BRITISH ARMY MAPS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25250, 31 July 1947, Page 3

BRITISH ARMY MAPS

gift to canterbury COLLEGE 2800 SHEETS VALUED AT ABOUT £ 700 A gift of about 2800 maps of various tyoes and on various scales was received yesterday by the geography department of Canterbury University College, from the map store ol the British War Office. London. Advice of the sift, which is part of a distribution of surplus war stocks to universities in the British Empire, was received by the head of the department (Professor G Jobberns) about a year ago. The maps were shipped on the Taranaki, which has been discharging cargo at Lyttelton. Most of them are largescale, detailed typographical maps. The series will give a complete coverage of Europe (except east Russia), North Africa, and the Far East. They were packed in six containers, with a total weight of 2}cwt. To give an idea of the comprehensive nature of the sets, there are 77 sheets on Spain 243 on Germany, 37 on North Africa 250 on France, 325 on Norway, 29 on the Netherlands East Indies, 63 on Rumania. 94 on Greece, 159 on Jugoslavia and 215 on Poland. ’ Many of the maps are mounted on linen, and their cost would be about £7OO, at a conservative estimate. “This is surely a much better use to make of surplus war maps than to chew them up for building board, as has been done in the United States,” commented Dr Jobberns. The maps have been given on conoition that they are for the exclusive use of the college, and that they will r.ot be removed from the college or reproduced. Their arrival has presented the geography department with a major problem of storage. Earlier the department received from the War Office the gift of 500 captured German war maps. According to Dr. Jobberns the typographical quality of these is very variable, and it is obvious that’ many were made in a great hurry “However, nobody else has yet made maps to compare in beauty and claritv with the world set of wall maps from the map-house of Justus Perthes of Gotha, copies of which were obtained for this department just before the war, said Dr. Jobberns. He added that the equipment of this firm had been transferred by the Russians to the Soviet Union since the war.