REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1937-38 xxiii 



PROPOSAL FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A DIVISION 



TO DEAL WITH THE SoCIAL AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF SCIENCE. 



The following report, and proposals contained therein, were adopted by the 

 General Committee at its Meeting on August 17, 1938. 



At the present time a strong feeling exists that the social relations of science 

 demand close and objective study. The question has been dealt with 

 recently in the press and elsewhere. At an informal meeting of persons 

 specially interested, it was stated that there is nothing in the constitution 

 of the British Association to prevent the establishment of machinery 

 within that organisation for the purpose desired. A resolution was 

 thereupon addressed from this meeting to the Council of the Association, 

 inviting the Association to establish a special department which would 

 consider the social and international relations of science, by means of 

 enquiry, publication, and the holding of meetings not necessarily confined 

 to the annual meetings of the Association. 



International relations were specified in this resolution primarily because 

 of the deep interest of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science in the subject. Discussion is expected to take place between 

 officers of the two Associations, during the present summer, on the best 

 means for international co-operation. 



The Council supported the proposal to establish an organisation for 

 these purposes within the Association. They appointed a Committee to 

 formulate a scheme for the working of such an organisation, to be presented 

 to the General Committee at the Cambridge Meeting. It is thought that 

 the organisation should work on lines in some respects different from 

 those of a Section, and should not bear that title. The term Division is 

 therefore recommended. 



The purpose of the Division would be to further the objective study 

 of the social relations of science. The problems with which it would 

 deal would be concerned with the effects of advances in science on the 

 well-being of the community, and, reciprocally, the effects of social 

 conditions upon advances in science. 



The Division would be worked by a Committee, nominated annually 

 by the Council and appointed by the General Committee. The Council 

 should have power to appoint additional members of the Committee 

 during the year. 



The Committee should embody the existing British Science Guild 

 Committee of the Association, inasmuch as the Norman Lockyer, 

 Alexander Pedler, and Radford Mather Lectures, now administered by 

 that Committee, would appropriately come within the purview of the 

 Division. 



The President of the Association and the General Officers should be 

 ex-officio members of the Committee. A chairman of the Committee 

 should be appointed for a fixed period of office. A fixed proportion of the 

 ordinary members of the Committee should retire annually (as in the case 

 of the Council) and should not be eligible for immediate re-election. 



