REPORTS

Besides furnishing information of thekind described

and

distribut- ingprepared

mimeographed

materials, the

Board

undertookcertain as- signments of a larger scale

which

called for the preparation of reports.

The

dual function of the Ethnogeographic Board, to

answer and

to sell, is again reflected here.

Some

^reports

were

prepared

on

the basis of written requests

from

the

Government

agencies,

and

others

were

prepared by the

Board on

its

own

initiative

and

then presented to the agencies.

Behind

this service

was

the concept that while exigency called for brief

and

hurried answers,

many

of the problems

were worthy

of fuller

and more

exact treatment

and

should, consequently, be

farmed

out to scholars. Unfortunately this

sound

principle

was

seldom put into practice.

Some

of the longer reports

were

prepared on the basis of written directives.

Both

the

Army and Navy

Intelligence presented outlines of the types of information

which

they desired for various regions,

and

the

Bureau

of ^ledicine

and Surgery

^{did the same.}

They

^are

heavily weighted on information of a strictly military nature

and

take

no

account of the abilities

and

limitations of scholars. (See samples of these outlines in

Appendix

D.)

Undoubtedly many more

reports could have been handled ^{if the division of labor}

had

been adequately defined.

During

the first year

and

a half, 37 ^reports

were

completed.

These

^{fall rather clearly into four} categories.

I. STRATEGIC

AREAS

Thirteen items are described in one of the Director's statements as "confidential reports

on

areas of strategic importance."

These

refer to the Bering Strait region,

Seward

Peninsula, St.

Lawrence

and Nunivak

Islands, Alaska,

and Kamchatka;

the eastern Nether-

64 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS

VOL. lO/

lands East Indies, the Moluccas,

and

Netherlands

New Guinea

in the Pacific; Rodriguez Island in the Indian

Ocean

;

and

the Strait of Magellan.

All the Alaska reports

and

the

one on Kamchatka were

prepared

by

Dr. Collins, a specialist on the north.

The

first

two

Alaska re- ports

were

^{prepared at} the request of the

Navy

shortly before the Ethnogeographic

Board was

established.

Based

largely on Dr.Collins' field observations, they describe

and

illustrate with photographs

and maps

parts of the still uncharted

and

little-known coast lines of the

two

islands.

The

^reports

were

given to the

Army Air Corps on June

30, 1942,

when

Dr. Collins

was

called to a conference in

Gen-

eral Arnold's office.

At

the time there

seemed

a possibility that one of the islands

had

been occupied

by

the Japanese.

The

other

two

Alaska reports,

accompanied by 209

photographs,describe the Bering Strait area, with

primary

emphasis

on

terrain suitable for airfields.

All other

known

sources of information, both personnel

and

litera- ture, are given in these reports.

The most

impressive

documents

are the three on the eastern

Neth-

erlands East Indies. Military Intelligence asked the

Board

to fur- nish a detailed study of the topography

and

ethnography of

Halma-

hera

and

adjacent Islands,

Ceram and

Boeroe,

Kei

Islands,

Aroe

Islands,

Timor, and

the string of islands eastward of

Timor. The

request

was made

on

June

13, 1942,

and

the final report

was

needed before

August

i.

The

Director turned this assignment over to

Raymond Kennedy,

of Yale, one of the

few

in the country capable of handling it.

The Army

outline called for:

I. Topography (with map-tracings or photostats)^:

a. General description.

b. Main ridges, elevations, and physical divisions.

c. Beaches

—

detailed descriptions, etc.

II. Ethnography

:

a. Linguistic and ethnicgroups.

b. General living conditions.

c. Attitudes Etc.

The

^first section (52 pages)

was

sent in

by

July 20,

and

the second section (50 pages) by

August

11.

The

qualityof these reports

was

so impressive that a follow-up request

was made

immediately for a

more

detailed description of the geographical features of the Aru,

Tanimbar,

Kei,

and Banda

Islands. This resulted in an addi- tional report of 55 ^pages. This report, likethe other two, utilized all available sources in the literature

and

described coast lines, anchor-

NO. I

ETHNOGEOGRAPHIC BOARD BENNETT

65 ages, possible landing beaches

and

^sites for airplane landing, forests,

swamps,

trails,

and

other topographic features.

Maps were

not in- cluded, but sources

were

indicated.

The

staffobtained the books,

had

the

maps

reproduced by the Smithsonian

and

^Military Intelligence,

and

attached

them

to the report.

xA.nother important report

was

prepared by

M. W.

Stirling, Chief of the

Bureau

of

American

Ethnology,

on

the

Moluccas and

Nether- lands

New

Guinea. This contains valuable geographical data, photo- graphs, maps,

and

notes of a very practical nature based primarily

on

a field trip

made by

Dr. Stirling in 1926.

The

remaining reports

on

strategic areas are

composed

of bibli- ographical references, pertinent quotations

from

the literature, gen- eral

summaries

without

much

detail,

and

photographs with titles for identification.

In resume, 11 of the

major

reports total 275 ^pages, or

an

average of 25 pages each ^but with a range of

from 4

^{to 55.}

Most

of

them

are illustrated,

and

^all have the virtue of being

produced

within short deadlines. If judged objectively insteadof in terms of the immediate military need, only the

Kennedy and

Stirling reports have sufficient merit to warrant publication

when

declassified

from

the confiden-

tial list.

2.

SURVIVAL

Ten

of the items are described as "reports on survival in the Pacific region."

The

titles of

some

of these reveal their nature:

Sago Processing.

Seafood inthe Indo-Pacific Area.

Birds and Animals as a Source of Food in the Indo-Pacific Area.

Tropicana ("Dangers ofthe Tropics").

Trematode ^Diseases and Their Molluscan Intermediate Hosts in the Islands of the Southwest Pacific (an importantcontribution).

Obtaining Water from Vines.

The Stingarees,

Much

Feared Demons of the Seas.

These were

prepared

by

the Smithsonian stafiE or others outside the Board.

They were

illustrated by drawings or photographs

and

edited

by

Dr. Roberts into simple, direct English so as to be of service to the field forces.

The

10 reports total 128 pages, with a range of

from

2 to 21.

Most

of

them were

published in one or

more

service journals, suchas Tactical

and

Technical

Trends

; Arctic, Desert

and

Tropic Information ^Center, Informational Bulletin;

ONI

Weekly

; the

Marine Corps

Gazette^;

and

the AirPilot

Manual

of the Pacific Islands.