September 9, 1920] 



NATURE 



39 



upon which attention is mostly concentrated, while 

 the means of increasing the amount of wealth to 

 divide by creating- new industries or increasing the 

 output of individual workers are given little con- 

 sideration. It should be obvious that the greater 

 the value of industrial production through science 

 and labour, the more will be the profits to be 

 shared, and that the curtailment of productive 

 capacity must mean eventual disaster. The 

 Labour Party has stated that it "has the duty of 

 placing the advancement of science in the fore- 

 front of its political programme." We look to it 

 to justify this claim by presenting to the workers 

 in true proportion the relative values of participa- 

 tion in profits and the creation of wealth through 

 science, as determining factors of social improve- 

 ment and industrial progress. 



Development of Higher Education in India. 



TMIi fact that applications are now being 

 invited for seven professorships and five 

 readerships in the University of Dacca will 

 perhaps direct increased attention to the latest 

 development of higher education in India. It is 

 certainly most desirable that the scientific world 

 at home should take an interest in the subject, and 

 do everything possible to help in a movement that 

 is tmquestionably of Imperial consequence. For 

 this new university is intended to mark an impor- 

 tant departure; it is to be of the residential and 

 teaching type, and both in its government and in 

 its ways is to embody, so it is hoped, what is best 

 in our universities, old and new, at home. The 

 standard of admission of students is to be what is 

 customarily the intermediate examination. 



All who have first-hand knowledge of Indian 



universities, anej many of those who have only 



indirect knowledge, will know how urgent is the 



need for reform. The situation easily admits of 



athing criticism, but it will be more profitable to 



sist to the extent of our opportunities in this 



%v constructive effort. No more need be said 



litre of the past than that we have in India exactly 



what we might expect from the attempt to implant 



in the East, under Government "auspices, a system 



of universities modelled on the London University 



of early Victorian days. Wc know at home to 



hat degree our statesmen have been gifted with 



< ducational insight and how far their training has 



<|ualificd them to adjust educational policy to the 



cds of a new age or of a different race. Those 



!io wish to read in detail the story of Indian uni- 



rsity development will do well to refer to the 



NO. 2654, VOL. 106] 



report of the Calcutta Commission, which was 

 noticed at length in these columns on its publica- 

 tion last year (vol. civ., p. 357). 



Dacca, as the ephemeral capital of Eastern 

 Bengal, is well provided with all the material 

 elements for making the university a success, and 

 the Bengal Muslims declare themselves intent 

 upon educational advance. If at the outset an 

 academic staff can be assembled that will hold 

 firm to the professed aims of the new university, it 

 may succeed in conferring an incalculable boon 

 upon India. The 'terms of the appointments will, 

 it is to be hoped, prove sufficiently good to attract 

 men of the necessary quality. A professorship at 

 its best begins at about i20oZ., rising by annual 

 increments of 60L to 2160L, and in addition 

 there may be an allowance of 600L a year. The 

 normal age of retirement is to be fifty-five, when 

 the benefits of a provident fund will accrue. 



At the present time there will no doubt be more 

 than the usual difficulty in recruiting first-rate 

 university teachers for India. The abnormal 

 demands of the home universities and the unsettled 

 state of the world come into reckoning, in addi- 

 tion to the usual considerations of exile and 

 climate. On the other hand, there is ground for 

 expecting that in future those who take up educa- 

 tional service in India will not be penalised to the 

 extent they have been in regard to promotion to 

 appointments at home. It is to be hoped that the 

 appointments at Dacca will be seen to afford a 

 very special opportunity of national service and a 

 true educational mission, and that they will 

 appeal not so much to the spirit of adventure as 

 to a real ardour for the advancement of learning 

 by high and creative scholarship. The realisation 

 of the aims of the new university, and the estab- 

 lishment of a compelling example that will lead 

 otters to mend their ways, will make a demand 

 on the strength of character and fidelity to prin- 

 ciple of its first professors not less than on their 

 intellectual competence. There is surely much 

 here to attract the best type of both character and 

 talent. 



As already announced, the first Vice-Chancellor 

 of the new university is Mr. P. J. Hartog, lately 

 Academic Registrar of the University of London. 

 Distinguished in early days as a lecturer in chem- 

 istry at Manchester, and most recently by his 

 leading part in the establishment of the School of 

 Oriental Studies in London, Mr. Hartog will ap- 

 proach his task with ample breadth of intellectual 

 sympathy. As a member of the Calcutta Uni- 

 versity Commission he gained direct knowledge of 



