EMPIRE SCIENCE CONFERENCE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24905, 19 June 1946, Page 7

EMPIRE SCIENCE CONFERENCE

PLAN FOR WORLD COOPERATION DIRECTION OF WORK FOR PEACE (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8.45 p.m.) LONDON, June 17. One hundred and eighteen of the Empire’s most learned scientists are assembled in the Senate House of London University to mould a workable plan for Imperial and international liaison to direct science’s work .towards peace. • Responding to His Majesty’s welcome, the leader of the Canadian delegation, Dr. E. J. Mackenzie, summarised the purpose of the assembly. He said there was nd more place to-day for scientific isolation within a nation than ther<e was meaning in national isolationism in the international world in which we lived. • ‘‘lf international co-operation is to become a reality we must not lose sight of the cardinal principles of cooperation we learned during the war,” he added. The conference, which was called by the Royal Society at the British Government’s request, will discuss a wide range of topics, among the more significant of which are: (1) problems of agricultural science in relation to vary-

ing conditions throughout the Empire; (2) problems of medical science, for example the physiological effects of work in the tropics and the control of infectious transmissible diseases; (3) the question of land utilisation and conservation and the survey of mineral resources and industries it is possible to develop from the Empire’s natural products; (4) improvement in the dissemination of scientific information and measures for greater uniformity in physical standards of measurement. The president of the Royal Society (Sir Robert Robinson) pointed out that the conference would be followed by one of the scientific representatives of the Governments of the Dominions and India. Probably the matters discussed by the present conference would be crystallised into recommendations to the official conference for implementation by the various Governments.

His Majesty, after opening the conference, personally greeted the visitors. Sir Theodore Rigg (New Zealand) introduced the members of his party to the King.