56 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
ments 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 most lamentably in ray duty, Mr. Secretary, if I did not add 
to 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 
value, 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 
quoted the following extract from a communication from the New 
York State College of Forestry at Syracuse, acknoAvledging 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. 
