J N I956 THE LONDON UNIVERSITY School of Oriental and African Studies began a series of study conferences to survey and evaluate the course and character of the immense corpus of historical writing extant today on the peoples of Asia. To the Southeast Asia section of the conference twenty-five papers, each by a recognised authority, were contributed, most of them having entailed a good deal of actual research work. For six months before the conference met each was discussed in detail in the School's Southeast Asia Regional History Seminar, with their writers present, wherever possible, to join in the discussion. Early in i96i a volume containing all the papers, with much additional bibliographical information and a brief survey of the discussions, will be published by the Oxford University Press. Long before the conference met it became obvious that its members could not cover the subject adequately: the gaps as yet unbridged and other deficiencies in our knowledge were too great and the workers in the field too few. Remarkable discoveries of both fact and interpretation have been made, especially by French and Dutch scholars in their respective special fields of mainland and island Southeast Asia; the body of existing writings, especially for the period of European contacts, is enormous; Asian as well as Western scholars are making impressive contributions; but the work is still in its pioneer stage. The discovery and collection of evidence, basic research into sources previously unexplored or inadequately explored, these are the essentials that face the student today. Very important work of this sort is being done at present. To mention just a few examples, there are Bernard Philippe Groslier's recent studies of Angkor, especially the later one, Angkor et le Cambodge au XVI' sizcle d'apres les sources portugaises et espctgnoles (Paris, i958), wherein he includes the first satisfactory exposition of the material basis of the old Khmer civilization, the architectural remains of which are still today of unsurpassed magnificence. There are J. G. de Casparis's two volumes of studies of the eighth and ninth century inscriptions of Java (Prasasti Indonesia, I and II, Bandung, i950, i956), which have revolutionized our knowledge of the gailendra period in Indonesian history. There is Paul Wheatley's thorough re-examination of the Chinese, Greek, Arabic, Persian and Indian writings relating to the early historical geography of Malaya, which is soon to be pub-