88 



violent that they stared at us in amazement. *No, sir,' I said. *I 

 once wanted to ask Smuts to help me in almost exactly such a case, 

 and he wouldn't even see me. Smuts! No.' They collapsed like 

 pricked balloons. Smuts was off. 



My wife suggested that if it proved impossible for me to go 

 in time to save the fish, it might be done by the French authorities 

 in Madagascar. She reminded me that I had met the chief of 

 their scientific organisation at a conference in Johannesburg not 

 long before; what was his name? 'Millot,' I said, 'Dr. J. Millot'; 

 and that I had had him in mind, but as far as I knew he was 

 likely to be in Paris and not in Madagascar.* I knew that in our 

 files we certainly had nothing but an address in Paris. Was there not 

 any French scientist in or about Madagascar who could help, 

 she asked? My knowledge of scientists was naturally chiefly in 

 the ichthyological field, and although there had been a few pub- 

 lications about sea fishes from Madagascar, those were mostly 

 odd papers produced by scientists in France. There had been no 

 man of any prominence in my field resident at Madagascar for 

 at least fifty years. There was no avenue of approach that way — 

 as far as I knew, Madagascar was a complete blank for any pur- 

 pose now.f In the case of the Comores hardly any marine biology 

 had been done there. From my unique knowledge and experience 

 I could predict probably 90 per cent, of the fishes that must live 

 about the Comores, but an ichthyology of that part just did not 

 exist. It was most unlikely that there would be any competent 

 marine biologist there. If there had been. Hunt would surely have 

 mentioned it. 



It was clear that I had to seek for no ordinary help. This was a 

 time for desperate measures, something at the highest level. The 

 Prime Minister was the obvious mark, but the very idea of again 

 trying to ask a Prime Minister for a plane to hunt dead fish, even 

 a dead Coelacanth, made me shy away like a once-wounded 

 animal from a gun. My natural reluctance springing from the 

 Smuts episode was increased by the fact that Dr. Malan was 

 almost certainly seeking brief rest from the many heavy respon- 



• This proved to be the case. 



t We learnt later that a French Fisheries Officer was actually in the area at 

 that time, but the Zoological Record listing his publications did not appear 

 until 1955. In any case, he was not at headquarters in this critical time (see 

 P- 159)- 



