158 Transactions of the Society. 



plained that I did not pronounce for a programme of organized 

 War-activity by the Society as a Society. Perhaps I may be 

 allowed to reply after this interval of time that when I took this 

 Chair I was already fully aware of the tremendous amount of work 

 which was being done in devoted silence by all our best men ; I 

 considered, and rightly as I still think, that it was no part of my 

 duty as your President either to expose the activity of these 

 workers, or to advertise the efforts of some who were pushing and 

 pulling in various directions to reap personal advantage and renown 

 from the turmoil of scientific and commercial activity which flung 

 them, at intervals, ,to the surface of things. During the whole of 

 that year, 1916, it will be remembered that our Meetings attained 

 a numerical as well as a scientific importance, that contrasted 

 vividly with the immediately antecedent period, and that we met 

 always with the sensational reflection that our Meetings might be 

 broken up, in more senses than one, by the attacks of hostile 

 aircraft. In March the Battle of Verdun had entered upon its 

 epoch-making course, and lasted through the year with fluctuating 

 fortunes. When we met in May Kut-el-Amara had fallen ; and 

 the grave problem, as yet unfortunately unsolved, of Irish dis- 

 affection and doubtful neutrality liad introduced a new and 

 disturbing factor. In June the Battle of Jutland had been 

 fought, Lord Kitchener had perished at sea, and we parted for the 

 recess, asking ourselves under what circumstances we should meet 

 again. When we did meet again the Battle of the Somme had 

 hardened the nation to grimmer effort, and Poumania had joined 

 the Allies, only, alas ! to meet with disaster before the date of the 

 November Meeting, by which date (the 15th) we ourselves on the 

 Ancre, the French at Verdun, and the Italians on the Carso, had 

 effected results wliich made our hearts beat higher with hope 

 than had been the case for many a weary month. 



In December we met under the Premiership of Mr. Lloyd 

 George, but the day of our Meeting was punctuated by President 

 Wilson's Peace Note, to which, by the time we met in January 

 1917, the Allies, sure of their powers to prevail in and to the end, 

 had replied with no uncertain voice. By February our conviction 

 of ultimate triumph had been strengthened by the intervention of 

 the United States and the contribution of over a thousand millions 

 of " new money " by the public to the sinews of war. In March 

 we had begun to reap the fruits of these efforts ; Baghdad had fallen 

 to our arms, and the German retreat had begun, but we met under 

 the shadow of the Eussian Revolution — on the 12th — which was 

 destined to alter all preconceived plans, and sensibly modify the 

 ultimate aims of the Allies. 



The rest is modern history, and requires no recapitulation. Since 

 that Meeting in March we have seen the entry of the United States 

 into the War, with all its gigantic possibilities ; our advance in 



