When in December 1948 this work was first considered, it was confidently hoped the task could be completed within a few years. However, though the scope of the undertaking was in no way enlarged — every country visited was included in the programme originally determined — the work was not finally finished before the end of 1962: at every stage the task called for a great amount or detailed planning, organisation and co-operation.
The first report appeared in Bee World in 1952. It contained an outline of the purpose and scope of the undertaking, and details of my findings in France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Sicily and Germany. The second report, published in Bee World 35:193-203, 233-244 (1954), recorded the findings in North Africa, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Cyprus, Greece, Yugoslavia — or more precisely Carniola — and the Ligurian Alps. The third report, appearing in Bee World 42:123-131 (1961), dealt exclusively with the Iberian Peninsula. In the autumn of 1954 I paid a brief visit to Turkey and the Aegean Islands. A paper on "The Honeybees of Asia Minor" was submitted to the XVIIth International Beekeeping Congress in Rome, but no details of the journey in question have up to now been published; they are included in the present report. An account on the Aegean Islands appeared in German in Bienenpflege 1961. In July 1956, I was able to visit Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro and the Pester Plateau in Serbia. Details of this journey are incorporated in the present report, along with those of my visit to file north-eastern section of Serbia, the Banat.
The concluding journeys, carried out in 1962, covered Morocco, Turkey, northern Greece, north-eastern Yugoslavia and finally Egypt. I left England for Morocco on March 26th and, after proceeding to Turkey and Yugoslavia, returned to Buckfast on June 28th — in time to assist in the main work of the season. On October 23rd I set out from London Airport for Cairo and returned again in January 1963.