Abstract
THE survey of Colonial research in the British Empire prepared by Dr. Lucy Mair (Agenda for October) is of particular interest at the present moment. Under the Colonial Research Committee appointed in June 1942, a comprehensive survey is at present being made, as the first work of the Committee, of the facilities existing in Great Britain and the Colonial Empire, both for research and for the training of research workers. Pointing out that research in the Colonial field has tended in the past to be directed to the overcoming of practical difficulties that have already been encountered, Dr. Mair emphasizes that the present demand for a planned and consciously directed welfare policy is not a demand for something entirely new, but for more effective measures in the pursuit of aims already accepted. In regard to research by administrative officials, while those responsible for the conduct of policy in the Colonial Empire are fully aware of the need for knowledge of every aspect of the lives of its native populations, such inquiries, often limited in scope by the difficulty of finding time for them amid the pressure of other work, and carried out by those who have no specialized training in research in the relevant subjects, have not had a scientific value on a level with that of work done by trained specialists devoting their whole time to research.
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COLONIAL RESEARCH IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Nature 151, 87 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151087a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151087a0