604 NATURE 
[JULY 29, 1915 

Southwark, at the suggestion of Sir William Hart 
Dyke, ta appoint a jointecommittee of the Spectacle 
Makers’ Company and the London Chamber of Com- 
merce to study the questions at issue in all their 
bearings. 
THE GOVERNMENT SCHEME FOR THE 
ORGANISATION AND DEVELOPMENT 
OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL 
RESEARCH. 
Wi Vee gave in our issue of May 20 a detailed report 
of speeches made in the House of Commons 
when the Government scheme for the formation of an 
Advisory Council concerned with industrial and scien- 
tific research was outlined by Mr. J. A. Pease, then 
President of the Board of Education. Since that time 
Mr. Arthur Henderson has succeeded Mr. Pease at the 
Board, and he has just issued as a White Paper 
(Cd. 8005, price 3d.) a statement of the need and 
nature of a scheme which will secure scientific founda- 
tions for national industries in the future. The paper 
is here reprinted. 

(1) There is a strong consensus of opinion among 
persons engaged both in science and in industry that 
a special need exists at the present time for new 
machinery and for additional State assistance in order 
to promote and organise scientific research witha view 
especially to its application to trade and_ industry. 
It is well-known that many of our industries have 
since the outbreak of war suffered through our 
inability to produce at home certain articles and mate- 
rials required in trade processes, the manufacture of 
which has become localised abroad, and particularly 
in Germany, because science has there been more 
thoroughly and effectively applied to the solution of 
scientific problems bearing on trade and industry and 
to the elaboration of economical and improved pro- 
cesses of manufacture. It is impossible to contem- 
plate without considerable apprehension the situation 
which will arise at the end of the war unless our 
scientific resources have previously been enlarged and 
organised to meet it. It appears incontrovertible that 
if we are to advance or even maintain our industrial 
position we must as a nation aim at such a develop- 
ment of scientific and industrial research as will place 
us in a position to expand and strengthen our indus- 
tries and to compete successfully with the most highly 
organised of our rivals. The difficulties of advancing 
on these lines during the war are obvious and are not 
under-estimated, but we cannot hope to improvise an 
effective system at the moment when hostilities cease, 
and unless during the present period we are able to 
make a substantial advance we shall certainly be 
unable to do what is necessary in the equally difficult 
period of reconstruction which will follow the war. 
(2) The present scheme is designed to establish a 
permanent organisation for the promotion of indus- 
trial and scientific research. 
It is in no way intended that it should replace or 
interfere with the arrangements which have been or 
may be made by the War Office or Admiralty or 
Ministry of Munitions to obtain scientific advice and 
investigation in connection with the provision of muni- 
tions of war. It is, of course, obvious that at the 
present moment it is essential that the War Office, the 
Admiralty, and the Ministry of Munitions should con- 
tinue to make their own direct arrangements with 
scientific men and institutions with the least possible 
delay. 
(3) It is clearly desirable that the scheme should 
operate over the kingdom as a whole with as little 
regard as possible to the Tweed and the Irish Channel. 
NO. 2387, VOL. 95] 


The-research done should: be for the kingdom as a 
whole, and there should be complete liberty to utilise 
the most effective institutions and investigators avail- 
able, irrespective of their location in England, Wales, 
Scotland, or Ireland. There must therefore be a 
single fund for the assistance of research, under a 
single responsible body. 
(4) The scheme accordingly provides for the estab- 
lishment of :— 
(a) A Committee of the Privy Council responsible 
for the expenditure of any new moneys provided by 
Parliament for scientific and industrial research; 
(b) A small Advisory Council responsible to the 
Committee of Council and composed mainly of 
eminent scientific men and men actually engaged in 
industries dependent upon scientific research. 
(5) The Committee of Council will consist of the 
Lord President, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the 
Secretary for Scotland, the President of the Board 
of Trade, the President of the Board of Education 
(who will be vice-president of the Committee), the 
Chief Secretary for Ireland, together with such other 
Ministers and individual Members of the Council as 
it may be thought desirable to add. 
The first non-official members of the Committee 
will be:—The Right Hon. Viscount Haldane af 
Cloan, O.M., K.T., F.R.S., the Right Hon. Arthur 
H. D. Acland, and the Right Hon. Joseph A. Pease, 
M.P. 
The President of the Board of Education will 
answer in the House of Commons for the sub-head on 
the Vote, which will be accounted for by the Treasury 
under Class IV., Vote 7, ‘‘Scientific Investigations, 
Gites 
It is obvious that the organisation and development 
of research is a matter which greatly affects the public 
educational systems of the kingdom. A great part 
of all research will necessarily be done in universities 
and colleges which are already aided by the State, 
and the supply and training of a sufficient number of 
young persons competent to undertake research can 
only be secured through the public system of education. 
(6) The primary functions of the Advisory Council 
will be to advise the Committee of Council on :— 
(i) Proposals for instituting specific researches; 
(ii) Proposals for establishing or developing special 
institutions or departments of existing institutions for 
the scientific study of problems affecting particular 
industries and trades; 
(iii) The establishment and award of research 
studentships and fellowships. 
The Advisory Council will also be available, if 
requested, to advise the several Education Depart- 
ments as to the steps which should be taken for 
increasing the supply of workers competent to under- 
take scientific research. 
Arrangements will be made by which the Council 
will keep in close touch with all Government Depart- 
ments concerned with or interested in scientific re- 
search and by which the Council will have regard 
to the research work which is being done or may be 
done by the National Physical Laboratory. 
(7) It is essential that the Advisory Council should 
act in intimate co-operation with the Royal Society 
and the existing scientific or professional associations, 
societies, and institutes, as well as with the universi- 
ties, technical institutions, and other institutions in 
which research is or can be efficiently conducted. 
It is proposed to ask the Royal Society and the 
principal scientific and professional associations, 
societies and institutes to undertake the function of 
initiating proposals for the consideration of the Advi- 
sory Council, and a regular procedure for inviting 
and collecting proposals will be established. |The 
Advisory Council will also be at liberty to receive 
