76 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



Before the war shipments of international exchanges were made 

 to Finland through the Russian exchange commission at Petrograd. 

 Now that Finland has become an independent State, consignments 

 are being forwarded directly to that country. 



The prompt dispatch of exchange consignments to foreign coun- 

 tries was greatly interfered with during the year, owing to railroad 

 freight embargoes and marine strikes. Transportation of boxes to 

 New York was further interrupted, owing to the severe winter. Dur- 

 ing the latter part of the year railroad freight became very much 

 congested, especially in the vicinity of New York, which necessitated 

 the placing of a general embargo on all freight. This required the 

 suspension of the Institution's shipments for over a month. The 

 official character of the work carried on by the exchange service was 

 brought to the attention of the railroad authorities with the request 

 that a permit be issued granting the Institution permission to for- 

 ward its material to New York for transmission abroad. When the 

 railroads began to exempt certain classes of freight from the embargo, 

 the Institution was given authority to send its consignments. 



The Institution has, in a few cases, rendered aid to various estab- 

 lishments in procuring publications relating to some particular sub- 

 ject in which especial interest was manifested. I may refer to one 

 instance in this connection : The counselor in charge of foreign rela- 

 tions of the municipality of Prague wrote to the American Legation 

 in that city that he wished to establish better cultural and intellec- 

 tual relations between the University of Prague and the various 

 American universities, and that with that end in view he was desirous 

 of receiving catalogues giving the courses offered by those universi- 

 ties. The counselor also expressed a desire to receive documents con- 

 cerning the functioning of the governments of American munici- 

 palities and their methods of solving economic, social, and political 

 problems. The matter was brought to the attention of the more im- 

 portant American universities and of the governments of the larger 

 cities in this country, from whom considerable material bearing on 

 the subject was received and forwarded to Prague. 



In March, 1920, a letter was received from Dr. S. G. de Vries, 

 director of the Bureau Scientifique Central Neerlandais, Bibliotheque 

 de FUniversite, Leyden, stating that on account of the condition of 

 his health he was unable to retain the management of the Dutch 

 Central Scientific Bureau (the Netherlands Exchange Agency) , and 

 that Dr. H. H. E. Eoelofs Heyermans, director of the Bibliotheque 

 de l'Academie Technique, Delft, had succeeded him in the manage- 

 ment of the Dutch bureau. Shipments for the Netherlands are there- 

 fore now forwarded to Delft. Doctor de Vries had been head of the 

 Dutch scientific bureau for 18 years, during which time the inter- 

 change of publications between the Netherlands and the United 



