1968 Canadian Forestry Journal, December, 1918 



British Aid for Research Enterprises 



That Great Britain expects an 

 increasing utilization of land for 

 public purposes is indicated by the 

 fact that one committee is working 

 out ways and means of taking over 

 land for community use. Another 

 is at work creating a permanent 

 national policy in regard to the 

 employment of women. Incident- 

 ally, the plans for demobihzation of 

 the army are so minute and com- 

 plex that there is a special committee 

 at work planning to find positions for 

 wounded and invalided officers in 

 India, Burma, the Eastern Colonies 

 and the Malay States. Great com- 

 mercial development of India is 

 hinted at in the plans of the indus- 

 trial development commission. Sub- 

 sidies to Indian industries when 

 necessary', elaborate bureaus of tech- 

 nical information about new enter- 

 prises, and Government demon- 

 stration of the practicability of new 

 industries are being considered. 



Recognizing "the special need for 

 new machinery and for additional 

 State assistance in order to promote 

 and organize scientific research with 

 a view especially to its application 

 to trade and industry," the Board of 

 Education in 1915 proposed a scheme 

 for the organization and development 

 of scientific and industrial research. 

 The machinery consisted at first 

 of a Committee of the Prvy Council 

 with a smaller Advisory Council. 



The work of the Committee increased 

 so rapidly an ' plans for the future 

 developed to such an extent that in 

 December, 1916, the. Government 

 established a separate Department 

 of Scientific and Industrial Research. 

 At the same time the Government 

 voted $5,000,000 to meet the first 

 five years expenditure. This Depart- 

 ment, which in the view of the Bal- 

 four Committee will greatly strength- 

 en British manufacturing industries, 

 is promoting industrial research in 

 four distinct ways. It is encourag- 

 ing firms in the well established 

 industries to undertake a co-opera- 

 tive study of the scientific problems 

 affecting their processes and raw 

 materials, and it is prepared Xp make 

 substantial grants to Associations of 

 firms established for the purpose with 

 the approval of the epartment. It 

 is undertaking at he pubhc cost 

 investigations which from their na- 

 ture make them unsuitable for effec- 

 tive handling by any single industry, 

 however powerful. It has taken over 

 the property and financial control 

 of the National Physical Laboratory' 

 and has assumed responsibility for 

 the establishment of standards on a 

 scientific basis. Finally, it is making 

 energetic elTorts to increase the num- 

 bers of trained research workers. 

 The Department itself has estab- 

 hshed 21 Research Boards or Com- 

 mittees, the most important of them 

 being the Fuel Research Board. 



Central Institute for Research 



At a meeting of the Reconstruc- 

 tion and Development Committee 

 of the Dominion Cabinet, Dr. A. B. 

 Macallum, administrative chairman 

 of the Council for Scientific and 

 Indust ial Research, advanced the 

 long-considered rroposal of the Coun- 

 cil for the establishment. of a central 

 institute for research. 



The scheme, which is considered 

 vital to a successful and permanent 

 Canadian competition with the highly 



organized industries of the United 

 States, Great Britain, France, and 

 other countries which have already 

 the benefit of similar Government 

 institutions, contemplates the im- 

 mediate erection, at or near the 

 capital, of a central laboratory build- 

 ing costing approximately $500,000. 

 The building, as planned, will pro- 

 vide room for expansion as the needs 

 develop, but will at first have accom- 

 modation for some fifty laboratories. 



