FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 
OF THE 
COLONIAL RESEARCH COMMITTEE, 
For the period to the 31st December, 1920. 
Origin of the Grant in A id of Colonial Research .—At a time when Parliament 
had lately made increased provision for research in this country, the attention of the 
Secretary of State for the Colonies was called to the need for the extension ol the 
application of research to the development of the economic resources of the Colonies 
and Protectorates, and for the assistance of the smaller Colonies and Protectorates in 
this matter by means of financial help towards carrying out researches which they 
could not afford. 
The Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy after the War had pointed 
out that a large number of raw materials were either not produced at ail within the 
Empire or were produced on a scale altogether incommensurate with the requirements 
of the Empire. The Secretary of State was of opinion that much of this deficiency 
could be supplied by the tropical Colonies if their great potential resources were 
adequately developed; and that one of the most sure and speedy agents in such 
development was undoubtedly scientific investigation. In support of this view the 
following instance was given. One of the conspicuous examples of material produced 
to an insufficient extent within the Empire, to which the Committee on Commercial 
and Industrial Policy had called attention, was bauxite, the ore of aluminium. At 
that time the Empire was almost entirely dependent on foreign countries, for its 
supply of this ore, and there was good reason to anticipate that it would be increas¬ 
ingly difficult to obtain adequate supplies from those countries. 
Extensive deposits of bauxite had long been known to exist in India, but, owing 
to the cost of transport, these deposits were not likely to be made available to meet 
the needs of the United Kingdom. Aluminium in the metallic state and in its com¬ 
pounds is essential to a number of important British industries, and it was important 
that an alternative supply of the raw material should be found within the Empire. 
Investigations by Professor J. B. Harrison, C.M.G., the Director of Science and 
Agriculture in British Guiana, had resulted in the discovery of extensive deposits of 
bauxite in that Colony, some of which are situated very conveniently for the shipment 
of the ore. Major Kitson, the Director of the Geological Survey of the Gold Coast, 
had also discovered valuable deposits in that Colony, though they were not so favour¬ 
ably situated for export as those in British Guiana. Some of the deposits in the 
latter Colony were already being worked. 
This was a solitary'instance, but it was regarded as typical, and it could be 
supported by many others drawn from different parts of the Empire. 
But, apart from the introduction of new industries, the Secretary of State was 
impressed by the enormous amount of damage done to the existing industries in the 
Colonies by destructive agencies of various kinds, such as animal and plant diseases 
and insect pests. The scale on which this destruction takes place is well illustrated 
by the following extract from a despatch from the Acting Governor of the East Africa 
Protectorate, now the Kenya Colony :— 
“ More scientific and progressive methods must be adopted in dealing with 
stock diseases in native reserves if the future "welfare of the stock industry is 
to be secured. It would be difficult to estimate the, annual loss from the 
ravages of stock diseases in native reserves, but if it were placed, at the low 
estimate of 12 per cent, it would easily represent a sum of approximately one 
million pounds per annum ” 
Mr. Long, who was at the time Secretary of State, regarded investigation into 
these diseases and pests as apt to prove exceptionally fruitful, because many of the 
diseases and pests were widely distributed and scientific discoveries which were made 
in one Colony could often be utilised in others. 
