10 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 
the national resources of water-power. In accordance with the 
Government policy, four co-ordinating boards have been established to 
organise scientific work in connection with the fighting forces, so as to 
avoid unnecessary overlapping and to provide a single direction and 
financial control. The four boards deal, respectively, with chemical 
and physical problems, problems of radio-research, and engineering. 
These boards have attached to them various committees dealing with 
special inquiries, some of which will be carried out at the National 
Physical Laboratory. The Government have also authorised the 
establishment of a Forest Products Research Board. 
The Department is further empowered to assist learned or scientific 
societies and institutions in carrying out investigations. Some of these 
were initiated prior to the War, and were likely to be abandoned owing 
to lack of funds. Whenever the investigation has a direct bearing upon 
a particular industry that had not hitherto been able to establish a 
Research Association, it has been a condition of a grant that the institu- 
tion directing the research should obtain contributions towards the cost 
on a £& for £ basis, either directly through its corporate funds or by 
special subscriptions from interested firms. On the formation of the 
appropriate association the research is, under suitable safeguards, trans- 
ferred to it for continuance. The formation of a number of Research 
Associations has thus been stimulated, dealing, for example, with 
scientific instruments, non-ferrous metals, glass, silk, refractories, 
electrical and allied industries, pottery, etc. 
Grants are made to Research Associations formed voluntarily by 
manufacturers for the purposes of research, from a fund of a million 
sterling, placed at the disposal of the Research Department for this 
purpose. Such Associations, to be eligible for the grant, must submit 
Articles of Association for the approval of the Department and the 
Board of Trade. If these are approved, licences are issued by the 
Board of Trade recognising the Associations as limited lability com- 
panies working without profits. Subscriptions paid to an Association 
by contributing firms are recognised by the Board of Inland Revenue 
as business costs of the firms, and are not subject to income or excess 
profits taxes. The income of the Association is similarly free of income 
tax. Grants are ordinarily made to these Associations on the basis of 
£1 for every £1 raised by the Association between limits depending 
upon the particular industry concerned. In the case of two Research 
Associations grants are made at a higher rate than £ for £, as these 
industries are regarded as having a special claim to State assistance on 
account of their ‘ pivotal’ character. The results of research are the 
sole property of the Association making them, subject to certain rights 
of veto possessed by the Department for the purposes of ensuring that 
they are not communicated to foreign countries, except with the consent 
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