International Agricultural Institute. 



4U 



Its action is indicated and strictly limited by three con- 

 siderations : — (i) it is limited by the Convention of 1905, 

 which has defined the general working plan ; (2) it is guided 

 by the Regulations of the General Assembly and of the 

 Permanent Committee, which are merely an administrative 

 and technical paraphrase of the Convention ; (3) it is in a 

 large measure dependent on the assistance which the Govern- 

 ments are willing to supply, and on the actual and future 

 position of agricultural organisation in the countries adhering 

 to the Convention. 



The Convention and the Regulations have definitely 

 excluded from the scheme certain subjects which well- 

 intentioned but imaginative persons desired, and still wish, 

 to include. It is, above all things, necessary to eliminate 

 every factor, every act, and every intention, which might 

 or could constrain a Government to modify its policy at home 

 or abroad. 



The point cannot be too strongly impressed that the Inter- 

 national Agricultural Institute is the outcome of a diplomatic 

 Conference which submitted a Convention to the contracting 

 Governments for their approbation and ratification. Every 

 adhering State reserves the right of denouncing the Con- 

 vention, a claim which is necessary to safeguard its liberty 

 of action. The right will surely seldom — we hope never — be 

 enforced, but the observance of the Convention by the 

 Governments necessarily implies the rigid adhesion of the 

 Institute to the strictly limited project assigned to it with the 

 consent of the adhering States. 



It is, therefore, absolutely necessary that the several de- 

 liberative, administrative, and executive bodies, viz., the 

 General Assembly, the Permanent Committee, the Sub- 

 Committees, the Executive Committee, and the various 

 Departments should wisely and prudently restrict their 

 projects and ambitions so as to avoid any flagrant violation 

 of the spirit and letter of the Convention — an eventuality 

 which might result from too wide an interpretation of the 

 Articles of the Statutes. This is a danger that we are bound 

 to indicate, because to ignore or even to neglect it would 

 be to expose the Institute to the refusal of assistance by the 

 Governments on which its very existence depends. To 



