Dr. H. J. Muller -2- July 6, 1937. Why then did I sign the statement that I did not favor holding the next meeting of the genetics congress in the Soviet Union? The reason in my case was solely this: It is obvious that there are in the Soviet Union individuals of great influence with the present government who are opposed to conventional genetics and who have been successful in preventing the meeting of the genetics congress this year. Though they might not be successful another time in influencing the government against the holding of the congress, still the very existence of this group would be bound to introduce a somewhat disharmonious note into the meetings of the congress if held in Moscow. I have thought that it would be well to wait for a year or two in order to see how things are moving in the Soviet Union, to learn the later, or eventual, attitude of the government with reference to the contending parties. What you say about the effect that a meeting of geneticists in Moscow would have upon the attitude of the government toward orthodox genetics is doubtless true. Nevetheless, I doubt if such political considerations (scientific though their bearings may be) should be taken into account in the holding of the next genetics congress. There are no countries in Europe in which the congress could be held where the bearings of their meeting and what they had to report would be entirely without political significance, just as they would be without political significance today in the United States. On the other hand, there are countries in Europe where meetings of scientists apparently so far removed from government as genetics could not be held without dragging in , often in emphatic fashion, the bearing upon the current political philosophy. For instance, I was in Rome attending a meeting of the Italian Genetic Society and while I heard only a few of the papers two of the Italian delegates ended up their papers with praises for Fascism, although the body of the papers had nothing to do with social affairs. There was a meeting of the International Federation of Eugenic Organizations in Germany last summer and some of the German speakers thought it necessary to emphasize political affairs in Germany in their relation to the subject matter of the Federation meeting. If the congress is to be held in Moscow, partly with the idea of influencing the Soviet government in the right direction, I think the danger of some persons taking the opportunity to influence the government very directly in the course of the meetings is not remote. In conclusion, my feeling is that we ought to meet in Moscow just as soon as political conditions, especially the struggle between the two parties, have become more stabilized so that the congress will not have to take sides, so that there will not be an obvious rift between the participants. A meeting like that in Germany 10 or 12 years ago, when no politics were referred to, is my ideal of a genetics congress. [end]