UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK 
NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS 
FREER GALLERY OF ART 
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 
ALL CORRESPONDENCE 
SHOULD BE ADDRESSED 
TO THE SECRETARY 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Washington, IZS.A. 
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES 
DIVISION OF RADIATION AND 
ORGANISMS 
February 20, 1948 
Dr. Alexander Wetmore, 
Care Tivoli Hotel, 
Balboa, Canal Zone. 
Dear Dr. Wet more: 
Dr. Schultz was just in the office putting up a proposition that he had 
received informally from the Arabian Oil Company that it would like to have 
us send a man over to work with a man they have just hired to study fisheries 
in the Persian Gulf. Their interest, of course, is commercial fisheries, a 
source of food for their large operations there. 
Schultz tells me the man they have hired is a commercial fisherman from 
California by the name of Gurley who was hired by the Fish and Wildlife Service 
to do work at Bikini. Schultz says he is an excdLent man and did a great deal 
of work to help both him and Morrison to get their collection, so that he has 
basic understanding of our needs and desires in any operation of this type. 
Apparently the Arabian Oil Company would be willing to pay considerable money 
into this and the thing they would desire from us is technical advice. On the 
basis of information to date, Schultz is most anxious to have us participate 
in this work, and he would send Erdman who he thinks would be able to give them 
the technical advice they need with the assistance of reports that Schultz 
could let him have, and that Erdman would be fully capable of maki n g an 
important collection for us. Erdman has had about a year's experience with 
Fish and Wildlife Service in the vicinity of Puerto Rico, and Schultz feels 
that there is no doubt of his ability to do a first-rate job. Erdman, by the 
way, would be glad to go -- Schultz has sounded him out. 
The work would probably begin in a month or two and extend for not to 
exceed six months. 
Schultz is most anxious to get fish from the region as we have no specimens 
and they are urgently needed for both taxonomic and comparative purposes. 
The fauna of the area is reported very good. Schultz has just received a 
large report, which indicates some 300 species. 
We are having a conference Tuesday with Mr. Kidd and Mr. Kerr of the 
Arabian 3il Company and with Mr. Gurley, the man they have just hired to 
do theii share of the work. 
I will put off giving them a decision, but I would like an early reply 
from you in this matter since I do not know what plans you have in mind for 
the fish division. 
