896 
consenting to nominate a fresh committee 
had struck a disastrous blow at all future 
cooperation between scientific bodies in this 
country. 
What reply could the officers make if 
they were asked to advise the Council of the 
Royal Society to cooperate with that of the 
Royal Geographical Society on any future 
occasion ? 
I felt justified in asking what guarantee 
was there that the Council of the Royal 
Geographical Society would accept the find- 
ing of the committee of six, when it had re- 
fused to accept that of a committee which 
included all the officers and almost every 
expert in Arctic and Antarctic exploration 
from both societies. In réply Sir Michael 
Foster, in spite of the promise of firmness 
held out by his attitude on February 12th, 
when Sir Clements Markham threatened 
that his council would repudiate the find- 
ing of the Joint Committee, maintained 
that they had only acted within their rights, 
and that the Royal Society Council claimed 
‘the right to do the same if it had not agreed 
with the decision. 
At this point it will be convenient to give 
a list of the representatives of the Royal 
_ Society on the Joint Antarctic Committee, 
the representatives of the Royal Geogra- 
phical Society being equally significant in 
relation to the council of their own society. 
They are the President, the Treasurer, the 
Senior Secretary, the Junior Secretary, Mr. 
A. Buchan, Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, Captain 
Creak, Sir J. Evans, Sir A. Geikie, Pro- 
fessor Herdman, Sir J. D. Hooker, Professor 
Poulton, Mr. P. L. Sclater, Mr. J. J. H. 
Teall, Captain Tizard, and Admiral Sir W. 
J. Li. Wharton. 
If the reports of Joint Committees of such 
magnitude and weight are to be thrown 
over with the approval of the councils of 
both societies because a majority of one 
council does not.agree with the conclusions, 
men will rightly hesitate before consenting 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 336. 
to devote an immense amount of time and 
trouble to the work of the Society, and the 
efficiency of the Royal Society will be greatly 
diminished. 
The considerations set forth above indi- 
cate the future injuries which are likely to 
be inflicted on our Society by this surrender. 
At the meeting on April 26th, I was more 
concerned with the immediate and pressing 
injury, and therefore urged that the Royal 
Society was a trustee for the interests of 
science and that we had pledged ourselves 
to secure certain powers to the Scientific 
Director, that it was better the expediticn 
should not start (a contingency contem- 
plated as possible by Sir George Goldie, 
but not a serious danger, I believe, even 
though the Royal Society had stood firm 
and appealed to the Government, not on 
the subject-matter in dispute, but on the 
refusal of the Royal Geographical Society 
to work with the recognized methods of co- 
operation) than that the Royal Society 
should betray its trust, that the fellows of 
the Society would not support the officers 
in thus yielding to the Royal Geographical 
Society, and that I should feel bound to ex- 
plain my position to the Society. Sir Ar- 
chibald Geikie and Mr. J. Y. Buchanan 
also strongly objected to the surrender, 
which was then confirmed by a large ma- 
jority of those present. 
We were told by Sir George Goldie that 
the three representatives of the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society on the new committee 
would be Sir Leopold McClintock, Mr. 
Mackenzie, and Sir George himself; by Sir 
Michael Foster that the Royal Society 
Council would appoint three non-experts, 
viz.: Lord Lister, Lord Lindley and the 
Treasurer, who could pronounce without 
bias upon the whole of the evidence. My 
colleague, Captain Tizard, with whom I 
had worked with the most complete sym- 
pathy and agreement through the whole 
course of the negotiations, supported the 
