PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 137 



would have been directed at a much earlier period to our hopeless state of 

 unpreparedness for the storm which was gradually gathering up against us on 

 the other side of the German Ocean. In discussions of our unpreparedness the 

 emphasis has been placed on our lack of ai'ms and munitions. But important 

 as these are, the entire absence of a scientific organisation to guide us in the 

 exigencies of a defensive war with the most scientific and most military nation 

 of Europe was even more serious. 



It is this deficiency in our organisation, a deficiency the avoidance of 

 ■which would have had no provocative effect whatever, which concerns us 

 here very specially. It is, moreover, a deficiency which, in spite of the lessons 

 they have received, has, I fear, not yet been brought home to our military chiefs. 

 When war broke out nothing had been done to ensure the utilisation for special 

 service in the multitude of scientific operations, which war as carried on by the 

 German armies involved, of the great number of well-trained young scientific 

 men available in the country. The one single idea of our mobilisers was to send 

 men to the trenches to kill Germans, and for this simple duty all except certain 

 munition workers and men in the public services were summoned to the Army. 

 Some modifications were made afterwards, but I am speaking of the failure of 

 prevision at the outset. The need of men for special service, the inevitable 

 expansion of the Navy for patrol and other purposes and the like, were, if they 

 were thought of at all, put aside, without regard to the difficulties which would 

 inevitably arise if these matters were delayed. Even how the new soldiers 

 were to be trained, almost without rifles or machine guns, to meet the Germans 

 in the field nobody knew. And I for one believe that but for the vigour and 

 energy of Lord Kitchener, and the almost too late expression of conviction of 

 our danger, and consequent action, by one outstanding politician, all would have 

 been lost. We worried through, but at a loss of life and treasure from which 

 it wil'l take us long to recover, and which I could wish seemed to weigh more 

 heavily on the minds and consciences of politicians. 



The Germans, I believe, had a complete record not only of all their men 

 fitted only for the rank and file, but also of all who had been trained to observe 

 and measure. For the use of even the very simplest apparatus of observation a 

 certain expertness in reading graduated scales, and generally a certain amount 

 of trained intelligence is required. For this the laboratories of Germany amply 

 provided, and the provision had its place in the enemy's mobilisation. Our 

 people apparently did not even know that such a need existed or might arise. 



In a letter which I sent to the Council of the Royal Society at the end of 1915 

 I ventured to propose that the Royal Society might set on foot an organisation 

 of some such character as the following : — First, a Central Committee should be 

 established, in some degree representative of the different centres of scientific 

 teaching and work in pure and applied science. Then this Committee should 

 nominate representatives at each centre, at least one at each University, or 

 College, and one at the headquarters of each local society, such, for example, 

 as the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders of Scotland, and the similar 

 Society which represents the North-East of England, and has its offices at New- 

 castle-on-Tyne. This arrangement, it was hoped, would enable the Central 

 Committee to oljtain readily information as to what men were available, and 

 •would therefore do something to bring the schools of science, and all the great 

 workshops and laboratories of applied science, into co-operation. Thus 

 could be formed at once a list of men available for particular poste, for the 

 task of solving the problems that were certain to arise from day to day, and 

 for the special corps which it was soon, if dimly, perceived were a necessity. 

 Some such linking up of London with the provinces is reaily indispensable. 

 The districts of, for example, the Tyne and the Clyde are too much ignored in 

 almost all Government action of a general kind. 



My letter was printed and sent out to some prominent men, by whom its 

 proposals were highly approved. A Conference on its subject was held in 

 London, and two special Committees were appointed. I was a member of 

 one of these, the principal duty of which was to provide scientific men for 

 special service. It included representatives of the various great departments, 

 actively engaged in the conduct of the war. For some reason or other, which 

 I never learned, the Committee after a week or two ceased to be called, and 

 I believe that little was done in comparison with what might have been 



