71 



The Committee is under the Chairmanship of Dr. S. H. Haughton, 

 Director of the South African Geological Survey, and a member of 

 the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The Honorary 

 Secretary of the Committee is Professor J. L. B. Smith, of Rhodes 

 University College, Grahamstown, and the committee requests that 

 all Societies, Institutions, and private persons interested in the 

 project should communicate v^^ith him. 



Some bright soul sent a statement to the press in England about 

 the proposed expedition, and said that volunteers v^^ere wanted, 

 quoting my name in reference. Letters almost drowned me. I 

 gained the impression that the British Isles were just bursting 

 with young people wanting more adventures, and had to have a 

 contradiction published. There ensued considerable correspon- 

 dence with interested bodies and institutions all over the world, 

 and two meetings of the Committee were held. The projected 

 expedition was named the 'African Coelacanth Marine Expedi- 

 tion', or 'A.C.M.E.' for short. 



I wanted to hunt and find Coelacanths, and knew exactly how 

 I proposed to set about it ; but some of the others had ideas of 

 their own, and soon it became clear that a large-scale oceano- 

 graphical investigation was to be hung on to the Coelacanth. I did 

 not greatly mind as long as this led the way to the Coelacanth, and 

 the area to which I had pointed, Madagascar and the Mozambique 

 channel, certainly needed investigation. Just about nothing had 

 been done there. When the details of the vessels and equipment 

 necessary for all this came up, finance pushed up its ugly head. 

 I intended to use explosives, and this raised further difficulties, 

 for fishery interests might be antagonised. It was a long surging 

 battle, in which I saw danger to my desire to find Coelacanths. 

 The vessels were the chief problem, and there was at least a possi- 

 bility of one being loaned by a group like the British 'Discovery' 

 Committee. But when this suggestion was put to the Prime 

 Minister, it was rejected by him. Despite my astonishment, it 

 became clear that nobody else expected a Prime Minister to give 

 reasons. 



Before the end of 1947 it had become quite plain that the large- 

 scale project that the Committee had visualised earlier was finan- 

 cially impossible, and I submitted my original plan, one much less 

 ambitious and far less costly but at least as eff^ective from the 



