June 19, 19 19] 



NATURE 



Z^l 



IMPERIAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE. 



BY invitation of the Chief of the Imperial General 

 Staff, the universities, together with various 

 institutions concerned with technical, commercial, 

 and agricultural education, sent representatives to a 

 conference held at Australia House on June ii and 

 ij for the purpose of discussing problems which have 

 presented themselves to the War Office in connection 

 with the working of the educational schemes within 

 iie British Army and the Forces of the Dominions. 

 >ir Henrv Wilson described Lord Gorell's work as 

 n effort to weave education into the life of soldiers, 

 ) make use of all special knowledge and skill pos- 

 ' ssed by enlisted men, and to hand back the soldiers 

 oil their return to civil life better citizens than they 

 would have been but for their experience in the Army. 



Mr. Fisher, President of the Board of Education, 

 said that the great war from which we are just issuing 

 has been, in a sense never before equalled, a war of 

 science. Marvellous discoveries have been made in 

 connection with aerial warfare, warfare against Ger- 

 man submarines and German gas, but the most sur- 

 prising invention of all was the invention of education 

 in the Army. It was an invention scarcely second in 

 iinportance to the invention of fire-arms. Referring 

 to the calling together for the first time of young 

 men from every Dominion overseas and the inclusion 

 of many of them after the war in the home universi- 

 ties, he said that he would like every Englishman 

 who went to the Dominions, and every member of 

 our Dominions who settled in any other part of the 

 Empire, to feel that his children would have the best 

 educational opportunities that the Empire could afford. 

 He would like to see the most promising students, 

 whatever might be their special aptitudes, able to 

 migrate to the university, in which they could attain 

 to the l>est opportunity of development in their par- 

 ticular subjects. 



Interchange of students and the need for a greatly 

 strengthened Universities Bureau were two subjects 

 which largely occupied the attention of the conference. 

 The directors of education for the several overseas 

 Forces emphasised the great need which they had 

 experienced of a central office at which they could 

 obtain information regarding the regulations, the 

 activities, and the personnel of the various universi- 

 ties. Their demand for closer centralisation and 

 uniformity of procedure led to a good deal of friendly 

 banter. The diversity of the British universities. Sir 

 Donald MacAlister pointed out, is their glory. They 

 are able in an exceptional degree to adapt themselves 

 to local conditions, to seize opportunity, and to make 

 experiment. He contrasted them in this respect with 

 the universities of France, from a visit to which, as 

 one of the guests of the French Republic, he had just 

 returned. All the speakers, however, agreed that co- 

 operation amongst the universities is greatly to be 

 desired. .'Vs Sir William Ashley put it, " the more they 

 become dependent upon State support, the more desir- 

 able will it be that they should take counsel together." 



The functions which might be undertaken by the 

 l^niversities Bureau, if it were adequately staffed and 

 endowed with funds, were defined by many speakers. 

 President Tory would have it an office from which he 

 could obtain information about men suitable for em- 

 plovment by the universities overseas. Prof. Ramsay 

 Muir desired that it should undertake verv great 

 responsibilities in connection with the universities of 

 India — work which no Government Department could 

 perform to the complete satisfaction of our Indian 

 fellow-subjects, because the Government must always 

 be suspected of an ulterior aim, whereas the Universities 

 Bureau would be managed by a federation, of which 

 the Indian universities themselves would form a part. 

 NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 



Sir Henry Hadow, who presided over the session of 

 Thursday morning, emphasised the importance of en- 

 couraging a free mterchange of students for research 

 work, and especially of young teachers. If migration 

 is to be made popular and successful, the university 

 laboratories will need to be well equipped, esjjecially 

 on the technological side. Technological courses should 

 be widened and made to include as much general 

 mental training as can be introduced into the cur- 

 riculum. Mr. A. P. M. Fleming, speaking on behalf 

 of the Federation of British Industries, urged that 

 heads of departments are needed who are well 

 educated in a general as well as in a technical sense. 

 For many years to come the demand for men capable 

 of undertaking research will greatly exceed the supply. 



Lord Bledisloe at the afternoon session described 

 agriculture as the industry most dependent upon 

 science, and at the same time the most backward in 

 recognising its obligation. He announced that the 

 Board of Agriculture is prepared to participate in 

 organising in London an Imperial Bureau of Agri- 

 cultural Information. Dr. J. W. Robertson, ex- 

 Principal of Macdonald College in the McGill Uni- 

 versity, described the successful working of "illustra- 

 tion " farms. The conference closed bv adopting a 

 resolution proposed by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick : — 

 "That there is a general desire throughout the Empire 

 that means shall be found to give practical effect to 

 the policy, aspirations, and suggestions expressed 

 during the four sittings of the Conference, and, in 

 order that this may come about, the conference re- 

 quests the Imperial Education Committee to submit 

 to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom a 

 report of its proceedings, with a request that it be 

 brought to the notice of all the Prime Ministers of the 

 Empire, either at the Imperial Conference, or in such 

 other manner as may be deemed appropriate to ensure 

 early and practical results." 



THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH. 

 n^HE report of the Astronomer Royal of the work 

 •^ done at the Royal Observatory during the year 

 ended on May lo was presented to the Board of 

 Visitors on Saturday, June 14. Some of the details 

 of the report are here summarised. 



One of the two Chief Assistants, Mr. Jones, who had 

 been engaged in optical work at Woolwich for nearly 

 three years, resumed his duties at the observatory- 

 soon after the armistice Mr. Jackson, the other Chief 

 Assistant, five members of the permanent staff, and 

 eleven temporary computers who have been serving 

 with the armies abroad in various capacities, returned 

 to the observatory on different dates since February i. 

 With so many members' of the staff absent it is not 

 surprising that the work of the observatory has had 

 to be curtailed in several ways, and the number of 

 transits recorded with the transit-circle during the year 

 was 3224, of circle observations 2818, which figures 

 may be compared with an annual average number of 

 12,000 before the war. The sun, moon, planets, and 

 fundamental stars have been observed on the meridian 

 throughout, but other stars only to a limited extent. 

 The observations of the moon with the transit-circle 

 and with the altazimuth show that the increase of the 

 error of the moon's place in the "Nautical Almanac," 

 which has persisted since 1883, when Newcomb's 

 empirical correction to Hansen's tables was introduced 

 into the "Almanac," has now ceased, for the mean 

 correction to the tabular right ascension, +0-925., 

 shown by the observations . in 1918, is practically 

 identical with that found in iqi6 and iqi7- The cor- 

 responding correction required by the " Connajssance 

 de Temps," which depends on Delaunay's tables as 

 revised bv Radau and Andover, is +0-285. 



