POOR COUNTRIES MUST USE RESEARCH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18012, 24 November 1926, Page 15

POOR COUNTRIES MUST USE RESEARCH.

GERMANY HELD UP AS OBJECT LESSON. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright, ▲us. and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON. November 22. The report of the Research Sub-Com-mittete of the Imperial Conference emphasises the value of consultation and co-operation among the various portions of the Empire, and recommends further bureaux on the lines of the existing bureaux of entomology and tropical medicine. The need for establishing such would be best considered by special inter-Empire conferences, as already arranged for 1927. for the Study of Imperial agricultural research. Similar bureaux might be established in other practical arts, for example, horticulture, mining and manufacUiring industry. These would be strictly specialised bureaux, but it would also be necessary to have organisations which would act as clearing houses for the dissemination of scientific and technical information somewhat analogous to the present Imperial Institute. The experience .of three British research departments, namely, agriculture, medicine and science , shows the urgent need of direct communication between them and between the corresponding organisations elsewhere in the Empire. There have been many instances proving that the work done on parallel lines in differpit parts of the Empire dealing with different local conditions has led to important results and while it is true that much valuable information was thus interchanged. the present machinery was imperfect. Every official representative of each organisation in one part, of the Empire should have an opposite number in each of the other parts of the Empire for the direct exchange of information. The report draws attention to the serious shortage of suitable candidates for scientific services supported by the Governments. Scientific officers must be of the highest class, given the best training and salaries, and other inducements must be adequate to attract the best men. If it is urged that financial stringency renders such a policy unwise, the report points out that the poorer any country is the greater is its need to develop scientifically its resources. The British Empire's enormous potential resources cannot be fully developed without the aid of science. Germany in the nineteenth century provided a Classic instance- of the way in which a comparatively poor country can by organised scientific research immensely increase its wealth and overhaul neighbours possessing greater natural advantages. The committee states that the importance of having upon the. staffs of research institutions men with experience in different parts of the Empire ca* hardly be exaggerated. It is of opinion that the Press could play a great part in bringing home to the public the importance of science to the Empire and the career it offers. -The report applauds the proposal to hold an Agricultural Research Conference in London in 1927 and urges that the various Governments should give It the fullest possible support. The report embodies a resolution noting with satisfaction the encouragement of scientific research into the problems of Empire agriculture and approves of the Marketing Board's project of a chain of research stations in the tropical and sub-tropical portions of the Empire. It points out that the Empire Marketing Board has made considerable grants for research work in connection with the problems of production and transport and also extended assistance beyond foodstuffs. The board had made it clear that it conceives its task to be to bring scientific problems before the appropriate authorities. The committee suggests that when the Board recommends a grant or the refusal of a grant it should attach fully qualified reports to its recommendation. The committee approves the steps taken to re-organise the Imperial Institute according to the recommendations of the Economic Conference of 1923.

Earl Balfour contributes an introduction to the report in which he trusts that the outcome of the Conference will be to encourage the Empire's States to view sympathetically these suggestions. *