The British Empire occupies more than one-fifth of the territorial surface of the globe, including every climate of the temperate and tropical zones, and capable of producing every article of food and material for manufacture that can satisfy the needs of the human race. The problem of the century is the development of the resources of each constituent part of the Empire in such a way that it may be auxiliary to the prosperity and progress of every other part. Subsidiary to this is the problem of finding in these vast territories an appropriate place and appropriate work for every British subject.

The Statistical Abstracts of the Board of Trade classify the component parts of the Empire under the heads of United Kingdom, British India (including the Native States), and Colonies and Possessions. The British Isles of the United Kingdom cover an area of a little over 120,000 square miles, with a population of over 44,000,000 persons deriving their food supply, and the raw materials of manufacture on which the earnings and the purchasing powers of the vast majority depend, from imperial and foreign sources. The approximate area of British India is 1,800,000 square miles with a population of nearly 300,000,000 inhabitants.