Xcll REPORT—1899. 
and there appears to be no insuperable difficulty if the trustees are willing 
to undertake the responsibility of controlling such a department. 
The staff would not be numerous. A director accustomed to deal 
with ethnological matter would necessarily direct the conduct of the 
inquiries, and until the material assumed large proportions two or three 
clerks would probably suffice. If the value of the results were considered 
to justify it, the increase of the area of operations over the world would 
probably call for additional assistance after the Bureau had been at work 
for a few years. 
The Bureau of Ethnology in the United States aims chiefly at pub- 
lishing its reports, but its area is limited to America. The scope of the 
present proposal is so much wider that the Committee think it better not 
to deal with the question of publication at present. 
INCLOSURE 3, 
Letter from the Foreign Office to the British Association — 
Foreign Office, April 7, 1899. 
S1r,—I am directed by the Marquess of Salisbury to acknowledge the receipt of 
your letter of the 30th ult, on the subject of the establishment of a Bureau of 
Ethnology for Greater Britain; and I am to request that you will inform his lord- 
ship whether it is correctly understood that what the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science desires, so far as this Department is concerned, is that Her 
Majesty’s officers in the various Protectorates administered under the Foreign Office 
should report on occasion to the best of their ability on the ethnology of the various 
native races in those Protectorates, 
If this be the correct interpretation of the wishes of the British Association, 
Lord Salisbury would be obliged if some more precise definition can be furnished as 
to the points to which attention should be directed, with a view to framing instruc- 
tions for the guidance of the officers concerned. 
I am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, 
(Signed) MARTIN GOSSELIN, 
The President of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science. 
INCLOSURE 4, 
Letter from the British Association to the Foreign Office :— 
Burlington House, London, May 3, 1899, 
S1z,— I have to acknowledge the receipt of the letter from Sir Martin Gosselin 
of April 7, with regard to the proposed establishment of a Bureau of Ethnology for 
Greater Britain in connection with the British Museum. 
The purpose of the British Association in applying to the Foreign Office has been 
correctly understood so far that it is desired to obtain from the agents and officers 
of the Foreign Office information of an ethnological character with respect to the 
numerous uncivilised races with whom they come into daily contact. 
But it is not contemplated to give the Foreign Office any trouble in conducting 
these inquiries, The officers of the Bureau will prepare the questions and forward 
them to the various officers, who, it is hoped, may be willing to furnish the answers. 
All the material thus gathered will be systematically arranged in the British 
Museum, so as to be available both for scientific research and for the purposes of 
the Government. 
The Council of the British Association felt, however, that before entering into 
communication with those officers it would be wise to ask for Lord Salisbury’s 
approval of the scheme, in order that the gentlemen who were disposed to undertake 
such work as is contemplated by the Bureau might be assured that the work would 
be favourably regarded by their Department. 
