Selected Speeches 1948 1955

SELECTED SPEECHES

1948-1955

BY
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE PRINCE PHILIP

DUKE OF EDINBURGH

H.R.H. THE PRINCE PHILIP opens the Newton Driver Services Club,
Rustington, Sussex, 24 April 1949

SELECTED SPEECHES

1948-1955

BY
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE PRINCE PHILIP

DUKE OF EDINBURGH

LONDON
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

NEW YORK TORONTO
1957

Oxford University Press , Amen House * London E.C.4

GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON

BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI KUALA LUMPUR

CAPE TOWN IBADAN NAIROBI ACCRA

Oxford University Press 1957

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORO

BY CHARLES BATEY, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

With the approval ofH.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh,
the fifty speeches in this volume have been chosen for
their diversity of subject and occasion. Except for an
occasional modification, and the omission of a few
opening and closing sentences, the speeches are here
printed as they were originally delivered

CONTENTS

1. 8 JUNE 1948. Visit to Guildhall and Mansion House.

On receiving The Freedom of the City of London i

2. i MARCH 1949. Visit to Edinburgh. On receiving The
Freedom of the City of Edinburgh 3

3. 28 APRIL 1949. Visit to University College, Bangor.

On installation as Chancellor of the University of Wales 5

4. 8 AUGUST 1951. Visit to Edinburgh. Presidential
Address to the British Association ^

5. 13 OCTOBER 1951. Visit to Canada 27

6. 5 MAY 1952. First Meeting of Coronation Commission 30

7. 1 1 JUNE 1952. Opening of Braille Centenary Ex-
hibition 32

8. 13 OCTOBER 1952. Opening of Affric Hydro-Electric
Scheme at Fasnakyk Power Station 35

9. 15 OCTOBER 1952. Unveiling of Extension to Naval
War Memorial, Chatham 37

10. 15 OCTOBER 1952. Ramsay Centenary Dinner 38

n. 20 OCTOBER 1952. Opening of 'The Model En-
gineer 9 Exhibition 44

12. 21 OCTOBER 1952. Opening of Extension to Municipal
College, Portsmouth 46

13. 5 NOVEMBER 1952. London Master Builders 9 Associa-
tion. Address to Students 47

vii

14. 13 NOVEMBER 1952. Opening of Mew Engineering
Laboratory, Cambridge University 49

15. 21 NOVEMBER 1952. Visit to Military College of
Science, Shrivenham 51

16. 25 NOVEMBER 1952. Radio Industry Council Annual
Dinner 54

17. 1 8 FEBRUARY 1953. Land Agents' Society Jubilee
Dinner 57

18. 25 FEBRUARY 1953. Admission to the Freedom of 'the
Mercers' Company 59

19. 14 APRIL 1953. Presentation of Prizes to Cadets on
board H.M.S. Devonshire 60

20. 27 APRIL 1953. Opening of Imperial Cricket Memorial 62

21. 8 MAY 1953. Opening of Royal Yachts Exhibition,
Royal Observatory 63

22. 22 JUNE 1953. Unveiling of Memorial Roll of Honour
ofL.C.C. Staff 64

23. 24 JULY 1953. Annual Dinner of the Chartered Insur-
ance Institute 65

24. 28 JULY 1953. Passing-out Parade at R.A.F. College,
Cranwell 67

25. 15 OCTOBER 1953. Annual Luncheon of National
Union of Manufacturers 70

26. 23 OCTOBER 1953. 1953 Alamein Reunion 73

27. 4 NOVEMBER 1953. Visit to Edinburgh University.
Installation as Chancellor 74

viii

28. 13 JANUARY 1954. Commonwealth Tour. Address to
New Zealand Scientists 82

29. 20 JANUARY 1954. Commonwealth Tour. Address at
Canterbury Chamber of Commerce Luncheon, Christchurch 9
New Zealand 88

30. 1 6 FEBRUARY 1954- Commonwealth Tour. Opening of
University House, Canberra 93

31. 20 APRIL 1954. Commonwealth Tour. Opening of
University of Ceylon 94

32. 8 JUNE 1954. English-Speaking Union Dinner to
General Gruenther 97

33- 30 JUNE 1954. Visit to Staff College, Camberley 99

34. 10 AUGUST 1954. Visit to Canada. Broadcast from
Tellowknife 102

35. 1 2 OCTOBER 1 954. Visit to Edinburgh. Address to the
Speculative Society 105

36. i DECEMBER 1954. Visit to Cardiff. On receiving

The Freedom of City and County Borough of Cardiff 107

37. 1 6 DECEMBER 1954. British Commonwealth and
Empire Lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society 109

38. 15 FEBRUARY 1955. Visit to Glasgow. On receiving

The Freedom of The City of Glasgow 126

39. 20 MARCH 1955. Visit to the Mediterranean. Broadcast

to the Fleet at Malta 128

40. 12 MAY 1955. Visit to 'Windyridge* Approved Proba-
tion Farm Home 131

41. 20 JUNE 1955. Dinner with the Royal College of
Surgeons, Edinburgh 132

ix

42. 3 JUNE 1955. At Outward Bound School 135

43. 8 JULY 1955. Royal College of Art Convocation 138

44. 13 JULY 1955. Opening of New Mycological Institute,
Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux 141

45. 1 6 JULY 1955. Visit to the Gordon Boys' School at
Woking. Presentation of New Colours 143

46. 20 JULY 1955. Conference of European University
Rectors and Vice-Chancellors, Cambridge 144

47. 28 JULY 1955. Sovereign's Parade, Royal Military
Academy, Sandhurst 149

48. 26 OCTOBER 1955. Presentation of Awards at the
Royal Society of Arts 1 5 1

49. 21 NOVEMBER 1955. British Olympic Association
Banquet 153

50. 30 NOVEMBER 1955. Festival Dinner of Royal
Scottish Corporation 155

Visit to Guildhall and Mansion House
8 JUNE 1948

On receiving The Freedom of the City of London

My Lord Mayor,

I thank you for the great honour you have done me in pre-
senting me with the Freedom of the City of London. I am well
aware that it is your most precious gift, and it makes me very
proud to be invited to join the great company of past and present
Freemen.

Since the last war you have taken the opportunity of honour-
ing those men who were principally responsible for the Allied
Victory. All of them were great leaders of men, whether in
Parliament, in civil life, or in the field of battle. But, my Lord
Mayor, in every kind of human activity there are those who lead,
and there are those who follow. You have honoured the leaders.
Now, if you will allow me, I would like to accept the Freedom
of this City, not only for myself, but for all those millions who
followed during the Second World War. Our only distinction is
that we did what we were told to do, to the very best of our
ability, and kept on doing it.

The Chamberlain referred just now, in rather flattering terms,
to my war record. The point I want to emphasize is something
you all know. I want to emphasize that there are hundreds upon
thousands like it, and taken together they represent the en-
deavours of the followers during the last great war, and so the
greater part of our war effort.

Good leaders undoubtedly got the best out of us and without
their leadership our efforts would have been fruitless. However,

these leaders will not always be with us, and the time will come
when members of our generation will have to take their place.

In peace, as in war, the followers have a great contribution to
make to their country and to the cause of peace in the world
generally. The ideal that my wife and I have set before us is to
make the utmost use of the special opportunities we have to try
to bring home to our own generation the full importance of that
contribution and the effort, both at work and at play, that is
required of us.

Only the other day we had one of those special opportunities,
and a very happy experience it proved to be. Not three weeks
ago, we visited the capital city of our old friends and neighbours,
the French. Wherever we went we were given an extremely
cordial and kindly reception. Part of that welcome may have
been for us personally, at any rate we like to think so, but we
are both convinced that the crowds who greeted us were ex-
pressing, through us, their friendship for our countrymen.
Those waves and cheers were the spontaneous expressions of
the goodwill felt by the people of France for the people of this
country. If through us they have been able to see you, we are
well satisfied.

Visit to Edinburgh

I MARCH 1949

On receiving The Freedom of the
City of Edinburgh

It is almost two years since I last set foot in this Hall. A great
deal has happened in the world since then, but I doubt whether
there are many people who have been as fortunate as I.

First of all ; I had the extreme good fortune to get married
and I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of my wife
and myself, to thank you, my Lord Provost, and the citizens of
Edinburgh for the magnificent wedding present of the Service
of Glass which you so kindly gave us.

Then, last November, our son was born, and now I hope it
will not be long before we have a home of our own in London.
In addition to these domestic blessings, I have been greatly
honoured by being allowed to use the name of Edinburgh as
my title. Finally, you have today made me very proud and
given me much pleasure by inviting me to become a Burgess
of your city.

