84 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I07 



survey was completed as a factual appraisal of the programs them- 

 selves. It is the service aspect, initiated and then dropped, that is here 

 discussed as a dead end. 



Everyone who witnessed the inauguration of the foreign-area 

 training programs in the universities shudders at the painful recol- 

 lection. The Army and Navy were uncertain of what they wanted, 

 and the universities, instead of uniting and agreeing on a sound pro- 

 gram and an intelligent distribution of courses among themselves, 

 competed eagerly for the chance to replace their diminishing student 

 bodies with Government-financed trainees. Colleges of no great dis- 

 tinction suddenly blossomed forth with heretofore unknown experts 

 on Central China and Timbuktu. The larger universities modestly 

 claimed competence on any area of the world, given 24 hours' notice 

 and the prospect of a reasonable number of tuitions paid in advance. 



All this was on the administrative level of the business managers. 

 Underneath were the harassed faculty members who had to make good 

 these claims. English professors who had summered in Italy found 

 themselves listed as regional specialists. Those who had cruised 

 through the Pacific rushed to the libraries to refresh their knowledge. 

 Others with solid claims as area experts, who through some great 

 strength had resisted the rush to Washington, had seldom had the op- 

 portunity to organize regional courses in the discipline-dominated 

 curricula. 



This period of initial confusion in the area programs presented an 

 exceptional opportunity for the Ethnogeographic Board to be of 

 valuable service. The Ethnogeographic Board cannot be blamed for 

 failing to assist in the organization of programs themselves, since 

 universities, foundations, and councils had all tried without success, 

 but it could have made a greater contribution to the integration of 

 those programs. The Board was non-Governmental and unaffiliated 

 with any university, but still its members and staff were the academic 

 colleagues of the teachers of the area programs. At the beginning, 

 every teacher would have welcomed information on regional bib- 

 liography, photographs, translations, films, course outlines, teaching 

 methods, maps, mimeographed summaries, ad infinitum. The Board 

 was in a position to act as a clearinghouse between universities on the 

 teaching echelon. It tried, but unfortunately too late. 



On September 26, 1942, the Provost Marshal General wrote to the 

 Director about the problem of military government and the desirability 

 of the Ethnogeographic Board's cooperation. To quote : "Accordingly, 

 will you be good enough to designate some person in your organiza- 

 tion to establish and maintain liaison for that purpose with the Mili- 

 tary Government Division of my office, which is directly in charge of 



