622 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 



past. It behoves us all then who are members of it to show that the British 

 Association, which has rendered such great services to the country in the past, 

 can bear its share of the burden to-day. 



I assume that we are all agreed upon this point, and it remains to consider 

 the best way in which such a work can be carried out. Understanding from the 

 President that he is dealing with the question from the point of view of the 

 whole Association, I need only deal with the matter as far as it concerns our 

 Section. After discussing the matter with our Secretary and several of my 

 predecessors in the Chair, I suggest that we continue the three Eesearch Com- 

 mittees already in existence, but do not institute a fresh one, forming instead 

 a Special Committee, the purpose of which I propose to lay before you. Before 

 doing this, I should like to point out that the very fact that engineering con- 

 stitutes such an important feature of the War has prevented our having, as 

 often in times past, papers on military and naval subjects, such as Warships, 

 Armour, Projectiles, &c. And this for two reasons : first, because nearly every 

 professional or manufacturing engineer having as a rule sent the best of his 

 staff to the fighting line is overwhelmed by actual work either directly or 

 indirectly connected with munitions and war material, and is much better so 

 employed than in talking about the subject, or even in attending the present 

 meeting ; secondly, because men who really know all about such work would not 

 be likely to discuss it in public at the present time,' and I am sure you will 

 agree with me that we do not want merely popular science on war subjects. 



Hence, the twenty-four papers before the Section deal with engineering 

 science generally, but I venture to think they are of a high scientific quality, and 

 quite as important in character as those of former years; and it will be noticed 

 in several cases they touch closely on subjects bearing on the War, such as 

 those on wireless telegraphy and traction. 



The object of the proposed Committee is two-fold. The first of these would 

 be to undertake any work which may be of use in an advisory capacity or 

 by research, or indeed in any other way for direct assistance in the War. 

 This would, of course, be a temporary object of the Committee, but never- 

 theless a real one, for, as stated by the Commander-in-Chief at the Front, 

 this is a war of machinery ; and a Cabinet Minister, in quoting this, quoted 

 the further statement of Sir John French that it was not the German 

 soldiers our men had to cope with ; it was the artillery, ammunitions, and 

 enormously powerful mechanical organisation of the German Army. I need 

 not go into all that may be done in this direction by the Committee, but one 

 step 'will be to place ourselves at the service of the Ministry of Munitions for 

 such work. A certain number of tlie proposed Committee may be already doing 

 munition work and also valuable work for other Committees with which they can 

 at any rate keep us in touclT; other members would be free to give all their time 

 and service for such work as the opportunity presents itself. 



'With regard to the second purpose, the matter stands on a rather different 

 footing. We were in many respects quite unprepared for the War on which we 

 have entered, and though this offers one of the most powerful arguments in 

 refutation of the charge that we deliberately entered the War for sinister 

 purposes, it will be very disastrous if we repeat our unpreparedness when the 

 War ceases, and we shall deserve the worst that can happen to us. When peace 

 is concluded, it will only be a prelude to another war, and a war which will 

 recommence with far greater energy on the part of our enemy than before — ^viz., 

 the war of commerce — and the latter will be almost as serious for us as the more 

 sanguinary one. This will be so even if we are victors, for as an historian 

 (Professor Gardiner) has written : ' After a long war the difficulties of the victors 

 are often greater than those of the conquered. The conquered have their atten- 

 tion directed to the reparation of losses and are inspired by a patriotic desire 

 to submit to losses for the sake of their country. The victors are in the frame 

 of mind which expects everything to be easy.' 



Remembering how soon we forgot that black December week fifteen years 

 ago ; and the lurid indication from the German Emperor that he and his 

 people had the will to destroy us then if not the power, and how swiftly 



^ I cannot help paying a tribute to the splendid work of the Economic 

 Section, which Section does not suffer from our peculiar disability 



