Needs of Empire

Abstract

THE many recommendations submitted to and passed by the delegates of the recent Imperial Agricultural Research have a familiar ring. In substance they are almost identical with those endorsed dy the delegates to the Colonial Office Conference hold earlier in the year, and in principle they do not differ from those which were submitted to the Imperial Conference of 1926 by the Research Sub-Committee over which Lord Balfour presided, or those contained in the Report of the Imperial Agricultural Research Committee which was published this year Unfortunately, this Conference, like those which preceded it, has not been able to base its recommendations upon an assured income guaranteed by the Imperial Parliament or the beneficiary governments of the Empire. It has not even been definitely promised that necessary financial provision will be made for any part of the programme of activities outlined in the recommendations. The Conference had to be content with vague hints that support for various schemes of scientific research and technical development would be forthcoming from the Empire Marketing Board, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and other bodies with public funds at their disposal, and the expressed hope that Dominions and other overseas governments might be found willing to contribute to a central fund.