president's address. — SECTION E. 151 



involved. It is proposed that these be provided with motor-boats, 

 and in addition to the crew a scientific staff and equipment neces- 

 sary for carrying on the proposed researches as completely as 

 possible. They contemplate an investigation which should last for 

 a period of years, and the regular publication of scientific results 

 of the expedition. The committee think that the first cost of the 

 two vessels, as pi'oposed, would not be less than £85,000, and the 

 maintenance and expenses would be not less than £28,000 to 

 £33,000 a year. It is assumed that the vessels and sui-vey equip- 

 ment would be proivided by the Admiralty, and that the cost of 

 maintenance and the pay of the naval staffs and crews would be 

 borne by naval funds. The executive control of the expedition is 

 to be left in the hands of the Admiralty and the Colonial Office, 

 the Departments through which the investigation will be financed. 



The latest development in the field of geographical discovery is 

 a proposal backed by the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science. At the recent meeting of the association, at Cardiff, 

 the Council appointed a Committee representing all branches of 

 science to work out a scheme suggested by Dr. Herdman, the pre- 

 sident, for an oceanographical expedition on the lines of the famo-us 

 Challenger Expedition. The committee is also to approach the 

 Government on the subject. 



Turning from, the sphere of geographical exploration, we can- 

 not pass on without taking some note of the iinmense changes which 

 the war has wrought in the political geography of the world, an 

 upheaval which is without precedent in history. Europe, the focus 

 of the struggle., has been rent from end to end ; the old order of 

 things has gone, and a new system is taking its place. Empires 

 have broken up, and new political divisions have been created. In 

 this re-arrangement the fundamental lessons which the study of 

 human geography teaches have been taken into consideration, and 

 it is hoped that thereby a greater degree of international confidence 

 has been secured. But the upheaval is not yet finished, and no 

 one can say what will ultimately be the position in the territory of 

 the former great Russian Empire. In its present phase it is a 

 dictatorship of the uneducated replacing a dictatorship of those 

 educated and trained toi govern ; a change which has cost millions 

 of lives, and an order of things which, to say the least, must be 

 unstable. 



To outline in detail all the changes in boundaries and political 

 co'utrols which have thus been effected in Europe and Asia and 

 Africa would be tooi lengthy a matter fox the scope of this address ; 

 but the occasion cannot be passed by without some reference to 

 such changes as affect territories in the Australasian sphere. 



