In the Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern countries where "Modernization" is taking place in a drastic way, the influence of religion in this process is stronger than we may think, because religion strictly regulates the way of life as well as the thinking of peoples.
 Modernization is essentially a European concept. These countries which are now in the process of modernization apparently are not able to grasp the significance of the European experience in which scientific rationalism, as reflected in secularism, successfully took precedence over religion, which was reflected in traditionalism. Thus, the inevitability of the conflict between modernism and traditionalism escalating into one between secularism and religion, faces these developing nations. Although these nations are making efforts to bring modern elements into the lives of their people by means of modern secularized education, these efforts will make little headway. So long as the essential conflict between religion and secularism is not solved, the apparent modernization achieved will be superficial. Observations of such superficial changes in society are not to be taken as valid measures of modernization.
 This paper proposes that, as in the case of Japan where religion played a comparatively small role in guiding people's lives, secularism apparently helps the people to accept modern concepts and to accelerate the process of modernization.
 Iran and Thailand have been used as examples to show how deeply imbedded religious traditions retard this process. In Iran, Zoroastrianism, at a point in its development when it stressed traditional, national concepts, had been superimposed upon its Islam, a nascent religion then more international in character. Despite the influences of Islam, the premodern characteristics, that is, the nationalism and traditionalism, are still basic concepts which prevail upon the lives of the Iranian people. In Thailand, it is the highly sophisticated Buddhist religion, superimposed upon indigenous animism. Thus, because religion is so deeply embedded, such nations as Iran and Thailand, will meet unfathomable difficulties in their transforming the social character of their people.

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 This analysis of land tenure in relation to family groups is based on materials gathered in a village in Northeastern Thailand from September, 1964 to April, 1965. The village of Don-Daeng, located 19 kilometers south of the municipality of Khonkaen in the province of Khonkaen, is a relatively self-sufficient, homogenous, traditional conmmunity of 132 households.
 Of the 132 households, there were 126 farm households, 1 indigent, 1 of a factory worker, 1 of a teacher, and 3 owner non-tiller households which consisted of the school headmaster, 1 ex-teacher and 1 widow, the latter three having no working dependents rented out their lands on a share-cropping basis, usually at 50%. Of a total of 2556 rai (1rai=0.16hectare) owned by the villagers, 2344rai (90.6%) were cultivated by 100 farm household, the remainder of 212rai being rented out to other villages; of the 2344 cultivated rai, 180rai were rented, the balance being owner-cultivated.
 Of the total of 126 farm households, 26 were related to and attached to 19 main households. Of the other 100 farming households 83 were full owner-tillers, and the other 17 were composed of 1 full tenant, 5 who owned and tilled land and rented part out to others, 8 who owned over 50% of the land they tilled and rented the balance from others, and 3 who owned less than 50% of the land they tilled and rented the balance from others.
 The 26 attached farm households were attached to 19 main households of the 100 owner-tiller classification. These 26 families each formed a part of 19 extended family, usually through a parent-daughter relationship (23 cases) or a parent-son relationship (3 cases). These 19 extended families lived with each of the 26 attached and 19 main households in separate houses. Type Ex-E consisted of 8 main households each with one attached household, each maintaining separate houses. Ex-F consisted of 11 main households with 18 attached households, each in its own separate house.
 Of the remaining 81 farm households living each under one roof, 48 were nuclear households and 33 were extended families. The extended families were of types : Ex-A consisting of parents, unmarried children, one married child, the spouse and their children (16 cases); Ex-B consisting of parents, one married child, spouse and children (12 cases); Ex-C consisting of parents, unmarried children, the wife's sister (3 cases); Ex-D consisting of members of four generations (2 cases).
 In the extended families, usually the couple of the junior generation consisted of the daughter and her spouse. There were only 5 cases of parent-son relationships, . These latter cases were usually due to the absence of a daughter or sometimes due to the poverty of the wife's family.
 In the extended families living in more than two houses (Ex-E and Ex-F), the junior generation seemed to be in the process of transforming itself into an independent nuclear family household, there by reducing the main household into type Ex-B. Each attached household worked on the land owned by the main household where generally the wife's parents lived. Production is divided and each household performs its own share. Where each household has its own rice barn (4 cases), the children keep their share separately; otherwise they keep their rice in the same barn as their parents' (22 cases). The profit from the cash crop of kenaf fibre may be divided or sometimes may be used for a common purpose.
 Some years after having worked the land, the dependent houshold (usually an attached one) may be assigned some of the land owned by the main household.

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 For the Malay people in Malaysia, the institution of the sultanate embodies their extremely strong sentiments of racial unity and sense of being Malay. These sentiments are a particularly strong factor in the difficult struggle toward the effecting of a single Malaysian nation.
 Historically, in the very early days, the racial or ethnic cohesiveness which these feelings brought about was useful as a defense against the attacks of alien powers, especially from the north and south. At the present time, it is being used as a defense against the Chinese element in Malaysia who because of their comparative economic prosperity are considered to be a threat by the native Malays.
 After World War II, under the initiative of the British, a start was made toward unification in the form of the Malayan Union, but it was doomed to failure due, in a large part, to the unwillingness of the Malays to give up their institution of the sultanate, and of the sultans to give up their privileged positions under the old system. The Union was therefore dissolved within less than two years.
 Although it seems greatly desirable to achieve a unity among the many races of Malaysia and thus to create a single unified nation, territorially as well as culturally, the prospects for this are not very hopeful in view of the strongly localized racial consciousness of the Malays which works against such unification.

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 In Thailand, especially in the Central Plain area, there is a great lack of water in the dry season, despite the large amounts of rain which fall during the rainy season. This is due to the fact that there is virtually no subsurface storage of water because of the inherent soil conditions which encourage rapid run-off. This paper deals only with the mechanical problem of water storage.
 In order to store water underground, the subsurface soil must be treated physically (mechanically) and chemically. The construction of underground dams and connecting systems of underground channels is proposed as a mechanical solution to the problem, to preserve ground water and to block run-off. The chemical problems which necessitate treating the subsoil to ensure the eventual utilizability of the stored water are indicated, but not here otherwise explored.

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 This paper is the result of a preliminary survey in Thailand and Malaysia of geophysical prospecting made during November and December, 1964.
 Geophysical prospecting is the method used to search for deposits of minerals by physical measurments of the earth's surface. These measurments give information as to the physical properties of materials within the earth. Such information can be used to locate mineral deposits.
 There are five major methods used in geophysical prospecting : the seismic, gravitational, electrical, magnetic, and radioactive methods. Geophysical prospecting is a comparatively young science, and in Thailand and Malaysia it has not been much applied.
 The ore deposits which were investigated in this preliminary survey were iron, cassiterite, manganese, and fluorite. In prospecting for iron ore deposits, the magnetic and electrical methods can be used. The magnetic method is used in airborne as well as ground prospecting operations while the electrical method is used only in ground prospecting operations. To prospect for cassiterite and manganese deposits, the electrical method can be utilized in ground prospecting operations. It is rather difficult to prospect for fluorite deposits by geophysical methods, because the physical differences between fluorite deposits and ordinary indigenous rocks are hardly distinguishable.
 Since ore deposits widely distributed in the Southeast Asian area are of great concern to Japan, a cheap geophysical prospecting method which can be easily understood and utilized by Southeast Asian engineers is highly to be desired. It was determined that the geophysical prospecting which will be undertaken in 1965 in northern and southern Malaysia was to be for iron ore deposits and that the method used would be the magnetic method in ground prospecting operations with the electrical method to be used as well where necessary.

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