The air surveys undertaken in Burma in 1924 and the beginning of the present year originated in a suggestion by Mr. C. E. Hay, of the India Forest Service, that aerial methods would be best for surveying the Delta of the Irrawaddy. The suggestion was not taken up seriously until 1920, when Mr. Watson, now Chief Conservator of Forests in Burma, and then in charge of the Delta Circle, took up the idea with persistent enthusiasm. Mr. Watson visited England later in that year and carried his negotiations during the ensuing year so far that I remember when we returned from the survey of the Orinoco Delta and demonstration in British Guiana at the end of 1921 that we fully expected to be on our way to Burma in the next few months.

As a matter of fact it was not till January, 1924, that I found myself at Marseilles looking for the P. & O. liner “ Malwa ” to take me to India on the way to the Irrawaddy.