ARREST OF GEOLOGIC, ARCHEOLOGIC AND PALEONTOLOGIC WORK IN CENTRAL ASIA

The arrest of British, French, Swedish and American paleontologic and archeologic work in Central Asia constitutes a very serious setback to the cause of science and of civilization. The matter would not be so serious if there were any possibility or prospect of the present ability of the Chinese to carry out this work themselves. They have neither the scholarship nor the financial means of doing so beyond the confines of old China. The American Museum geologic, paleontologic and stratigraphic and topographic work in Mongolia and the great publications issuing therefrom have been possible only because the party was composed of a body of field experts such as has never been brought together before in the history of these branches of science, under a leader who has shown unprecedented ability to organize a series of expeditions into an absolutely unknown desert where all previous explorers had failed either to make discoveries or obtain substantial results.