60 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 



riients in boxes are being made as frequently as present conditions 

 will permit to all countries except Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hun- 

 gary, Montenegro, Roumania, Russia, Serbia, and Turkey. It is not 

 thought advisable to forward consignments to these until the peace 

 treaties with the enemy countries are finally ratified by the United 

 States Government and internal conditions become more settled. It 

 is hoped that in the early part of the next fiscal year it will be pos- 

 sible to make shipments to all countries. 



To some countries transmissions were not wholly suspended for 

 any long period during the war. However, as was to be expected 

 during such abnormal times, the institution met with many obstacles 

 in its efforts to keep the exchanges open. The charge for ocean 

 freight grew to great proportions. The rate to England, for instance, 

 at one time reached $5.80 per cubic foot. The charge on shipments to 

 that country before the war was $0.16 a cubic foot, thus making the 

 increase more than thirty-sixfold. Such rates becoming too exorbi- 

 tant, the sending of packages in boxes was discontinued, and the 

 mails were resorted to. Late in the fiscal year, when shipments were 

 resumed to Belgium and the northern neutrals, the office was almost 

 swamped with packages which had been accumulating for those 

 countries for many months. 



The chief of the Belgian Service of International Exchanges, in 

 reply to a letter addressed to him early in February asking if his 

 bureau was in a position to resume the distribution of exchanges, 

 stated that there were no longer any obstacles to the renewal of the 

 relations which had been interrupted on acount of the encirclement 

 of iron and fire in which his country found itself during the war. 

 He added : 



I should fail ir.ost lamentably in my duty, Mr. Seci-etary, if I did not add 

 lo this reply warm thanks in the name of the Belgian Government, in the name 

 of our scientific establishments and institutions, and in my own name, for the 

 extreme kindness which you have shown us in reserving for us until the present 

 time, all the numerous " series " and " collections," one and all of Inestimable 

 vahie, which the war has prevented you from transmitting to us at the proper 

 time. 



Applications for permission to forward publications abroad 

 through the service are being received from time to time, both from 

 new and long-established institutions. As an illustration of appre- 

 ciation of the value of the service by such organizations, may be 

 (luoted the following extract from a communication from the New 

 'i'-ork State College of Forestry at Syracuse, acknowledging the re- 

 ceipt of the Institution's letter extending the exchange facilities to 

 that college : 



It will mean a good deal to us in developing the exchange of publications for 

 the forest library of this college. 



