98 Editorial Notes. 



Professor J. E. Marr, Sir Jethro Teall, Mr. R. D. Oldham, and 

 Sir John Cadraan ; Secretaries, Dr. H. H. Thomas and Dr. H. 

 Lap worth ; Treasurer, Dr. J. Y. Elsden ; Foreign Secretary, Sir A. 

 Geikie. The following were also elected to replace the five retiring 

 members of Council: Dr. G. T. Prior, Professor P. F. Kendall, 

 Dr. G. Hickling, Mr. A. Howe, and Mr. R. S. Herries. 



A- •%■ ■& ic- A* 



In view of the change in the political status of women brought about 

 by the new Franchise Act it was inevitable that the question of their 

 admission to the Geological Society should again be brought forward. 

 In this connexion the award of the Murchison Medal to Miss G. L. 

 Elles, as recorded last month, is significant. At the meeting of the 

 Society on January 22 the President announced that a special general 

 meeting will be held on March 26 to consider the following motion : 

 " That it is desirable to admit women as Fellows of the Society. " 

 There can hardly be any doubt as to the outcome of the discussion, 

 and we may hope that a long-delayed measure of justice will be 

 carried out without serious opposition. 



# *? * s? # 



Messrs. George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., have done a useful service 

 by publishing, under the title of German Designs on* French 

 Lorraine, a translation, with introduction, of the secret memorandum 

 presented by the German iron and steel manufacturers to the 

 Imperial Chancellor and to Field-Marshal von Hindenburg at the 

 close of 1917. This is a document of remarkable interest in many 

 ways, partly as an exposition of German unscrupulousness and 

 cynical disregard for truth and partly as an example of how 

 completely a case may be given away by excess of zeal. Since the 

 main points brought forward are essentially matters of geological 

 fact, distorted to suit German arguments, it may be briefly 

 summarized here. The gist of the argument is as follows : Germany 

 will require, after a peace victorious for the Central Powers, a greatly 

 increased supply of iron and steel : her home supplies are approaching 

 exhaustion, therefore it will be necessary for the continued existence 

 of the Empire, and especially for the successful prosecution of the 

 next war, to annex that part of Lorraine which still remains French. 

 In order to diminish the atrocity of this annexation, the reserves still 

 remaining iu Germany are much under-estimated, while the amount 

 of the supplies available in the rest of France are multiplied 

 enormously. The figures given are stated to be on the authority of 

 the well-known geologists Beyschlag and Krusch. These authorities 

 value the average life of the German mines at 40 to 50 years. 

 According to the best pre-War figures the German resources were in 

 1910 about 3,900,000,000 tons of ore: if this is to be exhausted 



