Abstract
THE president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sir Henry Tizard, referred in his inaugural address at the Brighton meeting to "our bounden duty, and the only certain way of safeguarding our future so long as we remain a large food-importing country, to develop our Colonial territories, particularly the under-populated African colonies, where the increase in population that would follow the control of disease and the increase of food supply would open fresh markets for international trade". The president of Section E (Geography) of the Association, Lord Rennell of Rodd, speaking of "Geography as a Social Science, with special reference to Africa", said, "For our own good name, the social geographer must be called on to play his very large part in adapting our changing conceptions of African administration, and in seeking to rationalize the mess which western European nations, including we ourselves, have made in the African continent". His address was followed by a discussion in Section E on the scientific aspects of colonial development, to which a number of the younger geographers, several with experience of work and conditions in the Colonies, contributed. While recognizing that geography is only one of many sciences which could be, and must be, applied to the problems of the Colonies, the geographers were all agreed that their subject has a very definite and distinctive contribution, though one which has not hitherto been given adequate reċ ognition by those in authority.
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Scientific Aspects of Colonial Development. Nature 162, 556–557 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162556a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162556a0