fullscreen: Proceedings of the South & East African combined agricultural, cotton, entomological and mycological conference held at Nairobi, August, 1926

PART V. --3 
which separate Amani from large and important agricultural areas in 
the Dependencies, where communications are most unfavourable, 
would render impracticable the exclusion of research from the functions 
of Agricultural Departments, even if there were no other objections. 
The expense of conducting research at such distant points with 
officers from a Central Institute, the waste of time involved in 
travelling and the delay in urgent matters likely to be incurred, would 
prove most costly. 
_ ‘“ The proposal to transfer the Chemical Department, Kenya, to 
Amani is considered to be wholly impracticable. The Chemical 
Services, including research, are such that the Laboratory and staff 
at Nairobi must be maintained.”’ 
Mr. Holm mentioned the proposal made in the East African Loan 
Committee’s Report, to the effect that a small Commission should 
examine the question before further action was taken, and said that 
while he did not agree that the appointment of the Director should 
be deferred, some time ago he had made a recommendation along 
somewhat similar lines and had expressed the opinion that, in order 
to prevent mistakes being made in the organisation of agricultural 
research in East Africa, it would be helpful to the Secretary of State, 
to the different Governments and to the new Director, if the advice 
were obtained of men of the attainments of Sir Daniel Hall (Scientific 
Adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture), and of Mr. F. B. Smith, 
C.M.G. (late Secretary for Agriculture, South Africa), both of whom 
also possessed experience in the organisation and administration of 
Agricultural services, qualifications which he considered essential. 
In conclusion he desired to say that he hoped he would not be 
misunderstood in this matter—that he had always supported Amani, if 
it was to be re-established on sound lines, but that he considered that 
the work of Departments of Agriculture, and the countries which they 
served, would suffer severely if Amani was made responsible for those 
lines of research and investigational work, which were now properly 
performed by the various Departments of Agriculture. 
The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Northcote) read the conclusions of the 
Governors’ Conference in this matter, and observed that it was the 
single wish of everyone that Amani should be established and 
organised in the interests of agriculture in the East African territories. 
He thought, however, that perhaps it would be found difficult for the 
Conference to come to any definite conclusions in this matter as it 
might create an impasse if conclusions were agreed to which the 
Governors of the various territories found themselves unable to accept. 
~ He suggested that a note should be taken of the discussion, and 
that the Directors of Agriculture should meet and agree, if possible, 
on recommendations which they should put to their Governments on 
their return. He thought that such action might facilitate the 
establishment of Amani. 
Mr. SIMPSON agreed with this suggestion. 
Mr. HOLM regretted that he was not wholly in accord with this 
suggestion, as he regarded it as essential and appropriate that an 
opinion should be expressed at a Conference such as the present one 
by Directors of Agriculture and also by scientific and technical officers 
intimately concerned and whose opinion should be of value to the 
Secretary of State. 
JAE
	        
Waiting...

Note to user

Dear user,

In response to current developments in the web technology used by the Goobi viewer, the software no longer supports your browser.

Please use one of the following browsers to display this page correctly.

Thank you.