PART V. 
it would not have received the support given to it were it not for the 
fact that valuable buildings and other improvements were already in 
existence there, and the institution had traditions. It was essential 
that a Research Institute which would eventually have to rely to a 
large extent upon public support should be accessible and preferably 
in the ‘‘ centre of things,” and he was afraid that Amani might in 
future suffer because of its situation. 
It was suggested that research in East African territories should 
be centred at Amani. He would support a proposal to centralise 
research at Amani provided that it was confined chiefly to fundamental 
research. Other proposals had been made that research workers 
should be taken away from East African Territories and centred at 
Amani. He thought this would be impracticable and unsound and 
that no Director of Agriculture could be expected to hold himself 
responsible for the duties which his post entailed if his scientific and 
technical officers were removed from the Department under his 
control. Amani could and should be very useful to carry out work 
complementary and supplementary to the work of Departments of 
Agriculture, and it could be of great assistance to officers of Depart- 
ments of Agriculture in dealing with scientific. problems as applied to 
agriculture; it should keep in close touch with and co-ordinate work in 
all the East African Territories, and also act as a ‘‘ clearing-house ”’ 
for research work. It could only succeed by co-operation with the 
Departments of Agriculture. Dealing with the organisation of Amani, 
Mr. Holm read the following extracts from the Report of the Directors 
of Agriculture (1921), and said that he believed that the opinions then 
expressed were still held by them: — 
“ We are convinced that the situation of the Institute and the 
natural conditions which exist there, as well as its facilities, present 
and potential, are adapted to no other purpose, if the Institute is to 
serve usefully the whole of the Dependencies, than that of research in 
applied botanical science and its associated branches. We are agreed, 
on the other hand, that for this purpose the Institute may well prove 
to be a most valuable asset to the Dependencies and that no effort 
should be spared to prevent its abandonment or surrender, or its use 
for any other purpose.” 
‘“ Apart from the specific amendments, represented in Estimates 
“B’ and ‘““ C7’ to the scheme, which the Secretary of State elicited 
from Sir David Prain, we have only to criticise the proposal, to which 
we take the strongest possible exception, that the scientific officers of 
the Departments of Agriculture, who are capable of filling the 
research posts to be created, should be transferred to the Institute, 
thus releasing funds for the Institute by economising on the staffing 
of the Departments.” 
““ The supposition that the centralisation of research will allow the 
divorce of research from Departmental services must, we feel, be 
strongly resisted. - Again it must be realised that these are vast, new 
countries, embracing considerable variety in natural conditions, 
and, therefore, in plant and insect life, a variety which the Institute 
will not be able to provide for that class of investigation in which 
natural conditions form a fundamental and inseparable factor of the 
problem under enquiry. Neither will the institute have a staff of such 
dimensions in each branch of its researches that it will be able to meet 
all calls for local investigation in the five dependencies. The distances 
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