Unclassified 
Enclosure Ho. 1 
Despatch No. 1776 COPY 
From Paris 
NOTE 
No. 299 
The Embassy of the United States of America presents 
its compliments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 
has the honor to state that the United States National 
Museum,, which is a division of the Smithsonian Institution, 
is planning to undertake an investigation of the littoral 
and shallow water invertebrates of the Society Islands. 
Inasmuch as the National Museum now has very little 
scientific material from this area, it is now planning an 
expedition which will be led by Dr. Valdo L 0 Schmitt, 
marine biologist add bead curator of the Department of 
Zoology. The expedition 1 s other members would be Dr. 
Harold A. Rehder, the museum® s curator of mullusks, and; . 
Dr. Thomas E» Bowman* associate curator of radiate animals# 
The party would like to make Papeete its base of operation 
and visit as many islands as practicable in the course of 
the six weeks period which it has planned for its activi- 
ties in the Society * Islands area. 
To carry out its studies, the expedition has chartered 
the yacht "Mareva" , owned by Mr. James McConnnughey of 
Dayton, Ohio. The yacht will be captained by John Kandell. 
This scientific group, which will have collecting gear, - 
such as nets 1 , dredges, and marine traps, as well as spe- 
cial containers and photographic equipment, is scheduled to 
depart from San Francisco on March 23, 1957 on the ”SS Mori 
posa" and hopes to begin its operations on April 4, ter- 
minating them in Papeete on May Id, 1957. 
The Embassy requests that approval of the appropriate 
French authorities for the conduct of this scientific inves 
tigntion be granted. . It has been instructed to assure the 
Ministry of foreign Affairs that copies of all published 
reports of the expedition’s studies will be made available 
to" French Government authorities. 
Paris, March- 6, 1957 
«' ■ , 1 ' • • ) ' i /• t ' , *' .‘ i , » . 4 
' ’ ' '' t . , , i M * . 
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs • 
