124 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



difficult, from these reports and the speeches of prominent 

 members of the Council, to understand exactly what are 

 the intentions or wishes of the Marine Biological 

 Association in regard to the International Council and 

 Bureau. They ask quite definitely to be allowed to 

 continue the International investigations ; but a passage 

 in the speech by the Chairman of the M.B.A. 

 Council suggests that they are contemplating the 

 severance of their present connection with the 

 International Council. If that is the case, it is surely of 

 primary importance to all concerned in the discussion of 

 these questions to know under what organisation they 

 propose to work. If they do not desire to continue under 

 the direction of the " Conseil Permanent International," 

 are they prepared to adopt the recommendations of the 

 Ichthyological Research Committee to such an extent as 

 will satisfy the claims of the Sea Fisheries District 

 Committees of the East and West Coasts, or is it their 

 intention to claim all the money that has recently been 

 expended by England on the International work, and such 

 additional grant as the Government may give, to spend 

 after July on their own work under their own 

 organisation, in independence alike of the International 

 Council and of the constituted Sea-Fisheries Authorities 

 around the coast? Surely their position in this matter 

 should be made quite clear before their claim to the 

 administration of the whole of the English portion of the 

 International fund can be discussed. 



In one of the circulars that has appeared during the 

 winter, it was suggested that the M.B.A. Council might be 

 increased by allowing the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries, the National Sea Fisheries Protection Associa- 

 tion, and the different Sea-Fisheries Committees, who 

 have established marine laboratories for scientific 



