THERE appears to be considerable divergence of opinion among professional geologists in Great Britain as to the extent to which they and their knowledge can be used in war. Some hold that hundreds of geologists could be employed in the civil defence and armed forces ; others protest that saturation would be reached by the employment of a score or so. Whatever may be the truth of this matter, however, all are agreed that the utilization of geological knowledge in the war effort has up to now been singularly haphazard. It is, of course, possible that a considerable proportion of the cases of the successful use of such knowledge never becomes public, while certain scandalous examples of neglect of geological information achieve, on account of their news value, a disproportionate notoriety. Still, if there were but one case of such neglect, the geologist would be entitled to lift up his voice. When he is officially informed that a sum approaching half a million pounds has been wasted through this cause at one aerodrome site alone, he must be pardoned if he becomes speechless, and especially so since, though he may faintly hope that those officials responsible for this waste have been liquidated, he is secretly sure that they have been promoted to posts with still greater possibilities.