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The final meeting was for business. The chief recommendations were: limita- tion of length of papers to 1 hour, to allow time for proper discussion; summaries of papers to be provided beforehand for foreign delegates; discussions to be noted down by a secretary or reporter and printed with the paper to which they refer; and delegates to communicate to their respective governments the view of the Congress that archaeological legislation should be promoted as soon as possible for the preservation of sites and antiquities, especially those of monetary value, as suggested in the President's address.
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The question was also raised of each country compiling a corpus of pottery made by hand, or partly turned on the wheel, found within its borders: not neces- sarily for publication. This has already been done in Indo-China by Mlle. Colani, and is perhaps worthy of consideration, though the further suggestion of making plaster casts of such pottery is hardly practicable until we have a museum.
It is clear, therefore, that prehistoric science in the East is advancing rapidly, and that it is incumbent on governments to make some permanent and professional provision for its study; it is emerging from the stage in which amateurs can make serious and valuable contributions to it. In other words, a museum with a com- petent curator is now needed where one does not already exist, to take charge of finds already made, to keep abreast of foreign research, and to make scientifically acceptable researches in his own country.
The Congress finally concluded with an excursion to Malacca to inspect the local antiquities, in particular the standing stones found in the neighbourhood. The theory chiefly favoured was that the carved stones at a local shrine were ancient and certainly pre-Mohammedan, but that the uncarved stones standing in rows on tumuli were merely ancient Malay gravestones. Their curved shape is merely due to the weathering off of large flakes from granite and porphyry boulders, forming shell- shaped pieces, which were then taken and used as grave stones.
W. SCHOFIELD.
10-2-38.
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