NO. I ETIINOGEOGRAPHIC BOARD — BENNETT lOI 



Liaison officers proved immensely helpful to the Board, and, if 

 properly selected, they would be equally valuable in peacetime as a 

 method of integrating committee work and Government needs. The 

 dinner conferences will always be valuable for orientation, because 

 even in peacetime individuals with similar interests in different agen- 

 cies do not always know each other. Furthermore, such dinners are a 

 useful promotion technique, and might well have value over and above 

 this if properly organized around significant problems. 



The problem conferences, as illustrated by the one on Bolivian In- 

 dians, have future possibilities because they can be concentrated on 

 very specific subjects. The participants need to be selected carefully 

 and the conference should produce a report which might or might 

 not call for further discussion. Finally, the survey technique, although 

 not significantly modified by the Ethnogeographic Board, will continue 

 to produce results of widespread value. 



NEXT EAIERGENCY 



One of the fundamental purposes in preparing a history was to 

 answer the question : Were it again necessary, should it be done in 

 the same way ? A complete answer would amount to another appraisal 

 of the Ethnogeographic Board but some of the major points can be 

 summarized without too much repetition of detail. An answer also 

 involves a consideration of the next emergency, although not in the 

 parlor pastime sense of predicting how long it will be before the next 

 world war. Emergencies of other types may arise which will make a 

 board necessary or at least desirable. Future emergencies, wars or 

 otherwise, may not demand area knowledge, in which case funda- 

 mental changes in the type of board would have to be made, but 

 since it is futile to speculate about the type of crisis, it is here assumed 

 that area will again be an important consideration. 



Any emergency which causes a rapid increase in the size of Govern- 

 ment and which involves the creation of new agencies will certainly 

 produce the same confusion which Washington witnessed in the first 

 years of this war. Individuals and agencies will doubtless appreciate 

 the same type of orientation and quick service which the present 

 Board offered. Far from having all area resources carefully documen- 

 ted and organized, the same series of simple questions will again be 

 asked, the same need for specialized personnel will again arise. 



It is reasonable, then, that a board organized in many ways along 

 the lines of the present one will be needed. However, judging by the 

 limitations of the present experience, the next organization should 



