Abstract
MANY scientific workers will remember the disappointment caused at the Oxford meeting of the British Association by the exclusion of a film of Chilian and Peruvian birds with which Mr. R. C. Murphy, of the American Museum of Natural History, had intended to illustrate a lecture. This year two similar incidents have occurred. Mr. Beebe, the eminent naturalist, was obliged to pay full duty on a film of a microscopical subject which he introduced for the purpose of exhibition to a learned society, and Mr. Wright, the distinguished American astronomer, who wished to use a film to illustrate a lecture before the Royal Astronomical Society, not only had to pay duty on his film, but was also put to a good deal of trouble by the Customs authorities. On hearing of Mr. Beebe's experience, the Association of Scientific Workers communicated with the Financial Secretary of the Treasury asking, either that special concessions should be granted as a matter of courtesy to accredited scientific workers wishing to introduce such films from abroad, or that the Finance Act be so amended as to allow for their importation without payment of duty. Independently, Captain Ian Fraser moved an amendment to the Finance Act of 1925 in the House of Commons on July 3 to the same effect. No decision has yet been reached, but, replying in the House of Commons to a question put by Sir Harry Brittain, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury stated that his attention had been directed to the case of a distinguished American astronomer being subjected to considerable inconvenience and trouble in passing through the Customs two cinematograph films showing the successive phases of the planet Jupiter during its rotation, one for the purpose of illustrating a lecture, and the other for presentation to the Royal Astronomical Society. Some of the difficulties experienced were due to the importation of the films in passengers' baggage, necessitating their removal from Victoria to the Endell Street bonded film store. In view of this case, however, the possibility of shortening the procedure as regards films of a non-commercial character was being examined. Furthermore, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had promised that the practicability of an exemption for scientific films would be further considered.
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[News and Views]. Nature 122, 103–108 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122103c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122103c0