Opening remarks

Abstract

First, I should like to say a word about the objects of the expedition. These were threefold. The most important one, of course, was to study an area of very great biological interest. The second was our belief that such a study would be of substantial aid to the Government in the plans which we understood they were making for the establishment of a National Park in the Mt Kinabalu region. This, I am glad to say, has in fact turned out to be the case. Our third object was to enlist the help of scientists living and working in that region in a co-operative enterprise in the hope that we might establish a tradition of scientific study of natural resources among the research and teaching staff of the Universities in the region. This again we were able to achieve in some measure and we hope to continue our co-operation in the next expedition. The expedition was led by Mr E. J. H. Corner, F. R. S., of the Botany School of Cambridge, and he was accompanied by Mr G. P. Askew of Newcastle, who took charge of the soil science investigations, and by Mr J. A. D. Stainton, who acted as photographer as well as a botanist. Mr Corner was also joined in the botanical work by Dr Chew Wee Lek from the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Professor J. L. Harrison, from the University of Singapore, was with the expedition for part of the time and studied small mammals and their parasites. Mr B. E. Smythies, Conservator of Forests in Sarawak, who is a prominent ornithologist, also spent some time with the expedition. The expedition was visited by interested people working in North Borneo, and this contributed substantially to the development of local understanding of the value of the area and of the scientific work that was being done in it.