72 



purely Coelacanth point of view. One essential part of my plan 

 was a descriptive leaflet (Plate 3), showing a picture of the 

 Coelacanth, giving a brief description, and offering a reward, 

 in English, Portuguese, and French; and I proposed that this 

 should be distributed everywhere along the coasts of East Africa, 

 Madagascar, and all islands in those waters. 



After a period of indefinite suspense, we drifted to the end of 

 the A.C.M.E. project, it just fizzled out. Early in 1948 it was dead, 

 and I have never really discovered whether it was international 

 tension, finance, or the eflPects of the views of overseas scientists 

 in higher quarters that finished it off. At any rate I was left up in 

 the air with a sense of frustration. As a scientist I can never view 

 with any pleasure the apparent ease with which some politicians 

 appear to contemplate war, and the spending of countless millions 

 on destruction and death, while they will in peace-time hedge 

 and jib at a few thousand pounds for a scientific project. However, 

 even if the Government would not help I was determined to go on, 

 by myself if necessary. There was one way in which I could reach 

 out and cover vast and remote areas without going myself and 

 without great expenditure, and that was by means of the leaflet. 

 So I told the C.S.I.R. I wished to proceed with that idea, which 

 they approved, and both they and Rhodes University College 

 agreed to guarantee ;£ioo each as a reward for the first two 

 Coelacanths obtained. 



These leaflets were printed in Louren9o Marques, and distribu- 

 ted by every possible means. The Portuguese authorities sent 

 numbers to every part of their shores, with instructions to officials 

 not only to distribute them among all classes, but to explain them 

 where necessary. This was done with characteristic promptitude 

 and thoroughness. Our port authorities in the Union and those of 

 Louren90 Marques agreed to hand leaflets to the captains of ships 

 going north, and to ask them to leave some at every port where 

 they touched. Batches were sent to every major port along the 

 East African coast, with requests that they should be distributed 

 among the fisher-folk. With a Portuguese official, my friend Carlos 

 Torres, who speaks English, French, and Portuguese with equal 

 facility, I visited the Consul for France in Louren^o Marques, and 

 gave him an account of the whole matter, explained the leaflets 

 and the object I hoped they would attain. I told him that in my 



