SMITHSONIAN'S PART IN WORLD WAR II 461 



should fall within the Institution's capabilities and resources; they 

 should be as far as possible along the lines of its normal work in order 

 to avoid complete disruption of its unavoidable curatorial and re- 

 search duties; they should avoid duplication of work being done or 

 proposed by other agencies. 



The committee made 23 definite recommendations for action to the 

 Secretary, and most of these were approved and carried out. A few 

 were rejected for administrative reasons, and 2, although approved in 

 principle, were not made effective because of lack of agreement among 

 those whose cooperation was necessary for their development. 



In May 1944 the committee came to the conclusion that all possible 

 means of making the Institution useful in the war had been canvassed 

 and advertised, and it therefore asked to be dissolved. In a letter ex- 

 pressing appreciation of the value of the committee's work, the Secre- 

 tary assented. 



The headings that follow are not the individual recommendations of 

 the War Committee, but are the topics under which the Institution's 

 war work falls. 



TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO ARMY AND NAVY AND OTHER WAR 



AGENCIES 



Probably the Smithsonian's most effective contribution to the war 

 was its ability to answer urgent calls from the Army and Navy for 

 information in a variety of fields — mainly anthropology, biology, 

 geology, geography, physics and astrophysics, engineering, textiles 

 and fibers, and woods. Many of the requests were for information 

 that had only an indirect war connection, but others led straight to 

 the fighting fronts and had a direct bearing on the progress of the 

 war. Among these latter requests were calls for means of identifica- 

 tion of various kinds of disease-bearers, such as mosquitoes, rats, and 

 mollusks; for reports on geography, peoples, and other features of 

 areas ahead of the actual fighting ; for transliteration of Chinese and 

 Japanese names on maps of war areas ; for preparation of a survival 

 manual for aviators and other personnel stranded in unfamiliar 

 areas ; and for many other items of equal importance. 



These calls for technical information had begun to reach the Insti- 

 tution even before the creation of the War Committee. Recognizing 

 the interest and importance of keeping a record of this war service, 

 the committee formulated a standard card on which each staff mem- 

 ber was asked to enter the agency making the request, the name of the 

 inquirer, nature of the information wanted, whether or not it could 

 be furnished, and the name of the staff member. These cards as re- 

 ceived by the committee were kept constantly under lock and key, as 



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