This ceremony is really a climax, not only of the events of
the last two years, but also of the numberless benefits which
Scotland has bestowed on me. Three years at school in Moray-
shire, apart from providing me with the necessary book-
learning, laid the foundations of what I am sure will prove to
be a deep and abiding love for this country and her people.

My earliest instruction in the art of seamanship was received
at the hands of a Scottish trawler skipper, and in the process I
discovered the east and west coasts, as well as that unique piece
of water, the Pentland Firth. All this stood me in good stead
during the years of the war.

More recently I have had the opportunity of wandering over
the hills and also of doing some fishing. These pursuits, with the
moments of solitude and reflection which they give, are in-
valuable to any man who is trying to keep a balanced outlook
in the midst of the furious activity of modern life.

I could continue the list of benefits indefinitely, but I think
this is an appropriate moment to be a bit more topical. I would
like to discharge a debt of gratitude to the citizens of Edinburgh
for your hospitality to myself and thousands of other servicemen
who managed to get here for a few hours' relaxation during
the war.

I was based at Rosyth for nearly two years and I know that
whenever we had the chance we used to jump into the train at
Inverkeithing and come here. I know we were a dreadful
nuisance and frequently misbehaved, but as a result of your
forbearance we all have a very tender spot for the 'Burg', as we
sometimes used to call it.

You in this city did a great deal for servicemen, not because
you had to, but because you knew it would be kind and right.
There are in this world hundreds of things which are right but
which cannot be legislated for things which will never be done
unless someone is prepared to do them for no reward except
possibly a clear conscience.

Once upon a time it was a relatively easy matter to clear one's
conscience by contributing money to various charities and
organizations which set out to do the right thing. This method
is not so easy now and yet there is just as much to do. It will be
fatal for us if we ever come to think that merely by passing laws
we can get out of our responsibilities towards our fellow men.

As an example of what can be done there is the case of the
Ladywell playing field at Maybole in Ayrshire, which was laid
out, levelled, and turfed almost entirely by voluntary labour,
and then, not content, they built a grandstand and changing-
rooms.

In the case of Sighthill, here in Edinburgh, the residents got
together and made themselves a bowling-green. Their com-

pleted scheme will include a putting-course and a pavilion.
To achieve this, craftsmen gave their services and others helped
with their hands. In both these cases unselfish service was freely
given, and I refuse to believe that the glow in the hearts of those
who took part is not the brighter for what they have done.

3

Visit to Wales
(University College, Bangor)

28 APRIL 1949

Address on Installation as Chancellor of the
University of Wales

We all know what a great part this University is playing in the
life and hopes of the Welsh people today. For this we are deeply
indebted to those who, by their foresight and persistence,
founded the several colleges of the University in different parts
of Wales.

My generation, although reasonably well-schooled, is prob-
ably the worst educated of this age. The war cut short any
chance there was of acquiring a higher education. The im-
mense strain upon the resources of all universities at the present
moment is largely due to this lost generation trying to make up
for what it missed between 1939 and 1945.

However, the universities have more to offer than simply the
benefit of a higher education. The ties and friendships made

and the community life shared are of vital importance to gradu-
ates in the ordinary business of living in the outside world.

Never before has the value of the universities been more
highly appreciated, not merely for the twin opportunities they
give to their students, but also for their preservation of all that
is best in the national traditions and culture of Western Europe.

Today, as many times before, the Fellowship of the Univer-
sities is doing a noble service to humanity; it has undertaken the
great and increasing responsibility of providing the cradle for
the mature thought of the future. I am both honoured and
proud to be associated with this your work, and I shall watch
your progress and prosperity with great interest.

It gives me particular pleasure, therefore, to help you to do
honour to men and women who, by their work and leadership,
have won distinction in the State, in the Church, and in pure
Learning.

I cannot conclude without mentioning two things. First, I
would like to say how much pleasure it gave me when the King
bestowed the Earldom of Merioneth upon me, and secondly, to
greet you all with your own motto, 'Cymru am byth 5 .

Visit to Edinburgh

8 AUGUST 1951

Presidential Address at the Inaugural General
Meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science

To mark the opening of this year's meeting, His Majesty the
King has been graciously pleased to send the following message :

I shall be glad if you will express to the members of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science my appreciation of
their having once more honoured a member of my family by inviting
him to be their President.

I trust that this year's meeting of the Association will further the
development of Science for the benefit of mankind throughout the
world, and prove an encouragement to all those men and women
who are so devotedly working for that end.

On your behalf I propose to reply in these words :

The Members of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science assembled at Edinburgh send Your Majesty their humble
duty and their loyal thanks for Your Majesty's Patronage of the
Association and your gracious message of encouragement.

I am to assure Your Majesty that the development of Science for
the well-being of Your Majesty's Realm and for the general welfare
of mankind is the constant object of the Association.

We will strive with all humility and with the grace of God to
apply the blessings of scientific and technological improvement to
the problems which face us all today.

In Aberdeen in 1859 my great-great-grandfather started his
address to the British Association with these words :

Your kind invitation to me to undertake the Office of your
President for the ensuing year could not but startle me on its first

announcement. The high position which Science occupies, the vast
number of distinguished men who labour in her sacred cause, and
whose achievements, while spreading innumerable benefits, justly
attract the admiration of mankind, contrasted strongly in my mind
with the consciousness of my own insignificance in this respect.

I cannot improve on this to express my own feelings, but,
like him, I reflected upon your invitation and came to the con-
clusion that it is just as an outsider, a layman so to speak, that I
can be useful to you and to science. This very invitation seems
to me to demonstrate that science is not a magic circle and that
you wish us to enter your confidence. In return the least I can
do is to show our appreciation of the work of scientists and to
give you a layman's impression of the march of science in the
last hundred years. I crave your indulgence if I have drawn any
false conclusions and I hope that during the meetings which
will follow this one, the experts will take the opportunity to
make any corrections.

The Prince Consort had very much less reason to be modest
about addressing you than I have, because this year we cele-
brate the anniversary of the Exhibition which was his greatest
achievement, and an event which had an untold value to
science. Let us hope that this year's Festival will be judged a
worthy successor and an inspiration for the future. I am proud
to pay tribute to this man who saw so clearly the part science
was destined to play in the future of this country, and my ad-
dress to you tonight is largely the story of the fulfilment of his
hopes.

The Starting-point

In a review of British science and technology 1851 is a con-
venient starting-point for two reasons. Firstly, the Exhibition
of that year can be regarded as a gigantic stocktaking of the
national resources and technical skill. Secondly, because it
marked the end of the Industrial Revolution and the conversion
of Victorian England to the policy of industrial expansion on
which our future still depends. The period as a whole saw the

8

climax of our industrial supremacy and its inevitable decline
when countries with greater resources and population learned
from us the lessons of the mechanization of industry. It also
covers the birth and growth of the new concepts of modern
science.

Social conditions of a hundred years ago were, generally
speaking, the outcome of the Industrial Revolution, but with
all the traditions of the England of agriculture, cottage industry^
and small market towns. The population of twenty millions was
growing fast but still small compared to our fifty millions of
today. Education was limited to a minority and was almost en-
tirely classical, so the new profession of engineering had to draw
its recruits from a different sphere, that of self-educated men. A
new wealthy class was growing up in the commercial world to
rival the old aristocracy. There was unbounded optimism about
the future and ample scope in commerce and industry to attract
all intelligent and enterprising men. The number of poor was
on the increase and their conditions were deteriorating because,
as yet, no social conscience had grown up to replace the patri-
archal responsibility of the landowners and master craftsmen.

In the domestic field, lighting was by candle and oil lamps,
cooking and heating by coal or wood in ranges or open fires
with the consequent enormous waste of energy. Food had to be
fresh or crudely preserved, and thus needed to be produced
locally. In health and hygiene the figures speak for themselves.
In 1851 the infant death-rate was 150 per 1,000 living births
compared with 25 per 1,000 today. Anaesthetics, antiseptic
surgery, biochemistry, tropical medicine were all virtually un-
known or in their infancy. Psychology had not yet achieved
independence from philosophy on the one hand and physiology
on the other.

This was the age of the practical engineer and of processes
arrived at by intuition born of experience and by trial and
error. Technology was concerned with the application of steam
power, with metallurgy and the working of metals for various
purposes, and with the production of machine tools and precision

machinery. Men were already turning their minds to other
types of engines and the internal-combustion engine was in the
process of development.

Scientists, while continuing their search for the secrets of
nature, were beginning to turn their attention to exploring the
empirical developments of industry. Their numbers as yet were
small, the endowments for research were negligible and much
of their work was carried out in the watertight compartments of
the different sciences. But the seed had been sown and it was
not long before scientists and engineers were preparing the way
for the great technological harvest of the twentieth century.

