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[coupure de presse, suite]

was convened by the Colonial Office last year. 'East Africa at present one of the most important parts of the world in the field of Pre-Historic Research.'
World-Known
"I believe that East Africa is also outstanding for the very great richness which it has of fossil remains of animals that were contemporary with Stone Age man. Sites of fossil fauna, such as Oldoway in Tanganyika Territory, Kaiso in Uganda, Kanam, Kanjera and Rawi in Kenya, Olorgesailie - also in Kenya - and the Ono Valley at the North end of Lake Rudolf, have, in fact, become known throughout the world.
"Dr. Leakey tells me that Kenya, for its part, has also distinction of having yielded already a greater wealth of fossilied remains of Niocene Apes than any other part of the world. These discoveries, together with those of fossil ape remains in South Africa and Egypt, have turned the focus of attention of all students of human evolution to the African Continent. 
"The fact that 24 countries have sent delegates to this Congress, in spite of the present difficulties, is a great tribute to the importance that is attached to this country of ours in the scientific world. We are indeed, greatly flattered that so distinguished a group of men and women should have been able to find the time and means of travel to come here, and on behalf of the Colony and, I hope I may add, of East Africa as a whole, I offer you the warmest welcome, and hope that you will enjoy your stay among us, and will find that your laborious journeys have been worth while.
"In addition to the particular scientific purposes of your Congress, I hope and believe that you will find much of interest in this land of ours, and much that is beautiful and well worth seeing. I am conscious that the difficulties of accomodation and travel are such that the arrangements it has been possible to make may leave something to be desired. Nevertheless, I trust that you will be comfortable, and that your visit here will be pleasant and enjoyable; and I have no doubt that your deliberations, will add an important chapter to the scientific knowledge of the world. 
"I now have great pleasure in declaring your Congress open, and wishing you all success in your work and deliberations."
Prior to His Excellency's speech the delegates were welcomed to Nairobi by the Deputy Mayor (Councillor F. G. R. Wcodley), who remarked that he hoped the delegates' deep concern with the past would not prevent them from enjoying the present.
Delegates' Replies
Speaking in French, Professor L'Abbe Breuil, world famous authority on prehistory, was the first of the delegates to acknowledge the Governor's welcome. "My colleagues have come to this Congress from all parts of this Continent and even from other countries in numbers considerably exceeding all our best hopes", he said: "They have asked me, as one of their senior members, to express to you, our gratitude for the initiative you have taken in calling us here to study, under the direction of Dr. Leakey, the magnificient results of his intensive and tenacious work. As he was a student of a pupil of my friend, Miles Burkitt, of whom I was the teacher, I feel inclined to think at this moment of Victor Hugo's saying L'Art d'etre Grand Pere (the art of being a grandfather). Are not others here, too, more or less my pupils or pupils of those who have been my pupils, so am I not justified in feeling that I am their spiritual father?
"It is barely a century ago that English and Frech scientists - inspired men like John Frere and Boucher de Perthes - soon helped by those grandfathers of geology, Lyell and Preswich, and by biologists of science, like Darwin and Huxley, discovered that humanity went back to times far more remote than those of man's ancient history. Both in this organic development and in this material civilisation the species to which we belong has taken innumerable aeons to reach the parnessus of spirit, leaving behind it animals today extinct, while passing through a series of glacial and inter-glacial ages, the discovery of whose importance in the story of man's history equals the discoveries of Cpernicus and Gallilo in the field of astronomy. 
"Hardly separated by one generation from those great founders of science I followed as best I could, in their footsteps, trying to strengthen the results foreseen by them. During this work of mine I have learned much from those on the other side of the English Channel. It is for me today a great pleasure to greet here, among other goog African workers, Dr. Leakey. In his turn, he has, thanks remarkable objective methods, been making great advances to such a degree as to make our old European schools of study jealous. For our old nations are now becoming grandfathers, and we, the workers of yesterday, must realise that from the Nile to Cape Town, and in Kenya, which is like the very heart of this Continent, our work is developing beyond all hopes. 
"We thank you with all our hearts, Your Excellency, for allowing and helping us to view at this stage your really splendid work in its full deve-

Revision: Congrès de Nairobi 53 (#53)

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