ADDRESS 



BY 



The Hon. Sir CHARLES A. PARSONS, 

 K.C.B., M.A., LL.D., D.Sc, F.R.S., 



PRESIDENT. 



Three years of anxiety and stress have passed since the last Meeting 

 of the British Association. The weight of the struggle which pressed 

 heavily upon us at the time of the Newcastle Meeting in 1916 had 

 increased so much in intensity by the Spring of 1917 that the Council, 

 after consultation with the Local Committee at Bournemouth, finally 

 decided to cancel the Summer Meeting of that year. This was the 

 first time in the history of the Association that an Annual Meeting 

 was not held. 



We all rejoice to feel that the terrible ordeal through which the 

 whole Empire has been passing has now reached its final phases, and 

 that during the period of reorganisation, social and industrial, it is 

 possible to resume the Annual Meetings of the Association under 

 happier conditions. We have gladly and with much appreciation 

 accepted the renewed invitation of our friends and colleagues at 

 Bournemouth. 



We are gathered together at a time when, after a great upheaval, 

 the elemental conditions of organisation of the world are still in flux, 

 and we have to consider how to mould and influence the recrystallisa- 

 tion of these elements into the best forms and most economic re- 

 arrangements for the benefit of civilisation. That tlie British Associa- 

 tion has exerted a great influence in guiding the nation towards advance- 

 ment in the Sciences and Arts in the most general sense thei'e can be 

 no question, and of this we may be assured by a study of its proceedings 

 in conjunction with the history of contemporary progress. Although 

 the British Association cannot claim any paramount prerogative in this 

 good work, yet it can certainly claim to provide a free arena for dis- 

 cussion where in the past new theories in Science, new propositions for 

 beneficial change, new suggestions for casting aside fetters to advance- 



