146 CONGR£:S INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGIQUE 
International Geology 
The Fourteenth International Geological Congress of Geologists 
which met in Brussels during the months of August and Septem¬ 
ber was a happy event, despite the fact that the attendance was 
small and Mittel-Europa and Bolshevik Russia were not permitted 
to send representatives. The American attendance was unac¬ 
countably slender — only ten of our countrymen being present. 
This is all the more inexplicable, since there were at this very time 
more than a score of other geologists from America in Europe 
who did not put in appearance at the sessions. 
Plucky little Belgium is to be congratulated for the bold adven¬ 
ture in assuming the responsibilities of the first after-War meet¬ 
ing of the scientists. A David who held at bay the Hun Giant 
for four long years may not be expected to fear anything else 
in this world. Belgian hospitality and entertainment were far 
beyond most sanguine expectations. To those who were fortunate 
enough to partake of her bounty nothing but joyous memories 
linger. 
It could hardly be expected that Belgium could stretch out the 
glad hand to those countries which had so recently and so griev¬ 
ously wronged her, and which had so nearly extinguished her. 
Yet this very fact raises the question whether, in order to be 
strictly international in character and really to compose interna¬ 
tional animosities, the first after-War congress should not have 
been held with some other nation not so embittered and one which 
had not so recently escaped with its life in a savage conflict. 
There were political contingencies and implications which seemed 
to pervade the policies of the Congress which should have had no 
place in scientific affairs. It appears that this factor, whether real 
or fancied, actually had a wide-spread deterring effect on the 
attendance. 
