REPORT 



The following report is submitted in answer to your request for advice 

 with respect to the first point in President Roosevelt's letter to you of Novem- 

 ber 17, 1944. 



1. ISeed for Lifting Restrictions 



The frontiers of science must be thrown open so that all who have the 

 ability to explore may advance from the farthest position which anyone has 

 attained. During the war we have been living to a considerable extent on 

 our scientific capital, as scientists who would normally be extending the 

 frontiers of knowledge have instead devoted their efforts to the application 

 of our scientific knowledge to the development of new and better equipment, 

 processes, and materials for war purposes. A large part of such new scientific 

 discoveries as have been made, together with the great amount of information 

 on the techniques of application, are now classified as confidential or secret. 

 The restrictions incident to war have prevented the wide spread of the kind 

 of information upon which American science, education, and industry nor- 

 mally build. Scientists engaged on war projects have acquired new knowl- 

 edge in specific fields, but they have not been given access to similar ac- 

 quisitions by their colleagues in other fields. Thus, while there is a fund 

 of new knowledge scattered among a large number of individual scientists, 

 no one of them has access to all of it; and the broad base of scientific knowl- 

 edge available to all scientists has not been correspondingly extended. This 

 situation should be speedily corrected. 



During the first year of the existence of the Office of Scientific Research 

 and Development a decision was made by the Secretaries of War and Navy 

 that in the fields of medical research, publication of new knowledge should 

 be withheld onlv if that knowledge gave promise of conferring military ad- 

 vantage. Hence it has been possible to publish most of the newlv developed 

 knowledge in the medical field. Several hundred articles have alreadv been 

 published in the professional journals and others are in the process of publica- 

 tion. The amount of classified medical material has been held to a minimum. 

 It has been confined largely to limited subjects of immediate battle front im- 

 portance and to information which might be related to strategy. Even these 

 limited restrictions should be lifted as soon as military conditions permit. 



Not all of our troops can be returned immediately upon the cessation of 



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