The Conditions

The changes brought about in the lives of men and women
in the last hundred years have been greater and more rapid
than during any other period in history, and these changes have
been almost entirely due to the work of scientists and technolo-
gists all over the world. They have not only affected the way of
living of all civilized peoples but have also vastly increased our
knowledge about ourselves, the earth we live on, and the uni-
verse around us. I cannot emphasize too much that the sum
total of scientific knowledge and technological progress is an
international achievement to which every civilized country has
made some contribution.

And now before considering the contribution of the British
Commonwealth, I should like to sketch what appear to a lay-
man like myself to have been the main influences on the course
of scientific and technical achievement since 1851 and their
relation to one another.

The great stimulus of the 1851 Exhibition created a growing
interest in technical education and research, followed by a
widening of the scientific horizon which was soon to find expres-
sion in borderline subjects. For the next fifty years science
advanced rapidly, but in most fields there was a wide gap
between science and industry. Electricity was an exception and
the groundwork was already being laid for the electrical revolu-

10

tion of the Victorian age. Medicine was on the verge of breaking
away from medieval practice and taking the first steps towards
its modern pattern, while British colonial development stimu-
lated the study of tropical disease.

Between 1851 and 1870 practice, in many industries, was
ahead of science, and in that period the large number of inven-
tions of the industrial revolution were progressively improved
and widely applied. These inventions, which added so much to
our industrial production, were mainly the work of British
genius. They were of great economic advantage to this country
and were quickly exploited commercially. New factories and
plants were built to include the very latest ideas, and with the
expansion of industry came the demand for more and more new
ideas and greater efficiency. This demand was a direct stimulus
to technological invention as well as an indirect stimulus to
science. We are still struggling with the social results of this vast
expansion.

From 1870 to 1890 the high- water mark of British industrial
expansion, as compared with other countries, had been reached
and the competition of the United States and Europe was just
beginning to be felt. But the lack of serious competition hitherto
had bred a feeling of over-confidence and satisfaction in the
methods and processes employed. The result was a conservative
attitude towards technical change and, particularly in the older
industries, neglect of scientific research. Accumulation of wealth
and the income from foreign investments in any case made the
country as a whole less dependent on the efficiency of her in-
dustries. Concurrently a subtle change occurred in the type of
British exports. So far the products of our machinery, such as
rails and rolling-stock, had been shipped abroad for immediate
use, but now machines themselves were exported to do their
work in the factories of Europe and America instead of in
Britain. The result of this was to intensify foreign industrial
competition between 1890 and 1914, but with the increasing
demands from the Colonies the volume of British exports was
not greatly affected.

ii

Then came the critical years of the First World War bringing
a realization of the part science must play in the industrial and
military strength of the nation. For the first time in history a
real attempt was made to enlist the services of science in the
war effort and the Department of Scientific and Industrial
Research was founded to further the application of science in
industry through government laboratories and research asso-
ciations.

The effects of these measures appeared clearly in the inter-
war years when there was a marked swing of education from
classics towards science. Coupled with this the war had directed
the attention of many research scientists to practical objectives
so that after the war there was a rapid expansion of industrial
research. Scientific progress was no longer confined to the work
of a few brilliant individuals, but came also from teams of
research scientists each working on different parts of the same
problem. It was during this period that many new commercial
research laboratories grew up, employing scientists to discover
new processes and materials connected with their industry as a
direct weapon of competition.

The war had also shown a great weakness in our dependence
on foreign production for many vital articles, such as dyestuffs,
scientific instruments, and optical glass, in the manufacture of
which scientific research played an essential part. This weakness
was remedied with the help of the Key Industry Import Duties
which gave the necessary support and encouragement to the
establishment of these industries at home.

It is true that manufacturers in some of the older industries
still clung to traditional methods in spite of the pressure of com-
petition from America and other countries. And in this con-
nexion it is significant that the history of production engineering
after 1890 is almost entirely confined to the United States.

It was, however, a period of rapid development in Britain.
The invention of the internal-combustion engine and the pneu-
matic tire had opened new branches of industrial engineering,
and the demand for fuel for motor-cars and aircraft gave birth

12

to the new technology of oil. In the electrical, chemical, and
aircraft industries, science was fully enlisted in the fields of
electronics, synthetic fibres, plastics, aerodynamics, and light
alloys. Consequently the outbreak of war in 1939 found us in a
much stronger position to meet the immense demands it made
on all branches of technology for new gadgets, machines, and
weapons. From the outset science in all its forms and branches
was harnessed and completely co-ordinated with the war effort.
It was only the intimate partnership of science and engineer-
ing with the staffs of the Fighting Services that enabled us to
meet swiftly and effectively the ever-changing menace of total
war.

The tremendous demands on our industries had some good
after-effects. Once again these demands revealed weaknesses
where our industrial capacity was out of date. The realization
of this has initiated comprehensive reconstruction on most
modern lines. The almost complete absence of income from our
foreign investments has forced us to rely once more on our
capacity to make the goods the world requires. Our industry
and productivity have shown a wonderful improvement, but
there is still a lot more that can be done. The rate at which
scientific knowledge is being applied in many industries is too
small and too slow. Our physical resources have dwindled, but
the intellectual capacity of our scientists and engineers is as
great as ever and it is upon their ingenuity that our future
prosperity largely depends.

The Contribution

I would now like to make a brief survey of the British contri-
bution to natural knowledge and technology and pay a tribute
to some of the great men of science of the last hundred years.

In some branches almost the whole story can be told since
one problem after another has been solved by British scientists.
In others there are many blanks and gaps where the vital links
in the chain were forged abroad. But looking at the whole vast
field of abstract and practical science there can be no doubt

13

that during this period the contribution of the British Com-
monwealth has been of outstanding importance.

Our knowledge of the stars, the heavens, and our place in the
universe has increased steadily through the centuries, but since
1851 some of the most important links were supplied by such
men as Eddington, Jeans, and Milne in their work on mass,
luminosity, and stellar evolution. Huggins made a great contri-
bution with his application of spectrum analysis to astronomy,
and Lockyer's discovery of helium in the sun had a significance
far beyond the realms of astrophysics.

Coming nearer to the earth, the work of Abercromby and
Shaw on the behaviour of the earth's atmosphere in the tropo-
sphere started the scientific study of weather and weather pre-
diction, and Appleton's research into the ionosphere extended
this to the upper air.

Chemistry has fascinated man from the earliest times, and
vast progress has been made in the last hundred years both in
knowledge and theory. Much fresh ground was broken by
Crookes by his work on spectra, his discovery of thallium and of
'radiant matter' known later as cathode rays. Long after every-
one was quite sure of the composition of the air, Rayleigh found
another ingredient which he called argon and so started the
hunt for other inert gases. In organic chemistry both Perkin and
Robinson have added enormously to our knowledge of the struc-
ture of carbon compounds, and to our power to copy natural
products synthetically. The development of X-ray analysis by
the two Braggs, father and son, has given us a means of finding
the actual arrangement of the atoms in the molecule and has
revealed the accuracy of the chemists' conclusions about the
architecture of molecules based on their reactions with one
another. This is a most striking example of the power of the
theoretical and practical scientist to penetrate nature's secrets.

Going beyond the chemist and his molecules we come to the
physicist and the study of even smaller particles. Thomson's dis-
covery of the nature of the electron was the first attack upon the
integrity of the atom. Next, thanks to Rutherford's brilliant

research and keen intuition, came the nuclear theory which
revolutionized our ideas of matter. To prove it, he was the first
man to succeed in the transmutation of an element. It is appro-
priate to mention Moseley's work on the X-ray spectra of the
elements, as it already showed such great promise, before he was
killed at Gallipoli.

Parallel with this activity in the physical sciences there oc-
curred a technological revolution of even greater scope and
variety. The Darbys of Coalbrookdale were the lineal ancestors
of Bessemer, Thomas, and Siemens, and the whole technology
of metals. First cheap cast iron followed by cheap steel, then
steel from phosphatic ores, completely changed the materials
available to engineers, shipbuilders, and architects. Scientific
metallurgy can be said to have started when Sorby first applied
a microscope to the surface of metals. The way was opened for
the investigation of the metallic alloys which came in quick
succession from developments in which Hadfield and Rosenhain
made outstanding contributions.

It was not long before the possibilities of these new materials
were recognized, and the great majority of the mechanical
developments of the period were due to new alloys which could
withstand higher stresses. But before these materials could be
fully used, Maudsley and Whitworth had to lay the founda-
tions of production engineering, and Mushet had to do pioneer
work in developing tungsten steel as the first high-speed cutting
tool.

