In Miss D. G. Brackett the Institute has been no less fortunate in its Secretary. The correspondence in three languages with which the Secretariat has had to cope has been very heavy indeed, and the initial organization has involved the issue of some thousands of circulars and other preliminary work, with which she has most successfully dealt. With such a staff it may be confidently assumed that the Institute is fully equipped to undertake the exceptionally difficult and perhaps somewhat ambitious programme which it proposes― provided always that adequate funds are placed at its disposal.

Judging that the chief interest of my readers would be concentrated on the nature and objects of the Institute I have left to the last the details of its inception and constitution.

On 21 September 1925, a Conference was held in London, which was attended by a number of leading African linguists of the world, while others who could not be present submitted full statements of their views on the subject. The establishment of the Institute was decided upon, and the main objects to which it should devote its attention were settled. It was further agreed to approach a number of scientific, missionary, and educational bodies in various countries and to request them each to appoint a representative to serve on the Governing Body of the proposed Institute.

In June 1926, representatives of scientific, missionary, and official bodies in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, South Africa, Austria, Germany, Scandinavia, the United States, and Egypt met in London and formally inaugurated the Institute. They decided that the central office should be in London, that representatives of the Associations present should form a Governing Body-others to a maximum of sixty should be co-opted later. The Institute at present consists of delegates of the following:

Académie des Sciences Coloniales, France.

Advisory Committee on Bantu Studies, South Africa.

African Society, Great Britain.

Akademie der Wissenschaften, Austria.

Anthropos, Internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- und Sprachenkunde, Austria.

Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, Germany.

Colonial Office Advisory Committee on Native Education in Tropical Africa, Great Britain.

Conférence des Missions Catholiques en Afrique (four representatives). Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, Germany.

École des Langues Orientales Vivantes, France.

Institut d'Ethnologie, France.

International Missionary Council (four representatives).
National Research Council, U.S.A.

Naturhistoriska Riksmuseum, Sweden.

Royal Anthropological Institute, Great Britain.

School of Oriental Studies, Great Britain.

Scuola Orientale, Italy.

Seminar für Aegyptologie und Afrikanistik, Austria.

Seminar für Afrikanische und Südseesprachen, Germany.
Seminar für Orientalische Sprachen, Germany.

Société Française d'Ethnographie, France.
Société Royale de Géographie d'Égypte, Egypt.

Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Germany.
Université Coloniale d'Anvers, Belgium.
University of Cambridge, Great Britain.
University of Cape Town, South Africa.
University of Oxford, Great Britain.

University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

It has also been resolved to invite the following associations to appoint representatives on the Governing Body:

American Anthropological Association, U.S.A.
Geographical Society of Lisbon, Portugal.

Institute of Comparative Cultural Studies, Norway.
Liga Afrikanista, Spain.

R. Instituto Orientale in Napoli, Italy.

Social Science Research Council, U.S.A.
Società Africana d'Italia.

University of Madrid, Spain.

An Executive Council of not more than fifteen members of the Governing Body was appointed to be responsible for the practical conduct of the affairs of the Institute. In attempting to frame a constitution the Institute was confronted with a serious practical difficulty which every international organization has to meet. The Governing Body of an organization of this character can be fully representative only at the cost of a quite disproportionate expenditure

of time and money on its meetings. If members of the Governing Body in America or in South Africa are to attend a meeting in Europe the cost in time will be, in the first instance, not less than one month and, in the second, probably not less than three, and the same thing applies so far as European members are concerned if the meeting is held in the United States or in South Africa. The Institute accordingly found itself confronted with the apparently inevitable choice of having a controlling body which was not fully representative or one which could only meet at rare intervals and at prohibitive cost. A way out of this difficulty was found by a somewhat ingenious provision. The conduct of the Institute is vested in an Executive Council which is composed of members drawn from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy, so that it is thoroughly international in character. The constitution provides, however, that when members of the Governing Body belonging to countries not represented on the Executive Council are, at the time of a meeting of the Council, in the country where the meeting is held they may attend the meetings of the Council as full members. This means that if a representative in the United States or in South Africa of any of the Associations which constitute the Governing Body happens to be visiting Europe arrangements can be made for him to take part in the meeting of the Council. An opportunity is thus provided, so far as the obstacles of physical distance permit, for the more distant countries to keep in personal and living touch with the practical conduct of the work of the Institute. The present members of the Executive Council are the following:

The Rt. Hon. Sir F. D. Lugard, G.C.M.G., D.S.O. (Chairman).
Colonel Derendinger (Société Française d'Ethnographie, Paris).

Rev. Father Dubois (Society of Jesus; head of the Conférence des Missions Catholiques en Afrique).

M. le Gouverneur Julien (late Governor in French West Africa. Professeur at the Académie des Sciences Coloniales, Paris).

Professor Lévy-Bruhl (University of Paris).

Professor D. C. Meinhof (Seminar für Afrikanische und Südseesprachen, University of Hamburg).

Mr. J. H. Oldham (Secretary, International Missionary Council, London).

Professor Dr. Schachtzabel (Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin).
Rev. Father Schebesta (Editor of Anthropos, Moedling-Vienna).
Rev. Prof. W. Schmidt (Head of the Museo Etnologico-Missionario in
Laterano, Rome).

Professor Seligman (Royal Anthropological Institute, London).
Rev. E. W. Smith (London).

Professor G. Van der Kerken (late Governor, Belgian Congo, Université Coloniale d'Anvers).

Sir E. Denison Ross (Director, School of Oriental Studies, University of London).

Major Sir Humphrey Leggett (Hon. Treasurer).

A great deal of work has been devoted by the Executive Council to the framing of statutes for the Institute. This task has now been completed with the help of Messrs. Lawrence Jones & Co. who have generously given their services as Honorary Solicitors to the Institute. It is very much indebted to them for the great trouble they have taken in this by no means easy task.

Meetings of the Council have been held in London, Paris, and Brussels. Offices have been secured at 22 Craven Street, London, W.C., as the head-quarters of the Institute. Between the meetings of the Council routine business is dealt with by a Business Committee consisting of the London members of the Council.

When the meeting at which the Institute was inaugurated was held in London in June 1926, the British Government entertained the delegates to luncheon. On that occasion the Rt. Hon. L. C. M. S. Amery, the Minister for the Colonies, spoke of the aims and objects of the Institute, and I am venturing to quote his words as they give an excellent summary of what the Institute hopes to accomplish. Mr. Amery said that the people of Africa having come into contact with modern civilization, that contact might be fruitful or disastrous. Everything depended upon the effect it would have on the mind and thought of the African. The greatest problem to-day was that of education, and in dealing with it, it was necessary to get into the minds of the people who were being taught and to draw out what was there, not simply to try to cram something in from the outside. If that were to be done, the people's own languages must be used as an instrument of education in order to make good men and

citizens. Language (he said) was thought, and all thinking was indissolubly connected. In that sense it was true that the language of the Native was his soul, and the appeal to him must be through his soul. There were a great many languages, and matters relating to them were best decided by such a body as this Institute. Their task would be to equip themselves with a knowledge of those languages for work which was international in its scope, and it was for this reason desirable that there should be an Institute for the study of such problems. He looked forward with the greatest interest to the progress of the Institute and the practical effect which must show itself in the happiness of millions of people who were slowly struggling to express themselves and find their true place in the world.

F. D. LUGARD.