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The Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts incorporates collections which were previously included in the Departments of Printed Books and of Manuscripts. A Department of Oriental Manuscripts was formed out of the latter in 1867, the Oriental printed books being added from the former department in 1892. Prior to these dates, any catalogues which were issued were technically publications of the parent departments. All, however, are included in this list for convenience.

THE fact that the forthcoming conference of the Library Association is to be held at Eastbourne this year should provide it with an additional official interest, as it is here that the Association Hon. Solicitor and Legal Adviser holds the important office of Town Clerk. Mr. Fovargue is the authority on Library Law in all its aspects, and is the author of several books on this important subject. We are particularly happy in being able to print an article from his pen in our special Conference number. The programme of the proceedings is by now, no doubt, in the hands of our readers, and will be found to be less crowded, but no less useful for that, than in previous years. Apart from the usual business programme, which should prove full of interest, the social side has been fully catered for and delightfully arranged. Several interesting motor trips are to take place, and delegates will be afforded an opportunity of enjoying the charms of the beautiful county of Sussex as well as those of one of our most favoured of seaside resorts.

OUR sympathies are with those who desire the Library Association Council to resume its functions, although we know these cannot be normal in abnormal times. Perhaps June of 1944 is hardly the time to dismiss the Emergency Committee which, whatever its faults, has held the L.A. together and forwarded its best purposes. The invasion of Europe has begun, and before the month is out we hope that the great crusade of liberty will be well advanced. So we can afford to wait a few weeks longer. Indeed, it must take some time to hold elections—even if they are allowed—and there is the present ban on travel which, while it lasts, makes the meeting of any national body futile. Nevertheless, at the earliest possible moment now the Council, renewed if necessary, should assume the direction of its its own house. We believe the work of the Emergency Committee to have been good and its results will be fortified and made productive by the wider influence of the whole Council. In this we hope, indeed we believe, the members of the Emergency Committee, who have borne the burden and met the criticism of five years, are at one with us.

UP to the present the war strain has not had a great effect upon the libraries of this country. Issues have naturally fallen in some departments—particularly in districts where there is a large floating population of aliens—but this has been counterbalanced by increased use in other directions. Many libraries have already been made the local headquarters of relief committees, special constabulary, the National Reserve, boy scouts' associations, etc., and as recruiting stations, and where there is sufficient accommodation, it is proper that the familiar library building should be so used for these emergency national affairs.

Events are moving so rapidly that we feel breathless in our attempt to keep pace with the changing fortunes of the day and of the hour. If we believe, however, as we do, that libraries are one of the primary factors in human evolution, and that books form the indispensable factor of all evolution in knowledge, there is no period in the world's history when those of us who are associated with the library movement have more reason to pause and enquire, “Watchman, what of the night?” It will be a difficult and sudden transition with which we are to be faced. We are accustomed to talk glibly of war and of peace. We have had four years of education in the former, but are we in any real sense in a position to deal with the problems of peace and of reconstruction? Peace has to so many meant merely a state or condition in which actual warfare has been absent. A breathing space in which the nations have been more or less preparing for the next inevitable clash of arms. If there is anything that emerges clearly as a result of this war it is that the large majority of those who have been engaged in it are determined that as far as humanly possible this shall have been a war to end all war. We must educate ourselves and the great mass of our people to take a long and a sane view of the situation and work towards a lasting and permanent reconciliation among the peoples of the world. Call it a “League of Nations,” or what you will, it has to come, and the public library will in our judgment form a very potent instrument to attain the desired end.

On another page we reprint some of the specially library paragraphs from the Fourth Annual Report of the Carnegie Trustees; and we believe that no apology is necessary for bringing them thus separately to all library workers. This beneficent institution is pursuing a policy in regard to our movement which, in its generosity, liberality, and at the same time cautious and wise restraint, must have the warm approval of librarians. It has been realized in a practical fashion that the library movement should not be allowed to stagnate during the war, because the most insistent calls upon the services and resources of libraries are likely to be made very soon after the cessation of hostilities, and if libraries are prepared now to meet those calls there should then be an impetus to the movement that will establish it finally.

ON the library front generally we have no event to record of what may be called bibliothecal importance for, our readers will readily understand, the induction of Mr. Cashmore as President for 1946, which took place at Birmingham under the chairmanship of the Lord Mayor on February 13, happened too late to be included in these pages. An account will, of course, be in our March number. It is, however, a singularly gracious matter that it should have occurred to the Council to hold the ceremony in the second greatest English city, which also happens to be the home and work‐field of the new President. Only rarely does a man receive such honour in his own place, as we have divine warrant for mentioning. Probably in other ways also Mr. Cashmore is an exception, because we have ample evidence of the regard in which Midlanders hold him. The presence of the Lord Mayor was perhaps to be expected when an Association holding the Royal Charter visits his town officially, but we are assured that it is also a tribute to the esteem in which Mr. Cashmore is held.

WE wish our readers success and prosperity for 1935. In the pages of our last number was given a brief retrospect of the events of 1934, and there is no advantage in repeating any part of it. Suffice to say, the year was one of the most memorable in the annals of libraries from the point of view of the new buildings which have been erected to serve great places. The year before us will present a full programme of work for all librarians. The major interest will probably be the conference to be held at Manchester in September, when hundreds of librarians will have the opportunity of seeing the building of the largest of British, if not of European, public libraries. We understand, too, that the conference will deal systematically with the efficient library in the modern community, but no doubt fuller information upon this programme will be forthcoming very shortly. The time is not ripe, we fear, for us to expect anything in the shape of a consolidating library aft which shall bring into coherency the scattered library laws of this country. We hope something will be done in the year to improve the examination system of the Library Association, which fails to give satisfaction as it stands at present. We confidently expect that the co‐operation embodied in the Regional Library Bureau will be extended, and as our recent pages have shown, we hope that the National Central Library will be relieved of some of its financial anxieties by direct action upon the part of public libraries and of the Treasury. There are signs that the country is gradually returning to prosperity, and we hope that in any such event libraries will benefit and librarians will receive some attention in the matter of their salaries.

TO many of us it is a matter for regret that we are not able to keep ourselves so closely in touch with library affairs in other parts of the world as we would wish. With American happenings we are, of course, fairly well acquainted, but Colonial effort has not received the attention which is its due. In many places in the Empire methods are, in certain ways, in advance of ours—in more than one country the legislation has been more enlightened than it was in England until quite recently—and everywhere the experience of keen progressive librarians facing their own particular problems must prove of interest and value to those in the home country. Therefore we believe that by devoting this issue to a discussion of some phases of Colonial librarianship we are but answering the large demand for such information.

We wonder if, in the history of the world, any conference devoted to the intellectual interests of mankind has ever been held in such circumstances as made memorable the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Library Association. For the whole week before those in and near London had been submitted to an ordeal well calculated to try the strongest nerves; an ordeal borne, it is true, with remarkable stoicism, but, nevertheless, one not likely to induce that calm, judicial frame of mind in which library topics should be discussed. Fortunately, however, the night before the opening meeting was the last of that particular series of air attacks, and the whole meeting passed in peace, so far as London was concerned. Raids and rumours of them may have reduced the attendance somewhat; it is fair to suppose that they did; yet the attendance, when all things are considered, was creditable to the Association.