The reciprocating steam engine of the industrial revolution
was the main source of power until Parsons invented the steam
turbine, which revolutionized large-scale power production on
land and sea. But that was not the only source of power to rival
the push-and-pull engine. The internal-combustion engine, in
which Dugald Clerk and Ackroyd-Stuart were among the early
pioneers, has proved to be a formidable challenger in many
fields. In marine engineering, Froude's work on hull forms and
propellers enabled the full benefit of the new prime movers to
be reaped at sea.

15

Here I wish I could mention early British pioneers of motor
vehicles but, as is well known, restrictive legislation drove the
development of the motor-car abroad, until the repeal of the
speed limit in 1903 gave scope to the genius of Royce, Lan-
chester, and Ricardo. In place of the motor-car, however, we
have Lawson to thank for the invention of the safety bicycle;
and all wheeled vehicles, except those running on rails, owe
their rapid development to Dunlop's invention of the pneu-
matic tyre. The material required for this started the vast
natural and synthetic rubber industry, and has made famous the
name of Wickham for a brilliant feat of smuggling, when he
brought the rubber seeds from Brazil to Kew, from which
sprang the rubber plantation industry of the east.

In flying, the names of the pioneers and their feats are legion,
and more than in any other mechanical science the develop-
ment of aerodynamics has been shared by many nations, but
Lanchester's vortex theory was one of the stepping-stones to
powered flight, and the achievement of Alcock and Brown in
making the first Atlantic flight in 1919 speaks highly for the
tremendous scientific and technological background of flying
in this country. Of outstanding importance and consequence
was the genius which Mitchell brought to aircraft design, and,
more recently, Whittle's pioneer work has given us the lead in
jet-engine production both for civil and military use.

Following on the immense progress in metallurgy and mechan-
ical engineering, the most far-reaching development of the
period has been that of electricity and electronics. Although the
key discovery belongs to Faraday in an earlier period, the second
founder of the science is undoubtedly Clerk Maxwell, with his
classic treatise on electro-magnetism. The use of electricity for
domestic and industrial pui poses was helped by Wilde's de-
velopment of the dynamo and then by Swan's incandescent
lamps. Wheatstone and Kelvin pioneered the use of electricity
for communication by their work on line and cable telegraphy.
Wireless telegraph soon followed and the work on tuned circuits
by Lodge, and Marconi's many brilliant developments made in

16

this country with the General Post Office and the Navy, soon
made radio a practical proposition. Heaviside and Appleton
made further contributions on the propagation of radio waves.
It is interesting to see that the technique used by Appleton in
his pulse-ranging on the ionosphere and upper layers was later
developed by Watson- Watt into radar which is now almost
indispensable to airmen and seamen all over the world. And
here Randall's development of the magnetron for high-fre-
quency radar was one of the major contributions to the Allies'
equipment for war.

Television has a wide parentage, but Baird's name will always
be linked with the first successful pictures.

Another great innovation of this hundred years was the dis-
covery and development of plastic and synthetic materials.
The story starts with Parke's discovery of celluloid and Cross
and Sevan's manufacture of viscose, which gave birth to the
rayon industry and the many later types of synthetic fibre.
Perkin's mauve, first of the aniline dyes, and Kipping's new sili-
con compounds were, however, disregarded by industry in this
country. But we see today a change of heart in the development
in our industrial laboratories of two new plastics, perspex and
polythene, with almost an unlimited range of applications in
the air, on the ground, and at sea.

The effect all this has had upon the citizen varies naturally
with where and how he lives, but basically it has given him
reliable light and heat in his home, push-button communica-
tion with almost any part of the world, and home entertainment
of a high quality. His transport on land, at sea, and in the air
is quick, comfortable, and clean. In addition he has a vast range
of materials with which to clothe himself and to furnish and
embellish his home. Almost more important, these developments
have brought about a complete change in his conditions of work.

But if the citizen has benefited, so too has science from the great
array of new techniques that have been invented, and the new
tools with which the scientist and technologist can burrow, hack,
and worry at the growing mountain of problems to be solved.

17 c

So far I have dealt with the physical sciences. Now I would
like to turn briefly to the biological and psychological sides,
which after a slow beginning in this country have made in-
creasingly rapid progress.

The whole field of biological science in this period is over-
shadowed by the works of Darwin presented in his Origin of
Species and The Descent of Man. Nothing has done so much to
widen man's thoughts as his conception of evolution as the great
law controlling living things, 'that progress comes from unceasing
competition, through increasing selection and rejection 5 .

In the basic study of living things some of the most important
contributions from this country were the pioneer work of
Francis Galton and William Bateson in the field of heredity,
Sherrington's work on the integrative action of the nervous
system, and Dale's and Adrian's contributions to our knowledge
of the transmission of nervous impulses.

The science of biochemistry is relatively new and Gowland
Hopkins was its founder in this country. His discovery of the
significance of accessory food factors, leading up to the recogni-
tion of vitamins, started the modern science of nutrition. Other
landmarks were Bayliss and Starling's recognition of the part
played by hormones in the blood-stream, followed by Banting
and Best's isolation of insulin, and Harington's synthesis of
thyroxin here in Edinburgh.

Fleming working on mould cultures discovered the anti-
bacterial properties of penicillin, and later Florey and Chain, at
Oxford, found that penicillin could be extracted in a highly
purified form, and used it to treat human disease.

Modern surgery can be said to have been born in Scotland
with Simpson's discovery of the use of chloroform as an anaes-
thetic and Lister's antiseptic technique based on Pasteur's
bacteriological discoveries. A further advance of the greatest
value to surgery as a science was Macewen's aseptic technique
which made surgery clean and safe, followed by his classic work
on the brain and spinal cord.

If Lister was the father of modern surgery, then Manson was

18

the father of tropical medicine, and it is particularly in this field
that the British contribution has led the world. The discovery
by Ross that malaria is carried by the anopheles mosquito and,
much later, the work of Fairley in Australia on its prevention
and cure have been of the greatest benefit to mankind. Bruce
will always be remembered for his discovery of the part played
by the deadly tsetse-fly in the transmission of sleeping-sickness
and his work on Malta fever. Finlay, Adrian Stokes, and Hindle
stand high among the names linked with the study and preven-
tion of yellow fever.

These were all vital efforts towards the prevention of sickness,
but there is another aspect of medical practice in which the
Commonwealth has taken a leading part the promotion of
health. It was Sir John Simon, the first Medical Officer ap-
pointed to a central authority, who made a careful statistical
study of the causes of sickness, with a view to taking effective
measures for the health of the community at large. Through his
leadership health services have been provided in regular stages
throughout the country. At first these were largely aimed at
providing pure water, effective sanitation, and the abolition of
slums ; but since the beginning of the present century the per-
sonal health services, especially in the case of mothers, babies,
and school children, have become national in scope and lead
the world.

There are two other fields in which the biological sciences
play a major part. The first is in the preservation of food and in
nutrition which has had the most profound economic, and social,
effects. The ability through freezing, drying, and canning to
import large quantities of food has enabled a rapidly increasing
population to maintain and increase its standards of living,
which would have been impossible had it been dependent on
British agriculture alone. The scientific study of nutrition has
made it possible to improve the health of the population and in
war to feed the people with the minimum of waste.

Mort had the first freezing works in the world at Sydney, and
was a pioneer in refrigeration, but success in transporting meat

19

to Britain had to wait for the development of more reliable
refrigerating plant. Since 1918 the Food Investigation Labora-
tories of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research,
of which Sir William Hardy was the first director, have estab-
lished the basic biological knowledge on which the storage and
transport of meat, fish, and fruit arc now largely based.

The second field is in agriculture, where in order to compete
with cheap foreign foods the most successful farmer is one who
enlists the full assistance of science. Lawes, who discovered how
to make and use superphosphate, and started the great fertilizer
industry, was quick to realize this. He founded Rothamsted,
now the oldest agricultural research station in the world, and
there he and Gilbert carried out the first scientifically controlled
field experiments which laid the foundation of agricultural
science. Later, BifTcn's pioneer work in plant breeding at Cam-
bridge became one of the greatest contributions to the problem
of feeding the world's growing population. He showed how it
was possible to breed strains of wheat combining resistance to
disease with high yields and good milling properties. In the field
of animal breeding, the foundation of the most important aspect
of British agriculture today, I will mention amongst the many
investigators only Cossar Ewart and Crew who did so much to
advance its scientific study here in Edinburgh. The mechaniza-
tion which was to revolutionize farming in all parts of the world
was also under way and Britain was playing a leading part. The
reaping machine, for instance, was invented by Patrick Bell in
1826 although it was not manufactured until 1853.

