6 



International Agricultural Institute. 



he was a member, and one of the most influential members, 

 of this Conference ; he was President of the Royal Commission, 

 which made all the arrangements for the first meeting of the 

 Permanent Committee and also for the erection of this 

 building. Finally, he was President of the Institute during 

 the period of organisation, and his services have well deserved 

 our most grateful recognition. 



Almost at the same time as the President, the Secretary- 

 General and the Heads of the Statistical and Economic 

 Divisions also sent in their resignations. These resignations 

 caused a feeling of uneasiness, and the Permanent Committee 

 devoted, and successfully devoted, all its energies to over- 

 coming the difficulty without injury to the Institute. 



Since the ist January, 1910, the Permanent Committee has 

 held twenty-one meetings. The Sub-Committees have held 

 forty-one, without reckoning the numerous meetings of the 

 sub-Committee of Accounts, which is composed of the Presi- 

 dent and of two members of the first Sub-Committee. 



At one of the first meetings presided over by the new 

 President a proposal to appoint a Committee to re-examine 

 the Regulations and to suggest modifications therein was 

 made from several sources. The Committee held many 

 meetings, and numerous modifications were proposed, both by 

 the Committee as a whole, and also by several of its members, 

 in accordance with their powers under the existing Regula- 

 tions. Before further action, however, an interval of at least 

 three months is prescribed, and during this time the Institute 

 began a new life. Its labours multiplied, as will be seen 

 below, and the increase in the work of the Permanent 

 Committee and of the Bureaux was such as to suggest that 

 it would be prudent to await the experience gained by 

 practice before proceeding to a reform of the Regulations in 

 regard to which the necessary data were not yet available. 



The examination of this question was resumed before the 

 meeting of this Assembly, and it is proposed to submit to 

 you some modifications in Section 2, which is your special 

 province. If you are pleased to approve of them, the 

 Permanent Committee will cautiously and experimentally 

 make the necessary changes in Sections 3 and 4, with the 

 object of bringing the Regulations into agreement with the 



