II 8 How to Pay for the War 



as white, genuinely interested in tropical botany, economic 

 or scientific, his great idea being to induce botanists to 

 come to Buitenzorg, as we described in our March issue, 

 in order to investigate the problems connected with botany 

 on the spot. It was as a first step in this direction that he 

 succeeded in persuading the Government to erect a special 

 laboratory for the benefit of foreigners, until in 1885 the 

 " Foreigners' Laboratory " was officially inaugurated. 



The importance of this to the Laboratory was very 

 marked ; importance that is both to Buitenzorg as the 

 second Mecca of tropical botanists (Peradeniya, of course, 

 being first, though probably our Dutch friends will not 

 agree with this), and also to the scientific botanical world 

 in general. From 1885 until the present day, reported a 

 recent publication emanating from the Java Department 

 of Agriculture (No. viii, on " Scientific Information issued 

 in connection with the San Francisco Committee"), no 

 less than 150 foreigners have already made use of the 

 laboratory, including many famous scientists, although we 

 do not see the names of any Englishmen among them, an 

 omission which we regret. 



Meanwhile, however, Treub was not satisfied, as he 

 quickly saw (after 1885) that the great majority of 

 botanists could not afford the expense of the journey to 

 Java, and even if they could manage that, the stay there 

 was still too often an insurmountable obstacle to their 

 devoting their energies, as he wished to see them doing, 

 in the Foreigners' Laboratory that he had called into 

 being. 



Nothing daunted, this new difficulty was immediately 

 tackled and overcome by the indomitable Dutchman, and 

 as a result of his own personal influence, a fund was estab- 

 lished in Holland which, with the aid of the Government 

 subsidy, enabled a botanist to proceed to Buitenzorg to 

 study every two years. Later on Treub also succeeded 

 in inducing the establishment of similar funds in various 

 other countries. 



In addition to this, Treub also provided facilities for 

 botanists to carry on work in the Mountain Garden at 

 Tjibodas by erecting a small building there as well. 



Surely, therefore, what Treub and, through his per- 

 suasive powers, Holland have done for this country as a 

 foreigner, our own Government will one day, "when the 

 War is over " (equivalent to mafiana in Spanish), wake up 

 and do for us. No one can deny that the institution, i.e., 

 the Tropical Agricultural College and Institute of Research, 