There is no need to point out the effect which all these im-
provements, discoveries, and inventions have had on society.
It is this group of biological sciences which have had the most
far-reaching social results, and it is particularly during and
since the last war that it has been possible to exploit them.

There is one science which I have not yet mentioned. It is
both the youngest science and the oldest problem. The study
of man's mind was the province of the philosopher until the
middle of the nineteenth century, when it separated from him

20

and began its independent existence as the science of psychology.
The foundations were not laid in this country, but important
contributions were made, both from the biological and the
philosophical sides, by men like Ferrier, Bain, and Ward. Sully's
work on child psychology was the first of its kind. But probably
the most outstanding figure in this country was Galton, whose
teaching is widely respected in all psychological laboratories,
and who was the first to develop an interest in the mental dif-
ferences between individuals a field in which British psychology
has made some of its greatest contributions. Again it is only
recently that full practical advantage is being taken of the pro-
gress made in this branch of science, but the results of that
application may be as important as the many more easily under-
stood developments in the purely physical world.

The Implications

The story of the British contribution to science in the past
century is indeed impressive and I am very pleased to have this
opportunity to pay tribute to the men whose achievements I
have been discussing. But this story would not be complete
without studying the wider implications of their work and ex-
amining some of the lessons to be learnt from it.

The concrete measurement and indirect effect of all scientific
effort is the general improvement in the condition in which
people live and work, it is in the improvement in health, in the
expectation of life and standards of living. The latter, including
not only food and clothing, but housing, home comforts, medi-
cal care, education, books and newspapers, recreations, and
travel facilities. In every one of these directions the progress that
has been made has amounted to a revolution.

Not all this springs directly from science and invention.
Much has been due to the politicians and administrators, and
behind them to religion, morals, education, art, and the com-
plex influences which we call culture. But even there science has
stood beside the authors of progress to advise, to help, and some-
times to guide.

21

Now as science and technology are so vital to the future
strength and prosperity of the British Commonwealth, the great
problem is to discover the conditions under which they are most
likely to flourish. The records show that both depend very much
on co-operation, and upon the linking up of a long chain of
discoveries, one with another; so that it is quite exceptional for
the credit of a great advance to belong to one man or even to
one country, although it will always require the flash of inspira-
tion to weld the links into the chain. Today the development of
teamwork in laboratories has made this truer than ever. For
many reasons, but principally because of the increasing com-
plexity of research and its cost, such teamwork is becoming
more and more the rule. We need not repine at this but it would
be a disaster if the individual inquirer working in his own
laboratory were discouraged out of existence.

While the quality of scientific work is determined by the
quality of the scientist, the quantity of scientific output is deter-
mined by the money available. The rapid progress of science in
Britain has owed much to the growing support and sympathy
of government and individual benefactors and to the endow-
ment of research by industrial corporations. However, the basic
discoveries that mark the great advances depend on the acci-
dent of individual genius and are not at our command.

The scope and intensity of the progress of applied science and
technology, on the other hand, bear a close relationship to the
circumstances of the time. Technology, as the combination of
scientific knowledge with the practical ability of the inventor to
apply that knowledge to the solution of particular problems,
comes into play with any new discovery of scientific fact. The
latest particle of truth is then developed, according to the cir-
cumstances of the time for military, commercial, or medico-
social purposes. It is a sad reflection that the urgent demands of
modern war can produce advances that might otherwise take
many years to develop, especially in the costly and uncertain
experimental stages.
The rivalry between large commercial undertakings, using

22

science to improve their products or processes as a direct means
of competition, has produced a steady flow of improvements
and developments. However, the fruits of this form of scientific
work are sometimes open to considerable misuse. The discover-
ies of these commercial laboratories may be kept secret and in
some cases a number of teams may be working on the same prob-
lem, which may have already been solved elsewhere. The buying
up and suppression of patents and discoveries to protect equip-
ment from becoming obsolete has also been known to happen.
I am glad to see, however, a change of outlook in the growing
quantity of publication of the results of industrial research.

It would seem that science has become so well established that
nothing can stand in the way of its natural growth. This is far
from the truth. Since the earliest times the natural conservatism
of laymen has acted as a powerful brake to the adoption of
new ideas which do not rigidly conform to his notion of the
correct order of things. In its most violent form it will pro-
duce unreasoning anger, utter disbelief in face of the clearest
evidence, or provoke plain ordinary laughter. The storm raised
by Darwin's Origin of Species is an excellent example where
even scientists failed to keep an open mind.

The position seems better today, and I am sure that Sir
Harold Hartley, our immediate past President, spoke for all
scientists when he said :

Today, with our greater understanding, there is humility in the
minds of all scientists. The further we penetrate into Nature's secrets
the more clearly we see the ever-receding frontiers of knowledge.

The resistance towards anything new or unexpected is bal-
anced on the other hand by bursts of enthusiasm that some par-
ticular discovery or invention will see the end of all our troubles.
The belief in the philosopher's stone seems to be just as great
as ever.

As the front of pure science has advanced so its lines of
communication to practical exploitation have got longer and
longer. The time was when the whole process of discovery,
application, and exploitation could be achieved by one man.

23

In our time a great army of scientists, technicians, inventors,
designers, and production engineers are required to keep the
lines of communication open. Quite how important some of the
members of this follow-up team have become is not always
appreciated. In his presidential address in 1948 Sir Henry
Tizard emphasized this point when he said :

All depends on good design and production. Our weakness in the
war was not to be found in what was best to do, nor in the scientific
work of how to do it. It was when the stage of design and production
was reached that we fell short of the best standards.

This was true already when Whitworth invented the screw
micrometer, which was subsequently put into production in
Germany and the United States and up to the 1914 war all
micrometers had to be imported into this country.

To Professor Kipping of Nottingham goes the credit for the
basic work which led to the development of siliconcs in Russia
and the United States and yet until this year we have been
dependent on imports from America of marketable silicone
products.

There arc many cases in the Navy where a piece of apparatus
has been used operationally exactly as the inventor put it
together, with all the resulting disadvantages in maintenance
and efficient operation. The limitation in performance, except
in some cases, is practical as opposed to scientific. Where the
basic scientific principles are known by all nations the advan-
tage lies in the good design of equipment for practical use.

A more general and far-reaching matter for concein and
possibly the most vital factor affecting the industrial application
of scientific research is the lack of a co-ordinated system of
scientific and technological education in this country. Excellent
as they are, the existing institutions, which have grown up to
meet particular circumstances, do not produce anything like
enough trained technologists to meet the urgent needs of scien-
tific development in industry and to provide leaders for the
future. It is to be hoped that the new and rather uncertain

24

science of education will develop sufficiently quickly to point
the way to a speedy solution of this problem.

The shortage in Britain of 'personnel trained and eager to
apply scientific knowledge and scientific methods to practical
ends' as Sir Ewart Smith said last year is only one of the
many shortages which the world is now facing. Among them
are food, non-ferrous metals, steel alloy metals, and sulphur.
These very shortages are due to the scientific complexity of
present-day life and it is only by science that they can be over-
come. Naturally there are many ways of tackling this problem;
but the most obvious are firstly by improved design to secure
economy in production and the minimum use of scarce materials.
Secondly by the development of substitutes made from raw
materials which are still abundant. Thirdly by the reclamation
of scrap and improved methods of using low-grade ores. Finally
the development of renewable raw materials such as timber to
satisfy the world demand for cellulose. Some of these shortages
are partly due to the huge inevitable waste of war and its
consequences, and partly to the lack of any comprehensive
survey of the world's resources and requirements. It is only by
an accurate knowledge of the world's resources that we can
foresee the scope and magnitude of the future problems that
science and technology have to meet and that only they can solve.

It is, therefore, good news that the Economic and Social
Council of the United Nations has resolved 'to promote the
systematic survey and inventory' of those resources which are
not already covered by the Food and Agriculture Organization.

We have evolved a civilization based on the material benefits
which science and technology can provide. The present short-
ages are a timely reminder of the slender material foundation
on which our civilization rests and of our dependence upon
science and technology.

The Conclusion

The pursuit of truth in itself cannot produce anything evil.
It is in the later stage when the facts dug up enter the process

25

of application that the choice between the beneficent and de-
structive development has to be made. It is quite certain that it
is an exception if any particular discovery cannot be used
equally well for good and evil purposes. Happily the beneficent
exploitation of scientific knowledge has kept pace with its
destructive application.

