Il6 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



research projects, Dr. Turner reached London in February 1942. He re- 

 mained there until June 1943 and was succeeded by Dr. Joseph W. Ferre- 

 bee. In December 1943, Dr. Ferrebee was in turn replaced by Dr. Hamilton 

 Southworth, who was in England representing the Office of Civilian Defense 

 and who remained in charge of the CMR section of the London Mission 

 until it was closed in June 1945. On one occasion when he returned to this 

 country, his place was filled by Dr. L. L. Waters, a CMR Technical Aide 

 who had been sent to England with two CMR investigators to work in the 

 Porton chemical warfare laboratories. 



The primary purpose of establishing the liaison was to keep CMR in- 

 formed of British research in military medicine at a time when security 

 classification and delay in mails grossly impeded the usual interchange of 

 information. The NRC had already arranged for an exchange of the 

 minutes of its committee meetings with those of the British Medical Re- 

 search Council, but the exchange was not prompt, and minutes are rarely 

 an adequate summary of transactions. The successive Liaison Officers estab- 

 lished relations with the Medical Research Council and attended meetings 

 of its numerous committees and those of appropriate groups within the 

 Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, Emergency 

 Medical Service and Ministries of Production, Food, and Home Defense. 

 Towards the end of the war their most important contact was with the 

 U. S. Army. They visited laboratories where important research was in 

 progress. 



Throughout their stay they sent weekly news letters to CMR and special 

 reports of investigations for distribution to the committees and investigators 

 who were concerned with similar matters in this country. In return they 

 distributed to British investigators copies of the progress reports of CMR 

 projects and of the bulletin which was issued by the CMR Records Section 

 after April 10, 1944. Another function of the Liaison Officers was to arrange 

 and facilitate the visits to England which were periodically made by CMR 

 investigators. The activities of the London office were profitable to both 

 countries and, if the evidence of formal correspondence be accepted, meas- 

 urably increased friendly relations between British and American workers. 



A British counterpart of the CMR section of the OSRD London Mission 

 was established in Washington in 1942, and in 1944 Medical Liaison Officers 

 in Washington were appointed by Australia, South Africa and Belgium. 



Useful as the London office was it could not, of course, achieve the degree 

 of liaison which is obtainable only by direct personal contact between in- 

 vestigators. The desirability of sending American investigators to England 

 and receiving British investigators in the United States was therefore early 

 envisaged by CMR and, both upon its initiative and that of British agencies, 

 visits were arranged and carried on throughout the war. All American 

 representatives were either OSRD Consultants or were appointed such for 



