SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27490, 26 October 1954, Page 9

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

FRANCE INCREASES EXPENDITURE IMPORTANCE OF SAHARA DEPOSITS (From a Reuter Correspondent) PARIS. Mr Pierre Mendes-France, France’s Prime Minister, has won the respect of his country’s scientists and industrialists as the first head of a post-war Government to judge scientific research worthy of a portfolio. To launch a programme destined to increase annual expenditure on this vital feature of national development from 20,000,000,000 to 50,000,000,000 francs, Mr Mendes-France turned to 58-year-old Professor Henri Longchambon, Dean of the Science Faculty of Lyon University, whom he had ap*pointed Secretary of State for Scientific Research and Technical Progress. Professor Longchambon, who smuggled the Allies’ entire supplies of heavy water from Bordeaux to England aboard the British vessel Brompark, when France collapsed in June, 1940, also takes charge of France’s Atomic Energy Commission which spends 8,000.000.000,000 francs a year. Under a recent four-year plan, two atomic piles, now under construction in the Rhone Valley, will produce 40 kilogrammes (about 801 b) of plutonium a year by 1956—equivalent in energy to 100,000 tons of coal. The tall, stooping scientist, who represents in the Senate 500,000 Frenchmen living overseas, said: “Mr Men-des-France has followed the example of Sir Winston Churchill by appointing me to a post rather like that held by his personal assistant, Lord Cherwell, who kept him in touch with scientific development. The Government’s policy in the field of science is not only to regain the lead which France once held in the application of atomic energy to peaceful uses but to enlarge the role of science in agriculture —especially in our African colonies. France’s future, and indeed the future of Europe as a whole, lies in Africa. One of our first objections will be tremendous sources of oil and iron still untapped in the Sahara.”

Several of Mr Mendes-France’s closest advisers hold strongly the view that Frances capital exports to North Africa must be substantially increased, and that the Sahara has a major, if long term, role to play in French economic expansion. “But in Africa, agriculture alone, in contrast to mining and manufacture, can improve the standard of living of the primitive peoples for whose welfare we are responsible,” Professor Longchambon said. “That is a lesson which I learned as Minister of Food just after the lib-, eration of France.” National Council

To supervise research by both public bodies and private industry, Professor Longchambon has set up a National Council for Scientific Research. He is also consulting Mr Jean Berthoin, the Minister of Education, with a view to improving recruitment of research teaching posts in this field during the next 10 years. Professor Longchambon said: “Britain, the United States and other countries can do much to help by sending teachers and research specialists to advise us. From Britain, we have much to learn in the field of industrial uses of atomic energy and the Americans can teach us a lot about engineering and chemistry. Finally the State must spend more of its resources on scientific research and the Government must get Parliament to accept long-term development programmes which ensure continuity of action, independent of changes of government. France has understood that in the world today scientists play the same role as that of explorers in ancient times and the Middle Ages. The creation of the Ministry of Scientific Research demonstrates the will to make the most of our country’s scientific genius.”