International Agricultural Institute. 27 



International Administrative Council, charged with the 

 management of the Institute and the fulfilment of its duties. 

 By analogy, the General Assembly resembles a general meet- 

 ing of shareholders, and its special duty is to keep a check 

 over the expenditure, the administration, and the strict 

 observance of the Convention and Statutes of the Institute. 



The Permanent Committee is therefore the active force, 

 the engine— if such an illustration is applicable — which 

 supplies motive power to the machine, and makes it work. 

 It assumes effective charge through its President, Vice- 

 President, and the Special Committee, which acts as an 

 Executive Committee. 



The powers of the Permanent Committee are most im- 

 portant. It elects its own President and Vice-President; it 

 makes its own regulations ; it votes the budget of the Institute 

 within the limits of the sums placed at its disposal by the 

 General Assembly; it appoints and discharges the officials 

 and employes of the Institute. 



Its considerable administrative and executive power and 

 its duties therefore appear to justify the juridical character of 

 its functions, viz., a form of International Administrative 

 Council. 



It follows that the interests entrusted to the General 

 Assembly and to the Permanent Committee are both agri- 

 cultural and international. From the practical and utilitarian 

 point of view, the members should consequently have two 

 qualifications : knowledge of agricultural questions and 

 acquaintance with international subjects. The delegates to 

 the General Assembly should therefore be diplomatists and 

 specialists, but the delegate to the Permanent Committee 

 must necessarily be a specialist as well as a diplomatist. 



In this connection, it is important to observe that Govern- 

 ments can arrange for the representation of agricultural 

 societies by nominating the best qualified members as 

 delegates to the General Assembly, or even to the Permanent 

 Committee. 



Action and Functions of the Institute. 



Its official character being recognised, how far may the 

 Institute go ? Its boundaries were defined by the Conference 



