1916] INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN CANADA 181 
Council would naturally try to find some body or inst:tution in the Dominion willing, 
as the Committee’s agent, to arrange for and supervise the actual execution of the 
research. Conversely, there is no reason why the Committee of Council or their 
Advisory Council should not act as the agent for an Overseas Government (or for any 
body or institution acting under the authority of the Government), for the purpose of 
arranging and carrying out on its behalf and at its cost any research which could more 
conveniently or effectively be conducted in the Mother Country. For instance, it may 
be worth while for an Overseas Dominion to defray the cost of a research in the Mother 
Country into the best method of utilising an earth or metal which is found in the Domin- 
ion but for which there is not at present a sufficient market in the Mother Country, 
with a view to creating such a market. 
4. If, however, an effective agency arrangement were established between different 
parts of he Empire, it is highly probable that this relation would quickly develop into a 
more intimate and a more highly organised relation. The scope and methods of modern 
scientific research, especially when it is directed to the solution of the practical problems 
of trade and industry, are such as often to require the combined efforts of many workers 
in many places, involving a co-ordinated division of labour, and a series of investiga- 
tions into problems arising at many points in the process between the raw material and 
the finished product. When the raw material is produced, and especially where it is 
grown, in one part of the world and manufactured in another, a satisfactory solution 
of the series of problems with which the industry is confronted will often require con- 
current and concerted investigation in both countries. For instance, wheat, cotton, 
silk, rubber, and wool offer a number of distinct though related problems which in- 
timately affect more than one of the constituent parts of the Empire, and which can be 
most effectively dealt with by simultaneous and co-ordinated investigation in different 
parts of the world. In such cases, morecver, it is not at all likely that the commercial 
interests of the two countries in the results of the different parts of the research will be 
so distinct as to admit of separate valuation of and separate payment for the work 
actually done for each country. The character of modern organised research, and the 
character of modern commerce and industry, are in fact such as to render it almost 
inevitable that a relation which starts as one of reciprocal agency between different 
parts of the Empire should lead to a more definitely co-operative relation of ‘‘joint 
venture” or “limited partnership.’’ Under such an arrangement two or more parts 
of the Empire would combine to frame a scheme for the investigation of a specific prob- 
lem in which they were all jointly interested, would contribute in agreed proportion 
to the cost of the whole work, and would arrange between themselves for the distribution 
of the work among the laboratories, factories, &c., at the disposal of the contributories 
for the supervision of the work and for the collection, statement, and use of the results 
achieved. 
5. It is not inconceivable that in the future the relations of agency or ‘‘joint venture’’ 
may lead to a still more extensive and comprehensive partnership or union of interests. 
The White Paper already referred to declares, at the end of paragraph 3, with reference 
to the United Kingdom, that ‘‘there must be a single fund for the assistance of research 
under a single responsible body.’’ The question whether it would be practicable to 
extend this principle to the whole Empire by the constitution of a Central Body for the 
purpose of administering a common fund supported by contributions from the United 
Kingdom and Overseas Dominions, raises issues with which the Committee of Council 
are not competent todeal. The ‘‘ pooling” or consolidation of the resources of the Em- 
pire for the purposes of scientific research is a stimulating ideal, but though pure science 
is cosmopolitan and disinterested, it is in its application to trade and industry inevitably 
