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been published. The Czechoslovak group held a number of national conferences and seminars discussing generał and local problems. The Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics organizes, for example, regular seminar lectures in Prague and regu-lar conferences in Brno on progressive methods in foundations engineering. In 1977, the National Group will host the 5th Danube European Conference.

The life of the Danish Geotechnical Society consisted, for the past three to four years, of *4 to 5 meetings discussing various topics. Most speakers have come from Denmark, a few from other Scandinavian countries. In 1975, the Society organized the Nordic Geotechnical Meeting which is held every four years in one of the Nordic countries.

In 1975, 280 participants attended the meeting, having discussed physical characteristics of soils, soil stabilization, pile research, soil mechanics in road construction. Among the special lectures the one on experiences from failures and another one on use and abuse of computers in Soil Mechanics deserve special mention. The Proceedings includes morę than 50 papers.

During 1976 a working group was busy with the new edition of the Danish Building Codę for Foundation Engineering. The New Codę was scheduled for publication in April 1977; English translation is under preparation.

The Finnish Geotechnical Society celebrated, in 1976, its 25th anniversary. Between 1973 and 1977 they organized three to five society meetings every year and seminars for the members on topical problems. Every year, one or two courses are held with subjects like foundations in difficult subsoil conditions, precast concrete piles, field testing etc. In 1977, the yearly Finnish Soil Engineering Symposium will be devoted to research and developments in soil mechanics. A group of authors collective published a series of booklets on site investigations.

Scandinavian countries keep traditionally close contact also in the field of Soil Mechanics. One example is the organization of regular Nordic Soil Engineering Symposia. Other forms of international cooperation / e.g. with soil engineering organizations of the USSR / also add to the activities of the Society.

The French National Society / Comitć Franęais de la Mdcaniąue des Sols et des Fondations/ is usually very active and this has been proven also in the period under consideration.

The group has monthly meetings. The papers presented at these meetings are usually published regularly /"Cahiers"/. Since 1973, there have been 5 of them, each containing 5 to 6 publications from various fields / penetrometers, reinforced earth, earthworks, etc./. The French group intends to publish a new journal devoted entirely to Soil Mechanics, in French; the first issue being due in 1977.

The Group lists six lectures delivered by foreign scientists, in the frame of the meetings, and three special symposia /"Journćes d'Etudes'7. The first was held in 1973, in Cannes /Soil and sub-soil and safety of the structures/, the second in 1975, in Orldans /"Dispersion of physical characteristics of soils"/, the third in 1977, in Paris /"Water, soil and construction"/. These meetings are usually jointly organized by the Societies for Rock Mechanics and for Engineering Geology.

A few years ago, the French Society decided to create a Committee for the Coordination of Research. The Committee promotes the exchange of information and intends to coordinate research projects for organizations which carry out research in the field of Soil Mechanics in France.

The "Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Erd- und Grundbau" which forms, at the same time, the respective National Group of our Society in the Federal Republic of Germany, organized several conferences. Important work has been done in the various committees of the Society.

This Society works in close cooperation with the International Societies for Rock Mechanics and for Engineering Geology, thus the foundation problems can be jointly attacked and solved. This is also reflected in the themes of several national and international gatherings / Sinkholes and subsidence engineering-geological problems related to soluble rocks, 1973; Engineering Geology, 1977; 2nd National Conference on forming cavities in rock, 197*4/.

The regular Conferences /"Baugrundtagung"/ of the German Society are held in every second year.

In 197*4, 1200 members attended this Conference in Frankfurt; participants also came from the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Świtzerland.    Among the themes,

usually constructional problems, special foundations, and foundation pits are in the foreground and important discussions take place, sińce participants came mostly from the construction industry.

Visits to construction sites included the subway in Frankfurt, television tower with 16m deep foundation pit with slopes, high-rise building construction. For members with a morę theoretical interest in the field of Soil Mechanics, a Specialty Session was held in the frame of the same Conference, on monotone time dependent processes in the subsoil.

The Session was attended by 300 members.

The second Conference, in 1976, was held in NUrnberg, with the participation of 1100 members.

Many participants came from abroad. The Conference served again to review the generał status of foundation engineering in the Federal Republic and to present details on some important construction projects.

This time, the Specialty Session was centered on some difficult problems, e.g. construction of slurry-trench walls, on off-shore foundations, and on Chemical solidification methods.

The Society organized, in 1975, the 2nd International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Soil and Structural Engineering.

The first conference of this kind was held in Hongkong. The number of participants /82/ was limited, they represented 22 countries. The main topics of the Conference:    1-2 Design Philosophy/Structures and

Soils, respectively/; and 3-*4 Design Parameters/again, Structures and Soils/; there were 52 countributions.

The papers have been published in three volumes; these contain a wealth of information on the rapid development in this important field of research.

The excellent General Reports presented also an overall view of the State of the art.

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