REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 59 



beginning of the war. Information has been received from the 

 Portuguese exchange service to the effect that the three boxes for- 

 warded to that service in September, 1916, per steamship fialto 

 were lost when that vessel was wrecked at sea. In reporting this 

 loss the Portuguese exchange service does not state whether the ves- 

 sel was sunk by the enemy. 



The box of exchanges for the Jewish Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, Haifa, Palestine, which the Egyptian Government publica- 

 tions office at Bulaq kindly agreed to hold until the cessation of 

 hostilities, has been forwarded to its destination by that office. The 

 attention given to this matter by the Government publications office 

 and the trouble taken to reforward the consignment to its destina- 

 tion are much appreciated by the Institution. 



New regulations adopted by the United States War Trade Board 

 governing importations into the United States from Great Britain 

 made it necessary for the Smithsonian agents in London to take out 

 a consular invoice for shipments sent to the Institution, giving the 

 full title of each book. The matter was brought to the attention of 

 the Director of the Bureau of Imports of the War Trade Board, 

 who very kindly issued a general license to cover the importation of 

 international exchanges from the United Kingdom when consigned 

 to the Smithsonian Institution. This action has not only resulted 

 in expediting shipments from England, but has relieved the depleted 

 force of the London Exchange Agency of a great deal of labor in 

 connection with the forwarding of shipments to this country. 



Aid has, as in previous years, been rendered to various govern- 

 mental and scientific establishments in this and foreign countries 

 in procuring desired publications. One instance in this connection 

 may be referred to here. A request was received through diplomatic 

 channels from the recently created French War Museum-Library, at 

 Paris, for copies of American documents and other material relating 

 to the war for deposit in a section of that library to be devoted to 

 the part taken by the United States in the conflict. The Institution 

 has taken the matter up with the several governmental establish- 

 ments, and has received a number of publications for the above- 

 mentioned library. Prof. Adolphe Cohn, of Columbia University, 

 New York, is the American representative of the French War 

 Museum-Library, and will take steps to procure publications and 

 material from organizations outside of the Government. 



Only 143 boxes of exchanges were forwarded abroad during the 

 year. This does not represent an actual falling off in the number 

 of packages distributed abroad, as many were sent to their destina- 

 tions direct by mail. This method of transmission was adopted be- 

 cause it was found much cheaper to mail the packages than to for- 

 ward them in boxes, owing to the great advance in ocean freight 