In a mid-century article The Times put it this way :

... It has been an age of great achievement. The lines of progress
in which the Victorians trusted have been pursued farther and faster
than they foresaw. Scientific discovery, from which above all their
doctrines of progress derived, has swept forward on an enormous
front. The conquest of the air has made possible an intercourse and
understanding between distant peoples such as our ancestors could
not imagine and it has been diverted to the vast destruction of men
and cities. The invention of wireless telephony has opened a channel
through which liberating truths might be proclaimed to all the
listening earth and every would-be despot has used it to suborn
the blind masses into the worship of false gods. The medical art has
performed miracles; the cures of immemorial pestilences have been
found, infancy has been safeguarded and old age tended, so that the
normal expectation of life has been extended by years aside from
the new and universal apprehension of sudden death.

To my mind it is vital that the two sides of scientific develop-
ment are fully and clearly understood, not only by the research
scientist, inventor, designer, and the whole scientific team, but
also by all laymen. The instrument of scientific knowledge in
our hands is growing more powerful every day, indeed it has
reached a point when we can cither set the world free from
drudgery, fear, hunger, and pestilence or obliterate life itself.

Progress in almost every form of human activity depends
upon the continued efforts of scientists. The nation's wealth and
prosperity are governed by the rapid application of science to
its industries and commerce. The nation's workers depend upon
science for the maintenance and improvement in their standard
of health, housing, and food. Finally, superiority or even our
ability to survive in war is a direct measure of the excellence
and capacity of the scientific team.

26

This team of research workers and engineers has a dual
responsibility, one for its work and the other as informed
citizens, and it can only fulfil its proper functions if its members
have a sound general education as well as a thorough training
in science. It is no less important that the people who control
the scientific machine, both laymen and scientists, should have
a proper understanding and appreciation of what science has
grown into and its place among the great forces of the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is clearly our duty as citizens to
see that science is used for the benefit of mankind. For, of what
use is science if man does not survive?

Visit to Canada

13 OCTOBER 195 I

Reply to Toast as Guest of Honour at Luncheon

given by the Toronto Board of Trade at the Royal

York Hotel, Toronto

I have a few words here which I prepared beforehand do not
worry, you are going to get them but before I start I just want
to say how overwhelmed we have been by the tremendous hos-
pitality shown to us wherever we have been in Canada these
last few days. I cannot hope to put into words what I feel about
it but I do want to thank everybody for making us feel so much
at home here.

27

Before leaving England I made some inquiries about com-
merce and science in Canada. I was overwhelmed by the help-
fulness of the High Commissioner's Office with every sort and
kind of information. Reading the material I was struck by the
insistence that Canada was a young country full of promise.
Meaning no disrespect to the Canadian who wrote this, I would
beg to differ.

To me youth means the absence of history or background, a
catalogue of untapped resources, and in culture and science a
reliance upon others for original thought. But coupled with this
statement that Canada is a young country was a series of ac-
counts of achievements in every branch of national life which
would make many an older country feel proud.

Youth means inexperience and lack of judgement, and an
inability to look after one's own affairs. I do not see how these
descriptions can be made to fit a nation that drove a railroad
through the Rockies, developed the prairies, and exploited the
vast natural resources of timber, oil, and water power, and is
steadily pushing the last frontier northward. The Chalk River
project alone implies a considerable scientific background which
is certainly lacking in many long-established nations. Indeed
one does not have to look very hard for the achievements of
Canadian scientists. At the University of Toronto here Profes-
sors Banting and Best developed insulin which means life to
diabetics, and at McGill University new hope for those suffering
from certain nervous diseases is offered at the Neurological
Institute headed by Dr. Penfield.

But perhaps more important than the individual triumphs is
the unique and very sensible organization of science in Canada.
From the National and Provincial Research Councils through
the associate committees a simple and effective pattern exists
for getting problems to the right research worker and the right
answer back to the people who need it. It is also quite evident
that the work of the research laboratories, whether they deal
with metallurgy, wood-pulp, agricultural machinery, or forestry,
is second to none in the world.

28

To my mind the most important evidence that Canada is no
longer a young country, although, I hasten to add, still full of
youthful energy, is the publication of the Royal Commission's
Report on the national development in the Arts, Letters, and
Sciences. This report is a remarkable attempt to find out exactly
what is present and what is lacking in the national culture. It
does not try to hide the fact that there is a great deal which is
missing, but the fact that this report was written at all implies
that it will not be missing for long. It is this consciousness of
individuality and determined independence which is the hall-
mark of a successful nation.

In the old days this independence could only have been won
by armed force, but here it has been accomplished by something
far stronger and more lasting. It has been accomplished by the
living certainty in the minds and hearts of all Canadians that
the way of life which you have evolved is full and satisfying and
well suited to the conditions under which you live and work.
Above all, this has been achieved alongside the parallel develop-
ment and the powerful influence of the friendly giant at the
South Door. It is easy enough to withstand the influence of an
unfriendly neighbour, but in your case both countries developed
with the same ideals and traditions. That you have maintained
your own identity and have not been overwhelmed by kindness
is a remarkable achievement.

For all this peace at home, the Armed Forces have built a
tradition of courage and determination, not in the emotionally
charged atmosphere of the immediate defence of their homes,
but in unselfish service far from home for the freedom of others.
In the British Isles the Canadian Army will always be remem-
bered for the security they gave when invasion threatened and
the gallantry displayed in the fighting in Italy and north
Europe. I can speak from personal experience as I was serving
in a destroyer off the beaches at Sicily when the Canadian
Division landed there in 1943.

Young men from every part of the Commonwealth, and
indeed the world, will remember their period of training in

29

Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training plan,
which is a monument of what we can do when we get together.
The people of Europe have not forgotten the part played by
Canadian airmen in bringing them freedom from tyranny.

Naval warfare is seldom spectacular, and convoy duty is
especially dull, but I can assure you that anti-submarine war-
fare in the North Atlantic is not for beginners; but that was the
cradle of the Royal Canadian Navy.

These martial traditions, the history and culture, the scientific
and commercial achievements, prove to me that this is a
flourishing nation with a lot to look back on with pride, a
present which compares very favourably with any other country,
and a future which is a challenge to all that is best in the
Canadian character.

6

First Meeting of the Coronation Commission
5 MAY 1952

Statement as Chairman

My Lords and Gentleman,

First, as Chairman, welcome to the first meeting of the
Coronation Commission. There is a tremendous amount of
work to be done, so the sooner we get down to it the better.

The Coronation of Her Majesty the Queen is to take place in
Westminster Abbey on Tuesday, the 2nd June, 1953.

Her Majesty has been pleased to appoint us as a Commission
to consider those aspects both of the Coronation Service itself
and of the attendant ceremonial which are of equal interest to
all the member countries of the Commonwealth of which Her
Majesty is Sovereign.

30

Speaking at the Imperial Conference of 1937, which opened
immediately after the Coronation of His Late Majesty King
George VI, Mr. Mackenzie King said :

Those who participated in the Coronation of the King and Queen
must have been impressed by the blending of tradition and adapta-
bility to new needs and new occasions which characterized that
impressive service. It was marked by the continuing use of ritual and
words and symbols which were ancient when the New World lands
represented here were undiscovered and unknown, but it was marked
also by the recognition of new political facts and constitutional
relationships brought into being by the change and growth of the
past generation and recorded in the Imperial Conferences of recent
years.

A similar Commission was set up in 1937 in preparation for
the Coronation of His Late Majesty but its membership was
limited to the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zea-
land, and South Africa. The new political facts and constitu-
tional relationships to which Mr. Mackenzie King referred are
responsible for our present membership which has been enlarged
by the addition of representatives of Pakistan and Ceylon, both
of which have during recent years attained the status of equal
and independent partners in the Commonwealth.

I now refer to Item 2 on the Agenda.

You will, I think, all agree that there are many problems
which might conveniently be examined in detail in committee
before they are brought before this Commission. I therefore
propose that a committee should be set up by the Commission
and that this might suitably be called, as before, the Coronation
Joint Committee. I have already caused to be circulated to
members of the Commission a list of those who the Commission
will probably consider should be appointed to the Committee.
As you will have seen, I propose that the Duke of Norfolk, as
Earl Marshal, should be Chairman of this Coronation Joint
Committee, and that Sir Robert Knox should be Secretary.

The traditional authority in the United Kingdom for order-
ing the arrangements for the Coronation is the Coronation

Committee of the Privy Council. This has not yet been formed
but will be set up, so I understand, during the next few weeks.
There will also, in accordance with tradition, be a Coronation
Executive Committee appointed by the Coronation Committee
of the Privy Council. The United Kingdom members of the
Coronation Joint Committee are expected to form the Corona-
tion Executive Committee. In this way the work of the Corona-
tion Commission and the Coronation Committee of the Privy
Council will be co-ordinated.

If the Commission approve these appointments then the Joint
Committee will be able to start very soon its examination of the
various questions which arise.

