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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O. 885

20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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No. 79.

MINUTES OF THE SEVENTH GENERAL MEETING OF THE AFRICAN ENTOMOLOGICAL RESEARCH COMMITTEE, HELD AT THE COLONIAL OFFICE ON FRIDAY, 5TH MAY, 1911.

PRESENT:

The EARL OF CROMER (Chairman).

Colonel ALCOCK.

Mr. AUSTEN.

Dr. BAGSHAWE.

Dr. HARMER.

Dr. MACDOUGALL.

Sir J. MCFADYEAN.

Mr. NEWSTEAD.

Professor NUTTALL.

Professor PoULTON. Lieutenant-Colonel PRAIN.

Mr. READ.

Hon. N. C. ROTHSCHILD.

Mr. SCOTT.

Dr. SHIPLEY.

Mr. STOCKMAN.

Mr. THEOBALD.

Mr. MARSHALL (Scientific Secretary).

Mr. PARKINSON (Secretary).

Mr. A. G. L. ROGERS. Board of Agriculture, and Mr. H. MAXWELL LEFROY, Imperial Entomologist to the Govern- ment of India, also attended.

1. The minutes* of the 6th general meeting were approved. Mr. Marshall stated that he had received a letter from Sir Daniel Morris, expressing regret that be was unable to be present.

2. The Committee received a report submitted by the Chairman of the Finance Sub-Committee (copy annexed).

3. The Scientific Secretary submitted his report, together with a statement of the Committee's revenue and expenditure from the 1st of April, 1909, to the 31st of March, 1911 (copy annexed).

The question of placing in the hands of some reliable publishers the work of collecting and recording the subscriptions to the Bulletin was referred to the Finance Sub-Committee.

4. At Lord Cromer's suggestion, Mr. Lefroy outlined the scheme for Imperial co-ordination in the prevention of the spread of diseases of cultivated plants sub- mitted in the memorandum prepared by Mr. Rogers and himself. He stated that in drawing up a scheme for plant protection in India, the authorities had been faced with the difficulty that in many cases they did not know what pests might be intro- duced from a given country, and consequently it was necessary to provide against all If, however, insect and fungus pests. This was particularly the case with Africa. each Colony were to furnish a list of the pests now known to exist in that Colony, arranged according to the degree of injury which they cause and the commercial importance of their food-plants, this information could be collected by the Committee as the central organising body and communicated to all the Colonies, thus effecting Mr. Lefroy went on to say a kind of Imperial preference in plant protection." that he regretted that Mr. Marshall desired to extend the scheme, partly because it would mean asking the Colonial officials concerned to collect and digest an enormous amount of information, whereas the scheme shown in the memorandum would involve comparatively little labour, and partly because the scheme in the memorandum involved little, if any, expenditure.

Mr. Marshall replied that while Mr. Lefroy looked at the matter from the point of view of India, where economic entomology as applied to agriculture was already well organised, his own experience gained in connection with the entomological work initiated by the Committee in Tropical Africa forced him to realise that it would not be possible to confine the proposed investigations within such narrow limits. If only" major pests" were to be taken into account, the scheme would not be workable

• No. 72.

the Tropical

in those very countries where the information was most needed, e.g., African Colonies. It was, of course, mainly a question of funds, but development along the lines of his report on the memorandum inust necessarily take placeTime would be required---indeed in would be a matter of years to collect all the informa- tion as to the various pests; but if anything were done in the direction suggested, he felt very strongly that it was essential to widen the scope of the undertaking so as to embrace plant pests of every description.

Colonel Prain suggested that it would be best to refer the matter to the Sub- Committee "B," originally appointed to consider entomology in relation to plant life. He reminded the Committee that the plant side of the Committee's work had been allowed to recede into the background on the tacit understanding that as their finances were limited, entomology in its relation to man and beast must have priority. To accept either Mr. Lefroy's or Mr. Marshall's proposals would involve a reversal of this policy. And further, if the general principle were accepted, the question of extending the investigation to cover fungoid as well as insect pests must be sepa- rately considered. Lord Cromer observed that if the matter were to be discussed with the Colonial Ministers on their approaching visit to England, action must of course be initiated by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and that as time pressed, it was desirable that the Committee should arrive at some decision at an early date as to the propriety of submitting either of the schemes for the Secretary of State's consideration. Mr. Read stated that the policy of the Colonial Office would certainly be to expand rather than to restrict the limits of the Committee's work, and in reply to Professor Poulton he urged that the principle of bringing in Colonies other than those in Tropical Africa had already been accepted in a modified form at the last general meeting in connection with certain proposals advanced by Sir Daniel Morris.

Dr. Shipley proposed that general approval of Mr. Marshall's views should be given, as sooner or later the developments indicated in his report in the memorandum were bound to take place. Dr. Harmer expressed himself in favour of extending the work of the Committee, but not of binding it at this stage either to Mr. Lefroy's or Mr. Marshall's proposals.

Mr. Rogers stated that he looked at the question entirely from the economic point of view, and he asked whether the Committee would approve of the collection of information on more economic lines than heretofore, the Entomologists of the Colonies being asked to agree on a scheme of reporting pests to show their intensity." To illustrate his meaning, he displayed maps indicating the intensity of particular plant diseases in England. Mr. Marshall pointed out that this sug- gestion went far beyond what was contained in the memorandum prepared by Mr. Rogers and Mr. Lefroy.

Mr. Theobald expressed the opinion, in which Colonel Prain concurred generally, that if the work of the Committee was extended to cover fungoid diseases, it would be necessary to add to the Committee mycologists to represent that side of the investigations. Mr. Marshall demurred to this.

Lord Cromer mentioned the question of expenditure, saying that he thought the Colonies might properly be asked to bear local expenditure involved by any scheme ultimately agreed to, but that expenditure on the central organisation should not fall on the Colonies. Mr. Read, however, was not certain that matters could not be so arranged that the Colonies would contribute towards the central as well as the local expenditure. Mr. Lefroy urged that if his scheme were accepted, limited

by the excision of all reference to fungoid pests throughout, there would be no expenditure save possibly that of publishing the information received and there was the additional advantage that the Committee could go to the Colonial Ministers with a definite scheme ready. As regards the fungoid pests, Colonel Prain was anxious that the Committee should avoid "international complications," referring to the International Institute for Agriculture in Rome. Finally Dr. Shipley moved that steps should be taken to approach the Colonial Office with a request that the Secretary of State should arrange a conference between the Committee and the Colonial Ministers during their coming visit, to discuss the further development of the work of the Committee. This motion was carried, and it was further agreed-

(1) That the Sub-Committee "B" should consider the memorandum and

report, and then draft proposals to be put to the Conference.

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(2) That in any case the memorandum should be amended by the substitution of the word "agreement "for the word " convention" in paragraph 7, and by the deletion of paragraph 15.

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