xe REPORT—1899:; 
viz.: ‘The collecting of the necessary information for the Bureau could be done with 
but little expense and with avery small staff only, if the scheme were recognised and 
forwarded by the Government. If instructions were issued, for instance, by the 
Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, the Admiralty, and the Intelligence Branch of the 
War Office, to the officers acting under each of these departments, not only that they 
were at liberty to conduct these inquiries, but that credit would be given to them 
officially for good work in this direction, there is little doubt that many observers 
qualified by their previous training would at once put themselves and their leisure at 
the disposal of the Bureau.’ 
If the proposed Bureau is to work successfully, it is necessary to have the ap- 
proval and co-operation of the several Departments of the Government concerned 
with the primitive races to be dealt with. The Council have reason to believe that 
a large proportionjof the officers now employed in dealing with these savage people 
would gladly undertake scientific work of the character required by the Report, if 
only they could be assured that such work would not be regarded unfavourably by 
the authorities at home. There is reason to believe that such an impression exists, 
but itis probably the result of some misunderstanding ; and,in order to make the 
matter quite clear, I would venture to ask from your Lordship an expression of 
opinion favourable to the terms of the paragraph above quoted. 
The Report itself gives in concise form a statement of the benefit likely to accrue 
from the establishment of such a Bureau, as to the general principle of which I feel 
sure the British Association may count upon your Lordship’s entire sympathy. 
I am, my Lord, your obedient servant, 
(Signed) WILLIAM CROOKES, President. 
INCLOSURE 2. 
Report of the Committee appointed by the Council to consider the 
Sollowing Resolution :— 
‘That it is of urgent importance to press upon the Government the 
necessity of establishing a Bureau of Ethnology for Greater Britain, 
which, by collecting information with regard to the native races within, 
and on the borders of, the Empire, will prove of immense value to science 
and to the Government itself.’ 
A central establishment in England, to which would come information 
with regard to the habits, beliefs, and methods of government of the 
primitive peoples now existing would be of great service to science, and 
of no inconsiderable utility to the Government. 
1. The efforts of the various societies which have during the last 
twenty years devoted themselves to collecting and publishing ethnological 
information have necessarily produced somewhat unequal, and therefore 
unsatisfactory, results. Such societies had, of course, to depend upon the 
reports of explorers, who usually travelled for another purpose than that 
in which the societies were interested ; and such reports were naturally 
unsystematic, the observers being mostly untrained in the science. Again, 
whole regions would be unrepresented in the transactions of the societies, 
perhaps from the absence of the usual attractions of travellers, e.g. big 
game or mineral riches. This has been to some extent corrected, at least 
as to the systematic nature of the reports, by the publication of ‘ Anthro- 
pological Notes and Queries’ by the Anthropological Institute, with the 
help of the British Association. 
If it be admitted that the study of the human race is an important 
branch of science, no further argument is needed to commend the 
gathering of facts with regard to the conditions under which aboriginal 
races now live, and, if this work is worth doing, it should be done without 