There is one general aspect of the matter to which I should
like to refer. I am informed that, at the last Coronation, the
proposals of the Commission and Committees, though not by
any means extravagant, were framed without specific regard
to costs. Costs have mounted since 1937 and I am sure that in
our present economic circumstances it would be the wish of the
Commission that the Joint Committee, in framing their detailed
recommendations, should have due regard to financial con-
siderations.

7

Opening of the Braille Centenary
1 1 JUNE 1952

Today we commemorate the death one hundred years ago of
one of mankind's great benefactors, Louis Braille, whose in-
vention of embossed type has given a new sense to blind people
all over the world. This blind young Frenchman will be
honoured next week in his native land by the re-interment of
his ashes in the Pantheon, the resting-place of immortals.

32

Like all great inventions the idea of Braille is simple, but it
needed the practical genius of Dr. Thomas Rhodes Armitage,
the Caxton of embossed type, to exploit the idea for the benefit
of all blind people. Dr. Armitage was also the founder of the
National Institute in whose headquarters we are now assembled,
and whose presses last year alone produced over eighty thousand
Braille volumes and pamphlets of literature and music and over
half a million Braille periodicals.

The bond of friendship between nations which Braille and
Armitage were instrumental in creating extends now not simply
across the Channel, but across the Seven Seas. There is a sense
of kinship between blind people which ignores national boun-
daries, and the tie of that kinship is Braille. Braille as a means
of reading and writing, as a method of education, as a music
notation, as utilized in scientific appliances and domestic
gadgets, has made the effort to conquer blindness an inter-
national crusade and thereby sown a potent seed of understand-
ing and goodwill between nations.

We see here today illustrations of the early struggles of self-
devoted men, both blind and sighted, to break down the barriers
which have surrounded blind people for thousands of years.

When we come to the work of men like Louis Braille and
Dr. Armitage, we see the first signs of success, and it is a
remarkable fact that most of the major services to the blind
have come from within the blind community, from men who
have themselves been blind Louis Braille, Dr. Armitage, Dr.
Moon, Sir Francis Campbell, Sir Arthur Pearson, Ben Purse,
and Sir Beachcroft Towse, V.C.

But in remembering these famous blind men, we must not
forget the selfless, unweary work of the seeing the men and
women who have devoted their lives to their blind comrades,
and who are exemplified in the voluntary Braillists who have
built up, by laborious work, the twenty thousand volumes which
now constitute the Institute's Students' Library, and in the
scientists, who are always urging Braille and kindred matters
towards new prospects.

33 D

Consider, now, from a practical point of view, what Braille
has actually accomplished in the world of the blind. This
Exhibition illustrates its influence in many directions how it
has spread knowledge and culture and the ability to enjoy,
appreciate, and create works of literary and musical beauty and
worth; how it has enabled people to overcome the daily difficul-
ties of living without eyesight in a seeing world; how it has made
it possible for blind people to be independent, self-supporting
citizens, contributors to the national strength.

The National Institute publishes each month in letterpress
and Braille a magazine fittingly entitled The New Beacon. One
of its regular features is a chronicle of the current achievements
of blind people all over the world.

Every one of these achievements owes something to Braille,
and not the least to benefit is the seeing world, which can now
draw upon the intellect of blind people in a surprising number
of fields of human thought and endeavour.

Here are achievements of which any community might be
proud. And it may rightly be claimed that the greatest impetus
towards their accomplishment came from the vision and inven-
tive genius of the man who died, in early manhood and almost
unknown, in Paris, one hundred years ago.

I have pleasure in declaring open this Exhibition, held in
honour of the immortal name of Louis Braille.

34

8

Opening of the Affric Hydro-Electric Scheme at the
Fasnakyle Power Station

13 OCTOBER 1952

I am most grateful to you, Mr. Chairman, for asking me to be
present here today to witness the completion of this great
Hydro-Electric undertaking and the inauguration of the Fasna-
kyle Power House.

There were several reasons why I accepted your invitation,
not least was a wish to see for myself whether there was any
justification in the criticisms that the North of Scotland Hydro-
Electric Board was wantonly destroying the natural beauty
spots of the Highlands. From what I have seen this afternoon I
am entirely relieved of all anxiety on that score. Naturally there
are many scars left from the damming, tunnelling, and building
operations, but I have no doubt that these will disappear after a
few years. To suggest that the Power House alone destroys the
beauty of Glen Affric is being as fastidious as the fairy tale prin-
cess who could feel a pea under fifteen mattresses. I congratu-
late you on the success of your efforts to preserve the character
of this lovely part of the Highlands.

At the moment we are a poor nation struggling to make ends
meet, and, as we have frequently been told, our recovery
depends upon increased exports and reduced imports. The more
cheaply we can make goods for export, the more goods we shall
be able to sell abroad. To make goods cheaply, the manu-
facturer must have abundant power. Figures are often deceptive,
but it is an interesting fact that the average American worker
has between three and four times more horse-power at his elbow
than the corresponding worker in this country.

Although coal provides 94 per cent, of all the power con-
sumed in industry, it is becoming increasingly difficult to mine,

35

and more expensive. Alternative and cheaper sources of power
and more efficient production and use of power are absolutely
vital. Hydro-electricity is one alternative way and any new
extension should be welcomed as another step towards the
recovery of our prosperity. This scheme alone will save 150,000
tons of coal in a year.

There are many known ways of producing power and doubt-
less many new ones will be developed in the future, but there
can be no doubt that in whatever way we make our electricity
the basis of production must rest upon resources available in
this country.

The British Islands only produce enough of the essential
foods to feed less than half her population. Any increase in the
agricultural output allows a corresponding reduction in food
imports. Most of the good agricultural land is already farmed
intensively, but the hill farms of Scotland could do a great deal
better if they had the advantages of cheap electric power. It
cannot be cheap yet, but things should improve as more schemes
come into production.

It is encouraging to see the progress which the North of
Scotland Hydro-Electric Board has made in bringing electricity
to the people of the Highlands. Four and a half years ago one
farm in fourteen and one croft in 100 were connected to the
mains; the figures are now one in six, and when supplies have
been doubled, the figures will be one in three.

More power for industry and more power for agriculture, and
the price? Two dams which will soon merge into the background
and quite an attractive stone Power House. Imagine if coal
had been found under this ground !

Finally, may I congratulate all the men who had a hand in
bringing this scheme into existence. Surveyors, designers, archi-
tects, engineers, builders, miners, and labourers are all part of a
team who, I hope, are proud of a job well done and happy in
the knowledge that their work will be a great benefit to their
country.

Unveiling of the Extension to the Naval War
Memorial, Chatham

15 OCTOBER 1952

It is my privilege today to unveil this Memorial to the men of
the Royal Navy and Royal Marines who lost their lives in the
Second World War.

I am particularly proud to do this because like all of us who
served in the Navy during the War I lost many friends and
shipmates who are commemorated here. We have suffered a
great loss, but it is as nothing compared to the tragedies suffered
by the families of these men. They are the ones who deserve
sympathy and help, particularly from us, the lucky ones who
survived.

These men paid the greatest sacrifice and it was not in vain.
England remained inviolate and who is there here who would
not gladly give his life that England should stay free?

It is now our duty to work with all our strength to prevent
another war from shaking the world. Only in this way can we
really do honour to the courage and devotion of the men whose
names are inscribed on the panels of this Memorial.

The Imperial War Graves Commission are required by their
charters to mark and maintain the War Graves of all the
Commonwealth countries. In addition they are required to
commemorate name by name those to whom the fortunes of
war have denied the known and honoured burial of their com-
rades in death. This is the first of three great Memorials to be
erected at the home ports to Officers and Men of the Sea-
Services who have no other grave than the sea. In carrying out
this task, the Commission represents all the peoples of the
Commonwealth and Empire in paying tribute to the men and
women whose names are on these panels.

37

The names of 9,946 officers and men have been added to the
glorious company of 8,541 whose names are recorded here as
having lost their lives in the First World War.

You will see the naval battle honours of the recent war,
carved in the stone above the bronze name panels, names from
all over the world, from the River Plate to Narvik, from Crete
to St. Nazaire, and from the Pacific to the Barents Sea. Battles
too numerous to mention and actions without number. To
many of us they recall stirring memories when those we honour
today stood beside us to defend our homes and our neighbours
from oppression.

I am proud to unveil this Memorial to men and women who
loved their country and who loved the sea.

10

Ramsay Centenary Dinner
15 OCTOBER 1952

Toast 'The Immortal Memory of Sir William

Ramsay*

We are here tonight to do honour to the memory of a great
chemist, Sir William Ramsay, and there could be no more
appropriate setting for this gathering than University College
in which he did the work that made him famous.

