Military v. Scientific Research

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 286, 29 August 1931, Page 20

Military v. Scientific Research

j 4 p "» 5 he world at the present time is spending £890,000,000 a year | on the preparation for war. is spending £580,000,000. i , | Broadly, that Is as much as we were spending in real values X at 1914 prices, on the eve of the War. These armaments are infinitely more effective and powerful than those which the oops had in 1914” (said Mr. Noel Baker, M.P., In the House of Commons). “We often have difficulty in voting money for civilian research. There is a great Cambridge agricultural scientist who invented a new kind of wheat—l think it Is called Biffin wheat—which has saved this country millions upon millions of pounds. He'used to get an annual allowance of £lO6O. If the doctors can make a discovery 7 of any kind, it may bring a return to this country which money cannot compute. We allow our Medical Research Board/1 think, £150,000 a year. • “But we are,able to find for our military research almost anything we need. I forget the exact figure, but it is about £1,250,000 that we

are now devoting to military research, and principally to research in chemical warfare, for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. As a result, we aro getting what we pay for. Our Armies, our Navies, our Air Forces are incomparably more efficient than they used to be. “It has been said by one Service writer that one aeroplane to-day, if it could carry enough petrol, could quite easily shoot down 1000 of the typo of aeroplane used for fighting in 1918 when the War came to an end. It Is certain that the gases now available are incomparably more devastating than those with which we ended the War, The mechanisation of the Army has doubled the striking power of the Army in four years. It is true that that Is not an argument for further unilateral disarmament by ourselves, because these developments are going on abroad: but it is an argument for drastic reductions of armament by international agreement. It is an argument for saying that our society is more.militarised, than it used to.be, and militarised to a degree which remains exceedingly dangerous." >