Report to the General Meeting. 
IX 
of their inspectors with regard to the working of the Orders 
in Council, and their effect in checking spread of disease, or 
otherwise. 
The Council have the gratification to announce that their 
repeated representations to the Peruvian Legation, either 
directly or through the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
as to the unsatisfactory basis on which the guano trade has 
hitherto been conducted, have now met with a favourable 
reception by the Peruvian Government. Three bills have been 
laid before the Peruvian Congress, having for their object the 
sale of guano by standard analysis, as the Council have from 
time to time recommended. The immediate cause of this action 
on the part of the Peruvian Government was Dr. Voelcker's 
report on 13 samples of Peruvian guano, which had been 
forwarded to the Council, for analysis and report, by the Lords 
of the Admiralty, through the Foreign Office. Dr. Voelcker's 
analysis and report were forwarded to the Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs, and by him communicated to the Peruvian 
(iovernment, by whom they were ordered to be translated and 
published in the Official ' Journal,' together with a letter signed 
l)y Lord Cathcart, on behalf of the Council. The bills that 
have since been laid before the Peruvian Congress are apparently 
l:)ased on those documents ; and the Council sincerely hope that 
the proposed alteration of the basis of the guano ti'ade will soon 
. become an accomplished fact. 
I A further communication has been forwarded from the 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, enclosing a despatch from 
Mr. Marsh, Acting Consul-General at Lima, which intimates 
that some restrictions may probably be placed upon the manu- 
facture and trade in Nitrate of Soda, in the shape of increased 
export duties upon that article. The Council have expressed 
to Lord Derby a hope that the Foreign Office will remonstrate 
strongly against any such restrictions, as being likely to interfere 
rrery seriously with one of the most valuable sources of artificial 
manure at present available. In alluding to this matter the 
iCouncil have to remark that they are much indebted to the 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for his great courtesy in 
forwarding to them the information on this subject, and for the 
active part which the Government have taken in endeavouring 
