IN HONOR OF THE ARMY AND AVIATION 



275 



THE TOASTM ASTER, GEN. JOHN M. WILSON 



Honors are heaped upon us tonight. 

 We have with us that noble and dis- 

 tinguished statesman, that wonderful 

 writer, that accomplished gentleman who 

 represents the great Kingdom of Great 

 Britain, upon whose dominions the sun 

 never sets ; that kingdom which has pro- 

 duced some of the greatest of soldiers, 

 some of the greatest of statesmen. It 

 gives me pleasure to present to you the 

 Right Honorable James Bryce, Ambassa- 

 dor from the Kingdom of Great Britain. 



THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR, HON. JAMES 



BRYCE 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

 I did not come here with any intention 

 of addressing you. I knew that you had 

 already a program which would be 

 amply sufficient for the time, and I had 

 really nothing to say, which, however, is 

 the smallest reason that ever is assigned 

 for not making- a speech. But I came 

 because it is always a pleasure to me to 

 be in a company of geographers who 

 represent in a very large sense the whole 

 world, their nature being that of mak- 

 ing the people of every part of the world 

 know the people of every other part of 

 the world, and thereby bringing about 

 that good understanding which is the 

 basis of international peace. 



There is only one observation which 

 has occurred to me as I am thus sud- 

 denly called to my feet. It is suggested 

 by the journey from which I have just 

 returned in the Southern Hemisphere. It 

 has always seemed to me that the one 

 dark cloud on the horizon of our geog- 

 raphers, the one drop of bitter which 

 prevents us from enjoying the draught 

 of knowledge which is raised to our lips 

 by every successful geographer, is the 

 sense that this planet of ours is limited, 

 and that in time we shall have exhausted 

 all its resources as far as exploration is 

 concerned. We are accustomed to take 

 large views of time as well as of space, 

 and we do not want so to define and dis- 

 pose of the whole earth as to leave noth- 



ing for the many generations that are to 

 come after us — as I believe the astrono- 

 mers allow us several millions of years 

 until the changes in the solar system will 

 bring this earth and its population to an 

 end. 



Well, I received some consolation in 

 visiting South America from this night- 

 mare of a sense of exhaustion which 

 sometimes arises in the minds of geog- 

 raphers, because I found in traversing 

 South America that there is still a vast 

 deal left that the geographical explorer 

 has to do. And I should like to call the 

 attention of those aspiring spirits among 

 you who wish to associate your names 

 with further discoveries to the opportu- 

 nities which that great continent offers. 



Of course, these are no longer the 

 days of the most sensational discoveries. 

 We cannot have anything to look for- 

 ward to like the discovery of the Pacific 

 Ocean or the North Pole or the Grand 

 Canyon of the Colorado River. But 

 still there is a vast deal of useful geo- 

 graphical work to be done, particularly 

 in the center of the South American con- 

 tinent. There are regions in the eastern 

 part of Bolivia and Peru, and in the 

 western parts of Brazil, and in the ad- 

 joining parts of Argentina, Venezuela, 

 Colombia, and Equador, which are prac- 

 tically unknown, and where an immense 

 deal is to be done, not only by the natu- 

 ralist, the biologist, and botanist, but also 

 by the simple explorer, in determining 

 the course of rivers, the heights of 

 mountains, and in ascertaining the re- 

 sources of the country. 



At present there are two forces at 

 work in exploration ; the one is that of 

 the railway projectors, who are laying 

 out lines, some of which will be com- 

 pleted and some of which will have to 

 wait a good while for completion, and 

 perhaps a longer time still before they 

 afford an adequate return to sharehol 1- 

 ers. And there are also the people who 

 are exploiting the resources of the coun- 

 try and who are more concerned with 

 making profits than with scientific dis- 

 covery. Now there is a great field for 



