106 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



again : the Ordnance Survey to be the national and domestic map maker. 

 the ' Topographical Department ' to be the national and overseas (but 

 predominantly colonial) mapmaker. Both, however, were the suppliers 

 and advisers for all departments of state. 



Is it in any way curious that the War Office should father a national 

 institution of this sort ? Is it curious that Astronomers Royal should 

 shelter under the wings of their Lordships of the Admiralty, or that the 

 Meteorological Office should flourish under the Air Ministry ? Should 

 they all be under a ' Ministry of Applied Science ' ? But it is the privilege 

 of the ' Golden Bough ' to wander, delightfully from point to point, and 

 I must back to mapping. 



The Topographical Department continued to grow and to subdivide. 

 It gave birth to ' Military Intelligence ' and to ' Military Operations.' 

 As so often happens the sons overtopped the father. The department 

 was, for a time, under the hand of the late Lord Cromer, it has been the 

 nursery for many distinguished soldier surveyors, and we bring it up to 

 the time of the Boer War with a brief reference to the two germs from 

 which, in spite of all its good work, it did suffer. These are : — 



(a) The germ of anaemia, due to starvation when no peril threatened. 



(b) The germ of hypertrophy, due to taking too seriously the minor 

 lessons of the last war (whichever it was). 



At the beginning of this century the department was, as for some time 

 it had been, the institution which provided the trained officers and men 

 for boundary commissions and topographical surveys abroad ; which had 

 the best map library in the country ; which provided topographical maps 

 and advice to all departments of state, and which was closely in touch 

 with the Colonial Office on matters pertaining to the Colonial Survey 

 departments. 



The Topographical Department was now rechristened the Geographical 

 Section of the General Staff (or M.I. 4 for short), and it is time to consider 

 its work under two the normal subheads : 



(a) The compilation and publication of maps of unsurveyed, or only 

 partially surveyed, areas. 



(b) The actual survey on the ground — the real mapping — of the 

 Colonies. 



For making the best possible use of all knowledge preceding survey — 

 the routes of travellers, the occasional observed latitude and longitude, 

 the rare railway or river plan, and the still rarer record of local surveying — 

 the Geographical Section acquired a staff of draughtsmen probably 

 unequalled in Great Britain. The first maps of Africa made by the 

 Section were the i/M and the 1/250000 series. These were compiled 

 from all sorts of information, included many inaccuracies, but for some 

 ten years were by far the best maps of the continent. Another large and 

 important series was the 1/250000 of Asia Minor, which was still the best 

 map of those parts when the war broke out. With a prescience which 



