XV111 



GENERAL MEETINGS, ETC., IN LEEDS. 



The Inaugural General Meeting was held on Wednesday, August 31, 

 1927, at 8.30 p.m., in the Majestic Theatre. In the absence in Canada 

 of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, K.G., F.R.S., the retiring President, the 

 chair was taken at the outset by Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. After the Lord 

 Mayor of Leeds and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds had 

 welcomed the Association, Sir Oliver Lodge read the message which 

 follows from the retiring President : — 



A Message from H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, K.G., F.R.S., on 

 Laying Down the Presidency of the Association. 



My year of office as President of the British Association has come to an 

 end, and I can only express my regret to the members of the Association, 

 and to our hosts the City and University of Leeds, that I am unable to 

 attend personally in order to take my leave. 



At Oxford last year I ventured in my address to lay before the 

 meeting a view of the relations between Science and the State. I felt 

 subsequently some justification for having chosen this topic, when I 

 observed in the proceedings of the Imperial and Colonial Conferences 

 of the past year the extraordinary emphasis laid upon the value of scien- 

 tific research in relation to imperial development. Both conferences set 

 up special committees on research, and we cannot but believe and rejoice 

 that the foundations of an imperial scientific service are being firmly 

 laid. The Prime Minister of Australia indicated ' the application of 

 science both to our primary and secondary industries ' as ' the most 

 important thing for Empire trade' ; more recently our ex-president, the 

 Earl of Balfour, invited the attention of the House of Lords to ' the enor- 

 mous value of the work given by men of science, with the most lavish 

 generosity,' to the study of problems of the common welfare. 



Such events as these place it beyond doubt that one of the main objects 

 of the British Association itself is in process of achievement namely, 

 that of ' obtaining more general attention for the objects of science.' 

 The Association, the so-called parliament of science, is one of the chief 

 instruments to that end, and I trust that the public support will continue, 

 in increasing measure, to be accorded to its work. Its powers, I am 

 happy to say, have been very materially strengthened, during my own 

 term of office, through the splendid generosity of Sir Alfred Yarrow, in 

 making a gift of £10,000 for the general purposes of the Association, to be 

 expended, in accordance with his wise provision, in the course of twenty 

 years. I gladly take this opportunity of publicly repeating the thanks 

 of the Association to Sir Alfred Yarrow. 



In resigning the chair to Sir Arthur Keith, I can whole-heartedly 

 congratulate the Association on its choice of my successor. His name 

 stands very high in the science of man's origin and early biological history. 

 I have reason to believe that when anyone in this country digs up a bone 

 his first instinct (subject to the intervention of the police) is to send it to 

 Sir Arthur Keith. You are to hear from him an address on Darwinism 

 as it stands to-day — a subject of perennial interest, and more than once 

 one of warm controversy at our own meetings. The occasion of the 



