Scientific Memorial

U.S. servicemen in the Pacific will be commemorated by something more enduring than marble or bronze. The Pacific War Memorial will be a scientific foundation with the whole Pacific Ocean as its laboratory.

The idea grew out of a conference called last spring by the National Research Council. Scientists told how little was known about the Pacific area, how fast its odd varieties of man and beast were vanishing before the onrush of civilization. To preserve these forms and study the region which had produced them would be a more lasting memorial to the war dead than any statue or building.

A big-shot board of directors, including William J. ("Wild Bill") Donovan and Archibald B. Roosevelt, promoted the project, set about collecting funds (goal: $10 million). Selling the Navy on the idea was easy; Admiral Nimitz is a natural-history fan himself. Last week Dr. Dillon Ripley, Yale zoologist, was on his way to the Memorial's future headquarters at Guam. From there he would island-hop to pick out bases; eventually he would wind up in Tokyo, where he hoped to win General MacArthur's support.

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