SCIENTISTS AND WAR

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 220, 2 October 1940, Page 7

SCIENTISTS AND WAR

IMPORTANT ROLES TO PLAY IN THE WORLD EVIL THAT' WILL BRING GOOD "Having regard to the highly tech nical nature of modern warfare, with its manifold contacts with, and dependence upon, geographical and meteorological knowledge, engineering, chemistry and chemical indus-, try, medical science, psj'chology and so 011, it is obvious, that men of science are closely concerned in the construction of an adequate policy o£ national defence as well as the formation of an adequate structure of peace. They have an important part to play, both professionally ' and as citizens. The association of science with war and the prostitution of 'scientific effort to war purposes cannot be condemned too strongly, yet few scientific workers wish to avoid participating in adequate and effective methods of national defence,, or to fail in their service to the high humanistic ideals for which science stands. Every nation has the right to decide upon its own form of government—democratic or autocratic—just as it must be left free to follow its own religious ideals. When the deliberate policy of a State is to impose its! system by force upon people who wish to be free and have entirely different ideals, all believers in liberty of conscience and in the principles of natural cultural development should range themselves against such aggression."—Sir Richard Gregory.