A programme of photographic astrometric work on faint stars was initiated at the Cape Observatory by Sir Harold Spencer Jones in 1930. Its aim was to do for the sky south of — 30° what the Yale Observatory in America and various observatories in Germany and Russia were doing for the sky north of — 30° Though somewhat interrupted by the war, the work has progressed steadily and it is anticipated that the whole project will be finished by 1960.