Dr. Arthur J. Evans has a most interesting letter on
Cretan exploration in Monday's Times. Briefly, his statement amounts to this, that instead of reaching finality as regards the Palace site of Knossos, recent explorations have discovered a hitherto unsuspected quarter, as well as a great beehive chamber under the southern porch, belonging to the period anterior to the age of the Cretan Palaces, and possibly representing the tombs of the pre-Minoan Kings. The work of fully exploring this new quarter, and the beehive chamber, and of shoring up the southern porch during the excavations beneath, together with other necessary operations, will involve the outlay of another £3,000, and as the expenses of the whole exploration for the last two years have entirely fallen on Dr. Evans's shoulders and no Government subsidy is forthcoming, be appeals to the public for financial support. We sincerely hope that the appeal will meet with a ready and generous response. Dr. Evans is fully justified in claiming that the work already accomplished has supplied a wholly new point of view for the origins .of our European civilisation, and shown for the first time that its earliest phase rivals in antiquity that of Egypt and Babylonia, while in some respects even surpassing the artistic achievements of the ancient East. It would be a national scandal if a British undertaking that has already attained such results should be left incomplete for want of public support. We may add that subscriptions can be sent either to Mr. George Macmillan, St. Martin's Street, W.C., or to Messrs. Robarts, Lubbock, and Co., Lombard Street.
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