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No. 81.

VISUAL INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE to MESSRS. GEORGE PHILIP AND SON, LIMITED.

GENTLEMEN,

Downing Street, 9 February, 1911.

I AM directed to inform you that my Committee accept the proposals contained in your letter of the 23rd of December, 1910,* for the publication of three further volumes, dealing with (1) Imperial stations, (2) Canada and Newfoundland, and (3) Australasia, of a similar character to that on India which has already been Fublished.

press.

The necessary formal agreements can be prepared when the books are ready for

I am, &c.,

W. E. NOALL, (Secretary, Visual Instruction Committee.)

No. 84.

SIR EVERARD 1M THURN to SIR CHAS, LUCAS.

MY DEAR Lucas,

(Received 13 February, 1911.)

The Athenæum, Pall Mall, S.W., 13 February, 1911. Ir will give me great pleasure to join the Visual Instruction Committee, and am grateful to Mr. Harcourt and to you for giving me the chance of so doing.

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Yours, &c.,

EVERARD IM THURN.

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No. 82.

VISUAL INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE to Messrs. GEORGE PHILIP & SON, LIMITED.

GENTLEMEN,

Downing Street, 9 February, 1911.

I AM directed to inform you that my Committee have had before them your letter of the 23rd of December, 1910,† regarding the preparation of a series of pictures illustrating Colonial life and scenery, but that, as at present advised, they are not inclined to proceed in the matter.

You will, however, no doubt take the opportunity of discussing the subject with Mr. Mackinder when next he calls upon you.

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MY DEAR IM THURN,

I am, &c.,

W. E. NOALL, Secretary, Visual Instruction Committee.

No. 53.

SIR C. LUCAS to SIR E. IM THURN.

[Answered by No. 84.]

Downing Street, 10 February, 1911. I AM authorised by Mr. Harcourt to ask you to be so good as to join the Visual Instruction Committee of this Office, with whose aim and work you are already to some extent familiar.

We should be very glad of your help, more especially as we shall soon be engaged on the preparation of a set of lectures on Australasia and the Pacific.

Our present members are Lord Meath, Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, Sir Philip Hutchins, Sir John Struthers, Sir Charles Holroyd, Dr. H. F. Heath, Dr. R. D. Roberts, M. E. Sadler, H. J. Mackinder, W. H. Mercer, and myself. We meet here four or five times in the year at four in the afternoon.

I shall be pleased to give you prints of our correspondence and copies of our publications up to date, and to explain exactly how far our scheme has progressed.

Yours sincerely,

• No. 79.

↑ No. 73.

C. P. LUCAS.

No. 85

GEOGRAPHY OF EMPIRE.

WORK OF THE VISUAL INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE.

(Extract from the Morning Post," Wednesday, February 15, 1911.) After eight years of preparation the work of the Visual Instruction Committee is now becoming available for the schools. During Mr. Chamberlain's time as Colonial Secretary attention was drawn to the great need of promoting a sympathetic understanding throughout the Empire by giving to the people of the United Kingdom and of the other parts of the Empire a more vivid and accurate knowledge of the geography, the social life, and the economic possibilities of the various Dominions and of India.

In 1902 Mr. Chamberlain appointed a Committee, called the Visual Instruction Committee, to consider the means of carrying out a suggestion made by Professor Sadler for providing, on uniform lines, lectures of the highest standard, illustrated by lantern slides of the best quality for use in the schools of. the Empire. Not only was it felt necessary to provide lectures for the United Kingdom, but also lectures and pictures about the United Kingdom for use in India, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the Colonies generally. This was the easiest part of the work, and several of the Colonial Governments undertook to bear the expense of a book of lantern lectures prepared by Mr. Mackinder for use in the Dominions. These lectures and slides about the United Kingdom are now in use in many parts of the Empire.

The other part of the work was more difficult--the preparation of lectures and slides about the overseas portions of the Empire for use in the British Isles. The difficulty of funds was overcome without going to Parliament for a vote, because in 1907 the Princess of Wales (now the Queen), with the assistance of Lady Dudley and a committee of ladies, collected and placed at the disposal of the committee a sum of £3,700. To Mr. Mackinder was given the work of preparing the lectures, and an artist, who was at the same time a competent photographer, was sent on a tour of the Empire to collect photographs and send home paintings to form the material for lantern slides. These pictures are now in possession of the Visual Instruction Committee. The slides and lectures for India are already prepared, and those for several other parts of the Empire are nearing completion.

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It now only remains for local education authorities to make themselves acquainted with the work which the Committee has been able to accomplish. The pictures which are in the keeping of the Colonial Office give a very vivid idea of the colour scheme" of the Empire, and it is just possible that many of the pictures may also be reproduced for school decoration. There are in hundreds of English schools at this moment pictures purporting to be pictures of Colonial life In fact, they are pictures of German colonies produced in Germany and palmed off on English schools.

It is to provide accurate information and true pictures of the British Empire that the Visual Instruction Committee has set itself, and the specimens now to be seen at the Colonial Office will be of the greatest possible value to schools when once the local education authorities have appreciated what has been done.

The members of the Committee are the Earl of Meath (chairman), Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, Sir Philip Hutchins (late member of the Council of the Secretary of State for Indin), Sir Charles P. Lucas (of the Colonial Office), Sir Charles Holroyd

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