NATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESEARCH—GRAF 413 
tion of science. It was pointed out that this greater, state-supported 
research could be directed by committees representing government, 
scientific societies, and research departments. The development of 
both pure and applied science as rapidly as possible was recom- 
mended—pure science because it is the source of ultimate technological 
advance, applied science because it translates the advances of pure 
science into security and public welfare. As pointed out in statements 
from Nuffield College, however, the distinction between pure and ap- 
plied science can be overstressed, since both methods can be, and often 
are, used simultaneously in solving problems. 
There were also differences of opinion regarding the relations of 
science to politics. While the decline of German science since the 
ascendancy of the Nazi Party in 1933 was presented as proof that 
science cannot under all conditions remain free of the effects of political 
change, Sir Henry Dale was a powerful spokesman for those who 
wished to keep science free of politics. “I see danger,” he said, “if the 
name of science or the very cause of its freedom should become involved 
as a battle cry in a campaign on behalf of any political system, whether 
its opponents would describe it as revolutionary or reactionary. If 
science were thus to be used as a weapon of political pressure, it would 
be impossible to protect science itself from the pressure of sectional 
politics.” In general the fear that a state-supported science would 
become involved in politics, or would lose its freedom of action, has 
declined in Britain. A powerful organization of scientists, and the 
ability to present promptly all controversial opinions to a court con- 
sisting of an informed and unprejudiced public opinion, are weapons 
that would work against any action, whether by government or by 
pressure groups, calculated to limit the freedom of science or the 
research upon which it is founded. Throughout the discussion of an 
accelerated, state-supported research, there has been ample freedom 
for participation by all interested persons from government, industry, 
and the universities. Representatives of the association of scientific 
workers also took an important part in all discussions. And most 
important to an orderly consideration of the subject, in Nature there 
was a vehicle for prompt and impartial presentation of the various 
opinions. 
A study of the extended discussion relating to the expansion of 
research leaves the clear impression that Britain will develop sound 
plans for a wide use of science in the future, directed both to national 
security and the welfare of the peoples of the Empire. 
The situation as to the development of science in Russia is not so 
competely known. The general control of research is vested in the 
Academy of Sciences, which directs the efforts of thousands of research 
men in all quarters of the Soviet Union. Through its close relations 
