CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 445 



ever, the Board of Education has recently advocated what are known as 

 advanced courses in the best secondary schools. English, mathematics, science, 

 classics, modern languages, have a place, but at first geography was excluded, 

 and even now is only regarded as an advanced subject under very special con- 

 ditions. 



These facts are not good for education as a whole, nor for the subject of 

 geography in particular. The President of the Board of Education wrote the 

 President of the ^Manchester Geographical Society stating that there were not 

 sufficient geography specialists to warrant the Board in advocating advanced 

 courses in geography. Rarely are teachers prepared for a subject which does 

 not exist. Let the Board sanction the advanced courses in geography and 

 there will be an adequate supply of teachers in a short time. 



Probably there never was a time in the history of man when geography was 

 so necessary as at present. No country is .self-contained. Each is necessary for 

 all and all are necessary for each. This is especially true for the British nation. 

 We have the largest empire the world has ever seen. We boast that the sun 

 never sets on the British Empire, and that it is always simimer in one part or 

 other of the British Empire. We control the lives of more people than have ever 

 formed one empire before, and these have different languages, different manners, 

 cu.stoms, dress, and show all grades of civilisation and culture. Unless we know 

 more of this empire, and this is geography, we are unworthy of the trust which 

 is imposed upon us. 



How can we expect the respect of Canadians, Australians, South Africans, 

 and Hindus when we know so little of them and their countries and make such 

 small efforts to know more ? 



The time seems ripe for a great step forward in the teaching of geography. 



The Great War has brought home to us the size and importance of our Empire, 

 but we are now in danger of falling back into the old groove. Even at the 

 Peace Conference, peoples, towns, and comitries were discussed and settled 

 when some of the members had never heard of either the places or the people. 

 Boundaries have been drawn without any regard to the geographical conditions. 



Geographical conditions alone made India a garden protected by the moun- 

 tains and the sea for a time, but when men had learnt to navigate the seas and 

 to negotiate the mountain passes, India lost her natural protection and fell a 

 prey to invading hordes who envied the natives their rich land. Mesopotamia, 

 owing its greatness to its position near great i-ivers, rose and declined, but will 

 rise again by a study of its climate and by the application of science to its 

 agriculture. Egypt— that fertile strip in the desert — became a great land 

 through geographical conditions. Greece, Rome, and Spain all rose because 

 favourable conditions prevailed, but failure to keep pace with the times led 

 to their decline. 



Is it not also possible that our own Empire may fail when it has the power 

 to be the greatest factor in the world's progress ? Every statesman should know 

 his geography well. Every official in our Government IDepartments should have 

 had a thorough training in the school of geography. It may be truthfully said 

 that not 1 per cent, of the officials in the Higher Civil Service have ever 

 studied geography seriously since their school days. Not long ago the subject 

 was not even among those for examination. Map-making has been left to the 

 Army and Navy Ordnance Survey Departments. The Board of Trade officials 

 should be expert geographers. There should, without doubt, be a geographer 

 at the ^Ministry of Transport. 



Our trade is carried on with every country in the world. We have been 

 nicknamed 'a nation of shopkeepens,' r.nd it is a marvel to any thinking 'man 

 how we have acquired our markets, and especially how me manage to keep them. 



Surely there is a great field for geography teaching in the upper part of the 

 secondary school and in the University, and the tendency to make the subject a 

 branch of history or of commerce is not altogether advisable. It is necessary 

 for commerce, but is not really a part of it. Geography may be called a 

 synoptic science, since it obtains much of its data from other sciences, and it is 

 as old as man himself. The relation.ship between man and his environment 

 made the study of geography a necessity. Man was, in fact, ' controlled ' by 

 g)eography, and only by a study of the subject can man suit himself to this 



