THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 13 



Dominions and in many other institutions ; they have gained first-hand 

 acquaintance with the special problems of one territory and another ; and 

 when they have returned home they have talked— as anyone who travels 

 the Empire is impelled to talk. I have myself been guilty of giving 

 way to this impulse once in a while. Opportunities for travel are none 

 too common for most of us, but most of us can at least cast our minds 

 back to the exhibition at Wembley. Science herself, as an exhibitor, 

 took a place there befitting her natural modesty. The scientific exhibit 

 arranged by the Royal Society, admirable as it was, was confined to two 

 rooms of the Government Pavilion. But was not a very large proportion 

 of the entire exhibition, in point of fact, an exhibition of applied science ? 



It is impossible in the Imperial connection to overstate the case for 

 Science. Sir William Huggins, in his Presidential Address to the Royal 

 Society in 1901, said that ' assuredly not only the prosperity, but even 

 the existence of this Empire will be found to depend upon the more 

 complete application of scientific knowledge and methods to every depart- 

 ment of industrial and national activity.' To-day we see that application 

 in much fuller progress than when Huggins spoke only a quarter of a 

 century ago, and already we know how truly he prophesied. 



It is not for a moment to be supposed, because the State has come 

 to take a more active and practical interest in scientific research, that 

 there is therefore any occasion for the lessening of interest on the part of 

 societies and individuals. The State interest involves that other interest, 

 and invites it. It can never become the exclusive function of the State 

 to aid the individual research worker. The State may, and does, co-operate 

 in aiding him, as for instance through the universities and the Royal 

 Society. Nevertheless, there are whole departments of research which 

 do not come within the range of public assistance, but are no less valuable 

 because they do not. Therefore the support of science remains the 

 concern of our scientific societies, educational institutions, industrial 

 organisations, and private benefactors, no less than it ev^ did ; nay, the 

 very fact that the State has lent its aid should encourage them to continue 

 their aid and to reinforce it — ^indeed, there is satisfactory evidence that 

 this actually happens. One example will suffice which indicates, inci- 

 dentally, that from the purely materialistic point of view scientific research 

 is not a luxury ; for the community it is probably the cheapest possible 

 form of investment. The Government's fuel-research station has not yet 

 proved the commercial possibility of the low-temperature treatment of 

 coal which would result in the more economical production of smokeless 



