Stye Hntoraitg of 
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IN REPLY PLEASE QUOTE 
6th Fel 
Dr W. S. Schmidt, 
Smithsonian Institution, 
United States National Museum, 
W ashingt on , 25 , D.C . 
Dear Dr Schmidt, 
I hope you will forgive me for not having answered your letter 
more promptly. I knew you would be on cruise for some weeks and decided to defer 
writing until I got back home. 
Might 1 say now that it was a great pleasure for me to meet and 
talk with you. I hope your trip to the Palmer Peninsula was thoroughly 
successful and look forward with considerable interest to hear the outcome. Just 
before I left McMurdo, I had lu@h lunch in Flag Quarters. I was interested to 
learn that Admiral Reedy seems to feel that the new base will probably operate 
without direct Navy support. In some ways, I think this could be a good thing. 
Certainly there would be an advantage in arranging things: so that any outside 
logistic support was kept in proportion to the scientific requirements of the 
establishment. At McMurdo, there are so many Navy people there that it becomes 
a full time job for them to support themselves, let alone the USARP program. 
As far as the biolab is concerned, I feel that it is very 
well set up as with basic equipment. The fact that I had to borrow apparatus 
was largely because there was insufficient time to arrange a separate grant 
for me and I had to operate through Dr Wohlschlag* It is difficult to say, 
these days, where basic equipment begins and ends. There are all sorts of 
things one could list. However, most of these items might not be used a great 
deal and would probably best be purchased as they are required by specific 
projects. 
I am inclined to feel that the arrangement of facilities in 
the lab could be better. For instance, I do not believe that the situation 
should exist in which soil is solved in an area where precise analytical or 
microbiological work is being carried out. Nor do I consider that formalin 
should be used whore living organisms are being cultivated. I should think 
this type of comment would become more common as projects become more 
specialised and more diverse* This is already being recognised with the 
construction of extensions to the existing building. It should not be too 
difficult to arrange the distribution of special apparatus and facilities 
