10 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



South Africa aspires to leadersliip in Africa in other branches of activity, 

 why not also in Science ? If the outlook of the nation is broadening, why- 

 should not its scientists also begin to think in continents ? If as a people 

 we are anxious to make our contribution to Africa, eager to give it of our 

 best, rather than to get from it that which will be to our material advantage, 

 why should not our Science also become consciously and deUberately 

 African in its outlook, its ideals, and the tasks to which it applies itself. 

 If Science has consolidated its position in South Africa, as we beUeve it 

 has, is it not fitting that, with South Africa as its base, it should enter now 

 into the new sphere of opportunity and achievement which stretches 

 mightily outwards from its borders ? 



To you, our visitors, I look to give us the stimulus and the encourage- 

 ment to that enterprise. You have come to Africa. This great land-mass 

 which has reared itself against time's passage, almost since time's beginning, 

 and holds inviolate so many of the records of that passage, has challenged 

 your attention. You have come to Africa to seek new inspiration for the 

 study of the problems that interest you, by seeing them against a different 

 background which has for many of you an unaccustomed vastness. But 

 while Africa was your goal, you did not think fit to enter it at the point 

 nearest to your homes. You steamed down, day after day, skirting the 

 long coast -line of this vast expanse of veld and forest, and have entered it 

 by its Southern gateway. For a great body of scientists, it is the only 

 point of effective entry into Africa. It is by way of this Southern gateway 

 that Science itself can most effectively be made to permeate Africa. And 

 to you, having so come, to you, the ambassadors of Science, I present — 

 Africa. It is Africa and Science, which, I would like to think, are to- 

 day met together. Happy indeed should be the fruits of the mating. 



It is to that theme — Africa and Science — that I propose now to mvite 

 your attention. What can Africa give to Science ? What can Science 

 give to Africa ? Those are the questions to which I would address myself. 

 But as I speak, I would ask you all to remember, that it is for the South 

 African scientist that the answers to these questions have primary signifi- 

 cance. It is for him that they have significance, because for the solution 

 of many of the problems of South Africa a greater knowledge of Africa as 

 a whole than is at present available is essential, and the extension of that 

 knowledge is his personal responsibility. It is for him that they have 

 significance because he dwells in a land which is strategically placed for 

 attacking the problems of Africa and for drawing forth its hidden resources 

 of scientific discovery for the enrichment of Science throughout the world. 



