of defending the corporate interests of 

 agriculture in general. The other indicated that, as it was 

 clearly the duty of each Government to protect the collective 

 interests of its people with regard to other nations, it was 

 of supreme importance that the defence of those interests 

 should be entrusted to a body sufficiently powerful to obtain, 

 by virtue of its official origin, the force and moral influence 

 necessary to give weight to its decisions. 



This was the view which prevailed, with the proviso that 

 international institutions should retain their own field and 

 means of action. The whole subject was compressed into' a 

 short phrase which has become the guiding principle for all 

 the acts and decisions of the International Institute of Agri- 

 culture, viz., "The Institute is an official institution." 



This maxim was adopted by the plenipotentiaries as the 

 basis of the constitution of the Institute. The Conference of 

 1905 also extended the structure, and in order to give vitality 

 to the constitution it was necessary to ensure the following- 

 threefold results : — (1) to devise a method of State represen- 



