Abstract
THE recent article by Dr. A. King1 on the British Commonwealth Scientific Office raises the question of the relations of governmental science and non-governmental men of science. As its executive officer between 1941 and 1944, I am well aware of the services which the Office rendered to the scientific departments of the Ministries, to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and to the Medical and Agricultural Research Councils, and I know also that it was always willing to stretch a point and give any assistance within its power to outside bodies and individuals. But its 'extra-curricular' activities were severely circumscribed by its inability to spend funds except on behalf of a Government department. Now that the majority of scientific men are, it is hoped, becoming free, should not this agency serve scientific men and institutions outside the official orbit? Indeed, one might ask if Britain can afford a scientific agency in the United States, at a cost to the Treasury probably equal to the running expenses of several of the major scientific societies together, if it is not to serve all the principal groups of scientific workers.
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Nature, 157, 63 (1946).
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BUTLER, J. The British Commonwealth Scientific Office and Non-Governmental Science. Nature 157, 233 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157233b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157233b0
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