LIAISON CENTRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26628, 26 November 1947, Page 5

LIAISON CENTRE

ESTABLISHMENT IN LONDON COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC ORGANISATIONS N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 25 Arrangements are now being completed for the establishment in London early next year of a combined British Commonwealth scientific liaison centre which will bring scientific officers of all dominions and colonies under one roof. This project was first formulated during last year’s conference of the Royal Society when leading scientists of the Commonwealth met in London and at Oxford and Cambridge. The new centre will be at Africa House, in Kingsway, where office space will be allocated to all dominions and colonies with scientific representation in Britain. The centre will be controlled by a representative committee of management and will provide ' a common typing pool, an indexing and duplicating organisation and a scientific library where papers and reports regarding scientific developments in all parts of the Commonwealth will be available.

Office space has already been arranged for representatives of the United Kingdom, Canada. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, the two Rhodesias and several of the Crown Colonies. The costs of the centre will be shared in proportion to the space occupied. New Zealand has been allocated three rooms which will be occupied by the New Zealand scientific liaison officer in London, Dr Marsden, and his staff. It is expected that the new centre will be occupied early in January. s

This will be the first Commonwealth organisation in which India has fully participated since it became a dominion. Pakistan is expected to nominate representatives in due course.

An earlier message from London said that Dr Marsden had been appointed vice-chairman of the Commonwealth Defence Science Committee, an organisation primarily responsible for the prosecution of defence scientific research in all countries qf the Empire. The committee has just 1 concluded an important three weeks' conference which was attended by scientific and armed services’ representatives from all British Commonwealth countries. All of the proceedings were secret, and a report will be issued confidentially only to the countries concerned.