ROYAL SOCIETY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22777, 13 January 1936, Page 10

ROYAL SOCIETY

RUN BY SMALL GROUP? A year-old quarrel between a number of members of the Royal Society led by Professor Frederick Soddy, the famous chemist, and the council, culminated at the annual meeting recently, when Professor Soddy and his colleagues sought the election of several new officials. Their nominations were defeated by a large majority, says a writer in the Daily Telegraph. The " rebel " members surest that the affairs of the society are in the hands of a self-elected council, that ordinary members have no say in its control, and that important scientific information is withheld from the public. They demand the adoption of the system of postal voting and alterations in the constitution of the council. The history of the quarrel in brief is as follows: October, 1934.—Professor Soddy wrote to the council, complaining of " the virtual exclusion of the ordinary Fellows from all rights and advantages of Fellowship, and the increasing concentration of these rights and advantages in a selfelected council." October, 1934-March, 1935.—Much correspondence between Professor Soddy and the council.

March, 1935. —Memorial signed by 92 members sent to the council, asking for a change in the electoral system and the institution of postal voting. April, 1935. —Long reply from the council, rejecting the proposals, and answering criticisms with categorical denials. OFFICIAL REPLY. Professor Soddy stated that the annual meeting was more crowded than it hr.d ever been before. " There was no declaration that the election was being contested," he continued, " but I had circularised every member, and though we failed to have our nominees elected, ,\e made our protest.

"We feel that under present conditions the Koyal Society is not a national society representing science to the nation. There is no democratic control, and Fellows are not consulted. A small group has a stranglehold on the society and seems to think it rules by divine right. Anyone with the courage to oppose it is a marked man. The group can almost destroy him."

An official of the Royal Society said: " The members who put up these names for election at the annual meeting represent a very small percentage of the total membership. It is quite untrue that the mib]ic are not informed of our activities. Our monthly report covers the whole ground, and is available to the general public." The Koyal Society of London for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge, founded in 1645. and granted a charter by Charles II in 1662, is the oldest scientific society in • this country. Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, professor of biochemistry at Cambridge, is the president.