Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 29 Gorffennaf 1926.
I wish to speak on a more practical subject, namely, the question of research. I do so all the more readily because I have spent 21 years of my life in the tropics and I have seen the results of the research undertaken in the Dutch East Indies. It is my opinion that if we were to get more into line with that work, especially in the Malaya States and the Strait Settlements, we should find that a great many of the problems which have to be faced in the Dutch East Indies are also our problems, and that joint investigations would be to our mutual benefit. I know at the present moment there are servants of our Colonial Office in the Dutch East Indies, unofficially, who are doing their best to get information and I believe if they were to take the matter up officially and exchange views with the Dutch representatives it would be advantageous. If they were even to do, as is done in connection with our educational system, and were to take one or two Dutch scientific men into our laboratories, while allowing some of our scientific men to go into their laboratories, beneficial work could be achieved.
In 1919, when I was in Java, I was interested in, among other things, sugar. We had a visit in Java from the Indian Sugar Committee on which were represented Indian sugar planters. Demerara sugar planters, Indian merchants and Indian Civil Servants. There was also one gentleman representing a very large sugar firm in London, whose works I happened to visit this morning. This
Committee had visited practically all the sugar countries in the world and they spent a week at the port where I was situated. I had the honour of entertaining and putting up the majority of them and of conducting them around the sugar mills and experimental stations in that neighbourhood and this is what they said in their report:
The organisation of the Indian sugar industry on the Java model is essential to progress.
I suppose, like many other things, that Report has been filed and will not be taken much notice of in the future. Nevertheless, it represents the opinion of people with a great deal of experience who, at the Government's expense, travelled round the world to get the best information available. They also said:
The commanding position which the Java sugar industry holds has been secured by admirable organisation for mutual assistance in all directions and above all in regard to research.
It is essential, if we want to progress, that we should take every available step in scientific research and leave no stone unturned to get the very best advice and to make full use of the fruits of the latest scientific research. I hope if the Under-Secretary cannot at once do all I am suggesting, he will promise to give the matter his best consideration. Another reason why I suggest that there should be close co-operation, especially in the Malaya States, is because of the rubber position. That is another article in regard to which I have had a certain amount of experience. If the Straits Settlements considered it necessary at one time or another to curtail the output of rubber—so as to improve the price—more than they do under the present Stevenson scheme, what advantage is it to them, if the Dutch East Indies say: "What they curtail we will plant"?