NO. I ETHNOGEOGRAPHIC BOARD BENNETT 83 



the Committee on Asiatic Geography, and the East Indies Institute, 

 hoping not only to coordinate all activities, but likewise to obtain in 

 some fashion a finished section or chapter which could be used as a 

 model and an incentive for others. 



At the end of 6 months Dr. Barnett reported the status of his 

 frustrations to the Board. His committee members had either been 

 scattered by war duties or had become too occupied to think about 

 the project between meetings. The potential contributors were con- 

 fused or indifferent. The Board tried once again to salvage the project. 

 It proposed that the survey be divided up. The Board and the 

 Smithsonian would work on an anthropological guide for Oceania 

 under the supervision of Dr. Barnett, who would become a member of 

 the committee rather than its executive secretary. The fields of 

 biology, geology, and geography would be assigned to various in- 

 terested groups. Unfortunately Dr. Barnett could not be persuaded 

 to continue under the circumstances then prevailing. 



The Board was still willing, however, to consider the allotment of 

 limited supporting funds, although it decided not to reassume re- 

 sponsibility for the project as a whole. Actually certain funds were 

 allotted in late 1945. The committee continues to struggle, vir- 

 tually independent of the Board, and some work on the earth and 

 biological sciences has been advanced. On the whole, however, the 

 project is dormant. 



The fate of the Pacific Survey Project can be attributed to war- 

 time conditions, lack of personnel, and above all to the difficulty of 

 definition. The sincerity and energy of the executive secretary can- 

 not be questioned, and the Board, too, contributed considerable time 

 and thought to the project. Still the fact remains that neither the 

 Board nor the committee was able to define the problem with sufficient 

 clarity to guide the formulation of an outline. With adequate defini- 

 tion and outline, progress might have been possible for those sections 

 for which competent personnel was still available. Certainly a project 

 as potentially valuable as this one should not be abandoned, but should 

 be so reorganized that the new knowledge and experience resulting 

 from the war can be properly recorded. This conviction has motivated 

 the Board to assign Dr. Barnett to the Pacific section of the War 

 Document Survey. 



Area (and Language) Notes 



In the description of one of the major projects, the Survey of Area 

 Studies in American Universities, it was pointed out that the original 

 concept was one of service for the teachers of the area courses. The 



