ever, its representatives were fre- 

 quently hampered, especially when 

 they were acting as hosts for confer- 

 ences held in this country, by the 

 lack of Go\ernment financial aid and 

 by difficulties in arranging for official 

 courtesies relating to the travel of 

 outstanding men from abroad and for 

 other marks of official recognition 

 which are commonly available in 

 Europe. An organization such as the 

 National Research Foundation could 

 be very helpful in making these 

 arrangements. 



2. International Fellowships 



If the Foundation is set up as sug- 

 gested, it would be empowered to 

 grant scholarships and fellowships to 

 qualified scientists. It is recom- 

 mended that attention be given to 

 awarding some of these fellowships to 

 Americans who wish foreign travel 

 and study, and to scientists from 

 abroad to undertake advanced re- 

 search in this country. Private foun- 

 dations have found this to be an 

 excellent way not only of aiding 

 scientific progress but of promoting 

 international understanding as well. 

 Holders of such fellowships are likelv 

 to be disinterested representatives of 

 their countries and well equipped to 

 observe the national life of the coun- 

 try thev visit. Such a program should 



be undertaken with particular care 

 to avoid specialized political or per- 

 sonal interests, and it would be well 

 to draw freely upon the experience 

 of the National Research Council or 

 the private foundations which have 

 been successful in this field in the 

 past. 



3. Scientific Attaches 



The Committee would like to sug- 

 gest, as an experiment, that scientific 

 attache's be appointed to serve in cer- 

 tain selected United States embassies. 

 They should be men of high profes- 

 sional scientific attainments whose 

 tenure of the post would be tempo- 

 rary — perhaps 1 or 2 years — and 

 whose principal duties would be con- 

 cerned with facilitating the various 

 aspects of scientific cooperation dis- 

 cussed above. It is also expected that 

 in less formal ways they would im- 

 prove their knowledge of science as 

 it is pursued abroad and would in 

 turn contribute something from their 

 experience in this country. Such a 

 post \yould appear to be most impor- 

 tant in countries such as Russia 

 where a great deal, if not all, of the 

 scientific activity is controlled or di- 

 rected by the government and where 

 other channels of scientific communi- 

 cation ha\'e been greatly restricted for 

 several vears. 



114 



