ADDRESS. 27 



The importance of such a board is many times greater at home, with 

 so many external as well as internal interests to look after — problems 

 common to peace and war, problems requiring the help of the economio 

 as well as of the physical sciences. 



It may be asked, What is done in Germany, where science is fostered 

 and utilised far more than here ? 



The answer is, There is such a council. I fancy, very much like wliat 

 our Privy Council once was. It consists of I'epresentatives of the Ministry, 

 the Universities, the industries, and agricultui'e. It is small, consisting of 

 about a dozen members, consultative, and it reports direct to the Emperor. 

 It does for industrial war what military and so-called defence councils do 

 for national armaments ; it considers everything relating to the use of 

 brain-power in peace — from alterations in school regulations and the 

 organisation of the Universities, to railway rates and fiscal schemes, 

 including the adjustment of duties. I am informed that what this 

 council advises, generally becomes law. 



It should be pretty obvious that a nation so pi'ovided must have 

 enormous chances in its favour. It is a question of drilled battalions 

 against an undisciplined army, of the use of the scientific spirit as opposed 

 to the hope of ' muddling through.' 



Mr. Haldane has recently reminded us that 'the weapons which 

 science places in the hands of those who engage in great rivalries of 

 commerce leave those who are without them, however brave, as badly 

 off as were the dervishes of Omdurman against the maxims of Lord 

 Kitchener.' 



Without such a machinery as this, how can our Ministers and our rulers 

 be kept completely informed on a thousand things of vital importance ? 

 Why should our position and requirements as an industrial and thinking 

 nation receive less attention from the authorities than the headdress of 

 the Guards? How, in the words of Lord Curzon,' can 'the life and 

 vigour of a nation be summed up before the world in the person of its 

 sovereign ' if the national organisation is so defective that it has no 

 means of keeping the head of the State informed on things touching the 

 most vital and lasting interests of the country ? We seem to be still in 

 the Paleolithic Age in such matters, the chief diflference being that the 

 sword has replaced the flint implement. 



Some may say that it is contrary to our habit to expect the 

 Government to interest itself too much or to spend money on matters 

 relating to peace ; that war dangers are the only ones to be met or to be 

 studied. 



But this view leaves science and the progress of science out of the 

 question. Every scientific advance is now, and will in the future be 

 more and more, applied to war. It is no longer a question of an armed 

 force with scientific corps ; it is a question of an armed force scientific 



' Tivifls, September .30, 1902. 



