54 



NATURE 



[September i8, 1919 



from day to day, and for the special corps which 

 it was soon, if dimly, perceived were a necessity. 

 Some such linking-up of London with the provinces 

 is really indispensable. The districts of, for example, 

 the Tyne and the Clyde are too much ignored in 

 almost all Government action of a general kind. 



My letter was printed and sent out to some pro- 

 minent men, by whom its proposals were highly 

 approved. A cortference on its subject was held in 

 London, and two special committees were appointed. 

 I was a member of one of these, the principal duty 

 of which was to provide scientific men for special 

 service. It included representatives of the various 

 great departments actively engaged in the conduct of 

 the war. For some reason or other, which I never 

 learned, the committee after a week or two ceased 

 to be called, and I believe that little was done in 

 comparison with what might have been accomplished. 

 It was certainly not because such a committee would 

 not work. Everybody was most willing, with proper 

 notice, to attend such meetings as were involved, and 

 to take any amount of personal trouble ; moreover, 

 the scheme was such as to provide that there should 

 always be a nucleus of members in London to con- 

 sult and act in any emergencv. 



I may briefly refer to one or two examples of the 

 chaos which prevailed and the attempts that were 

 made to cope with it. Very soon after the formation 

 of the first Kitchener Army the organisation of the 

 different corps apparently became a source of anxictv 

 to the War Office. It began to be seen that officers 

 in sufficient numbers could not possibly be obtain?d 

 by the usual channels, so the expedient (a poor one 

 by itself) was hit upon of placing the nominations to 

 commissions in one at least of the two great scientific 

 corps of the Army — the Royal Engineers — in the hands 

 of the presidents of certain technical institutions which 

 have their headquarters in London. These gentle- 

 men, with the help of the official secretaries, no doubt 

 did the best they could, but a very regrettable, though 

 perfectly natural, amount of strong feeling was 

 evoked among the voung scientificallv educated men 

 in the provinces, who were keenly anxious to join this 

 corps. The Engineers, I may scarcely say, is no 

 refuge for men who are in the least concerned about 

 their personal safety, for the percentage of casualties 

 among engineers on active service was notably higher 

 than in the regiments of the line. Over and over 

 again young engineers cam3 to me and complained 

 that under the arrangements made thev had no chance 

 of obtaining commissions or of qualifying as cadets, 

 and begged me to write to the authorities. Of course, 

 younf graduate engineers do rot, as a rule, join 

 societies such as the Institutions of Civil, Mechanical, 

 or Electrical Engineers until they have made their 

 way to some little extent and begun to earn a little 

 money. 



The procedure I have indicated had in time to be 

 relaxed, but such a central committee as I sug£?ostcd. 

 with antennae stretching out to the educational and 

 technical centres of the country, would, I am sure, 

 have recruited the Engineers quickly with the best 

 possible material for officers to be found in the 

 country, to the satisfaction of all concerned. It may 

 be said that full information regarding every man 

 in the country was in the hands of the authorities. 

 In a sense, this was true; the information existed 

 in millions of returns and thousands of pigeon-holes, 

 but no attempt was made, or could be made, by office 

 staffs in London, enormous as these quickly became, 

 to digest and utilise it. 



A lar£»e number of engineers and physicists and 

 manv others of mechanical skill and aptitudes found 

 congenial occupation in the Royal Naval Air Service 

 NO. 2603, VOL. 104] 



and the Royal Flying Corps; but even there, where 

 things could be better done, since a new force had 

 to be brought into existence, arrangements were to a 

 considerable extent haphazard and ill thought out. 

 Excellent self-sacrificing service was rendered by 

 many who risked and gave their lives, and of what 

 was done we may well be proud. But from a 

 scientific point of view there is room for 

 great improvement. The hasty and ill-considered 

 — as I think — amalgamation of these two branches 

 of the Air Service, in which naval traditions 

 were sacrificed to those of the War Office, which 

 deserved no such deference, will certainly have to be 

 undone in the near future or very greatly transformed. 

 To anyone who considers the possibilities and prob- 

 abilities of warfare in the future, it appears clear 

 that this country will have to depend more and more 

 upon its Navy, and that an Air Service Corps will be 

 the companion of every division of our Fleet, with 

 landings on the warships. Thus a new and highly 

 scientific Service, which will have to be to a great 

 extent naval, will be brought into existence. 



Well, then, to return for a moment to my proposal 

 to the Royal Society, why sliould the organisation 

 which I suggested in 1915 not be established now'.-' 

 I wish all success to the League of Nations, but we 

 shall prove ourselves even greater fools than we have 

 been in the past if we do not use all possible means 

 to prepare ourselves against eventualities. One 

 attempt by our enemies outside our own borders to 

 hold us to ransom has failed. Can we be so sure 

 that no other attempt will ever be made, or that no 

 casus belli between ourselves and another great nation 

 will ever arise? This, I notice, is beginning to be 

 assumed even in the midst of the welter of confusion 

 and unrest that exists, and, among others, bv just 

 the very people who used to teach that the possibility 

 of war was a great illusion. 



The formation of a record of scientific graduates 

 for special service ought not to be difficult. Th'» 

 material already in great measure exists. Each uni- 

 versity and college has its roll of graduates or diploma- 

 holders, and with slightly more detailed entries these 

 rolls would give the record. Each graduate of ;s 

 university is kept track of through the necessity fon 

 keeping the electoral roll up-to-date, and it ought to 

 be possible to devise a means of maintaining touch 

 with the diploma-holder. If each university or college 

 were a local centre of the central committee, the 

 makinrt of the roll of graduates would be achieved at 

 the different local headquarters, and would be a valu- 

 able suDplement to the O.T.C. work now undertaken 

 so willingly and done so well. The Government 

 machinery which manages the O.T.C. movement 

 might control the keeping of the register which I 

 have suggested. 



I turn now to another side of scientific work during 

 the war. It was mv lot to serve for nearly three years 

 on the Inventions Panel of the Ministry of Munitions, 

 and as the result of that experience I venture to make 

 some ob.servations on the utilisation of scientific know- 

 ledge and genius in the production of inventions useful 

 for the public service. We had an enormous multi- 

 tude of inventions to consider, and the Panel was 

 divided into Committees for this purpose. For each 

 invention or proposal a file or dossier was prepared 

 and most carefully kept. There were also present at 

 the meetings of the Panel verv efficient officers repre- 

 senting different branches of the Service. Everything 

 received careful attention, and for the abilitv and fair- 

 ness with which the initial examination was made by 

 the corps of examiners, and the pricis of the inven- 

 tion presented, I have great admiration. Much has 

 been said about the inefficiency and the mistakes of 



