New England's population may eventually drop 80 percent, Seymour E. Harris '20, professor of Economics, told the annual meeting of the New England Geographical Conference here on Saturday.

Discussing the "Prospects for New England," Harris said the number of people in the area may fall from the present 15 million to three million, because of the nation's general population shift westward and the fact that domestic trade to and from the northeast states must pass through strong competing areas.

Albert S. Carison, Dartmouth geographer, had more hope for this area. He said that the growing importance of foreign trade in our economy will benefit maritime New England, and offset the Northeast's disadvantage in domestic commerce.

Trade Block

In a morning session of the meeting, held at the Institute of Geographical Exploration, Gordon Rickord, Assistant Secretary of the Economic Cooperation Administration, pointed out to the 150 geographers that a fundamental change may have come over West European trade patterns. With much intra-Europe commerce blocked off, Rickord said, the nations of the West are trading more and more with the British Empire and the United States.

In another morning talk, E. Estyn Evans of Belfast discussed Ireland as a part of Atlantic Europe.