98 



REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE. — 1919. 



what way, if any, the work of this Committee could be assisted and 

 co-ordinated with that of other similar bodies concerned in the matter. 



On 2nd November, 1916, an informal conference was held at the 

 Board of Education between representatives of this Committee and 

 of the Advisory Council, with a view to arriving at some mutually 

 satisfactory arrangement whereby the work of the Committee would 

 be taken over and continued under the segis of the new Department 

 of Scientific and Industrial Eesearch. It was then represented, on 

 behalf of the Advisory Council, that it was their intention to set up, 

 in the near future, a new Standing Committee on Fuel to organise 

 and carry out, with adequate financial provision, the various lines of 

 research already recommended by this and Lord Haldane's Committee, 

 and that they desired to take over and incorporate in some way with 

 the proposed new organisation the more active members of this Com- 

 mittee. Unfortunately, however, the plan then proposed for so doing 

 (which would have been entirely acceptable to this Committee) was 

 eventually set aside by the Department, which, in February 1917, 

 established its own Fuel Eesearch Board on a different basis. As it 

 soon became clear that the new Board did not desire any assistance 

 from an outside Committee, no basis of co-operation could be an-anged, 

 although the Committee had intimated to the Director of Fuel Eesearch 

 its willingness to collaborate. 



For a period of a year afterwards the Committee did not meet, and 

 its work was suspended, although a nucleus of its members informally, 

 kept in touch with developments. In October 1918, however, in 

 response to a widespread and growing feeling that there was need of 

 an organised body of independent scientific opinion that could be 

 brought to bear, in the public interest, upon any proposals for research 

 of public policy with regard to fuel, the Committee resumed its labours, 

 'having been empowered by the Association to reorganise its work and 

 personnel, to enter into communication, at its discretion, with Govern- 

 ment Departments, the Federation of British Industries, and other 

 bodies concerned with fuel economy, and to publish from time to time 

 through the medium of the technical Press, or otherwise, any informa- 

 tion or recommendations in the national interest, without prejudice to 

 the presentation of its Eeport to the Association. 



Reorganisation. 



The reconstituted Committee comprised thirty instead of (as for- 

 merly) forty-five members, and the number of the Sub-Committees was 

 reduced from five to three, each with its own Chairman and Vice- 

 Chairman, as follows: — 