It will be my privilege in a few moments to propose to you
the toast of the immortal memory of Sir William Ramsay, and

38

I do so with special pleasure as Ramsay not only made a great
permanent contribution to science, but few discoveries have
been so fruitful in widespread industrial application as that of
the rare gases of the atmosphere.

I am not a scientist and needless to say my knowledge of
Ramsay and his work was almost non-existent until a short
time ago. To the layman reading the story of Ramsay's work
for the first time there are several chapters which are most
revealing of the man's character and ability.

I find that the exact parts played by Lord Rayleigh and
Sir William Ramsay in the discovery of argon are a bit con-
fusing to unravel, but the character of both is clearly revealed
in their letters. This from Ramsay starts :

Dear Lord Rayleigh I have isolated the gas. Its density is 19-075
and it is not absorbed by magnesium.

And he ends up :

I should much like to talk to you about this. Are you going to be
at Oxford? [For the B.A. Meeting.] If so we will meet there. I did
not want to trespass on your preserves and yet I feel I have done so.

To which Rayleigh replied:

Dear Professor Ramsay I believe that I too have isolated the
gas, although in miserably small quantities.

And later:

As to publication. I had thought of giving at Oxford some definite
results of work (with urea etc.) undertaken to settle the question of
the unity of chemical nitrogen, and perhaps throwing in such results
as I have from the repetition of Cavendish. But it seems now so much
mixed up with your work as to be difficult or impossible to treat
separately. My own feeling is that the only solution is joint publica-
tion. Doubtless your last results go further than mine and are prob-
ably better established. But as you suggest the whole is founded
upon work which I had carried to a certain point and was continuing.

In answer Ramsay said:

To take the last part of your letter first, I think that joint publica-
tion would be the best course and I am much obliged to you for

39

suggesting it, for I feel that a lucky chance has made me able to get
Qin quantity (there are two other X's, so let us call it Qor Quid?)

Yours sincerely,
WILLIAM RAMSAY

No wonder he was popular with his students and fellow workers.

Their joint publication was received with a certain amount
of scepticism and generally speaking people did not take kindly
to the idea that a new element had been discovered. We pride
ourselves nowadays on being more open-minded, but even so
it does not prevent us from being rather slow at times to make
the best of scientific developments.

Using liquid air made in an apparatus devised by Dr.
Hampson, Ramsay, helped by Dr. Travers, who we are
delighted to see here tonight, succeeded in isolating neon,
krypton, and xenon. They also found from spectrographic
examination of an argon fraction that helium formed part of the
atmosphere. These results were final proof, if any were needed,
of Ramsay's remarkable ability as an experimental chemist.
This work was done before the turn of the century and although
there was no doubt about the importance of Ramsay's contribu-
tion to natural knowledge, there was no practical application
of their discovery whatever. However, since 1918, when argon
was manufactured commercially for the first time, more and
more uses have been found for the inert gases.

For many years argon was used almost entirely as a filling
for filament lamps and for glow discharge tubes. The presence
of argon in filament lamps slows down the evaporation of the
filament which can therefore be raised to a higher temperature
and so produces a brighter light than was possible with the
so-called vacuum lamp.

Recent advances in the metallurgical field, more particularly
in the manufacture, working, and welding of the more highly
reactive metals such as aluminium, magnesium, and now
titanium as well as stainless steels and even copper and nickel
and their alloys, have led to an increasing demand for sub-
stantially nitrogen-free argon as a blanketing gas.

40

The chief use for neon is well known, but it is also used for
detecting static electricity, in Geiger counters, thermometry,
leak detection, and fluorescent lighting.

Krypton and xenon have properties so similar to one another
that for most purposes it is unnecessary to separate the two
gases. They are used as a filling for filament lamps where they
are appreciably more effective than argon. On account of
the high cost, krypton is used as a lamp filling only in cases
where the maximum illumination is of the utmost importance
in relation to the available current supply, as in miners'
lamps.

An interesting and rather unexpected discovery about
krypton, and more particularly xenon, is that these gases are
effective and safe anaesthetics. It appears that these gases dis-
solve in the body fats where they displace oxygen and bring
about a state of anaesthesia.

In the field of therapeutics xenon has also been used in the
X-ray photography of the lungs.

As a result of researches, mainly carried out in the States,
helium has attained special importance in giving divers im-
munity from nitrogen narcosis. This is achieved by supplying
them with a mixture of helium and oxygen and in consequence
a diver at great depths can be kept clear-headed and mentally
alert throughout his task.

Other uses for helium would be too numerous to mention,
but it is perhaps interesting to note that it is one of the few
substances which do not absorb neutrons and can, therefore,
be used for cooling atomic piles.

From this brief outline it will be seen that these rare gases
whose very existence was unknown little more than half a
century ago and which, when isolated, remained for some
years merely scientific curiosities, have, within the last decade,
assumed considerable importance. It is certain that they are
destined to play an increasing role in industry and in the affairs
of men in the years to come.

In fact there is no better example of the value of fundamental

research in providing new tools for the scientist to use in un-
foreseen circumstances as new problems crop up. I have recently
had opportunities of visiting a number of research establishments
engaged in scientific work and that is exactly what is happen-
ing every tool is being used to solve everyday problems. Let
me give you a few examples. At Harwell I saw the production
of radioactive isotopes; today they are being used more and
more both in medicine and in medical research as well as in
industry. By earmarking, so to speak, particular materials, it is
possible to follow their movement and their transformations
quite easily, by radioactive measurements. In this way artificial
isotopes are throwing fresh light on such diverse fields as blast
furnaces, the distribution of phosphorus in steel, and on the wear
of piston rings and cylinders. They are used, too, in textile and
paper machinery to improve the quality of the product by
preventing the build-up of static electric charges.

At Teddington I saw germanium of the highest purity being
made in the Chemical Research Laboratory. The importance
of this lies in its use as a semi-conductor in transistors which are
being developed as substitutes for electronic valves with the
advantage, in their latest form, that they should have an almost
indefinite life.

Then at Farnborough I saw a new application of plastics in
the construction of future aeroplanes. An ingenious new form
of wing structure has been designed in which plastics can be
used as a substitute for metals, and obviously there are many
applications in other forms of engineering structures. This was
only made possible by the scientific study of the properties of
plastics which forms the background of the new design.

These are but brief examples of similar work which is going
on all the time in the laboratories of the United Kingdom, and
every one is an example of the practical application of known
scientific facts or techniques.

Sir William Ramsay died in 1916. He had worked here in
University College for twenty-six years and his many friends and
admirers decided to promote a worthy memorial to com-

42

memorate his personal distinction and the importance of his
contributions to the advancement of science.

The Ramsay Memorial Fund was launched, with Lord Ray-
leigh as Chairman of the General Committee, with the object
of providing Ramsay Research Fellowships of an international
character and the establishment of a Ramsay Memorial Labora-
tory of Chemical Engineering at University College, London.
This last was completed in 1931.

It was the wish of the committee which made the original
appeal that the Ramsay Memorial Fund should be used to pro-
mote the study of chemical science, pure and applied, by pro-
viding competent advanced students with the means of doing
chemical research. Considerable importance was attached to
the international aspect of the scheme which would contribute
to the linking closer together of the scientific thought of the
chief countries of the world.

In addition to the United Kingdom, no less than twelve
countries have from time to time provided funds to support
Ramsay Fellows.

It is a great tribute to Ramsay's memory that there are here
tonight so many High Commissioners and Ambassadors, repre-
sentatives of the many countries who have shared in the Fellow-
ship scheme.

Many former Fellows have attained very distinguished posi-
tions in all the continents of the world. Among them are included
twenty-seven professors and many heads of important research
organizations both in industry and government service.

The Ramsay Fellowships were suspended during the war, but
appointments were renewed in 1945 and since then, in addition
to British Fellows, men and women from Australia, Canada,
France, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States
have held Fellowships.

When the scheme first started, the income of the General
Fellowship Fund was sufficient to allow always for one and
sometimes for two General Fellowships to be awarded annually,
each tenable for two years. At present this is no longer possible.

43

I understand, however, that another appeal for the Fellow-
ship Fund has been made this year to commemorate the cen-
tenary of Ramsay's birth. I wish this cause every possible success.

Tonight we remember Sir William Ramsay, the man beloved
by his students and a wide circle of friends in many countries;
the great chemist who wrote a brilliant chapter into the story
of British scientific achievement. We also remember him as an
able administrator who devoted a great deal of his time and
energy to the welfare of the Universities of Bristol and London.

What more fitting memorial for such a man than this Fellow-
ship scheme which reflects all the facets of his life, students from
all over the world doing chemical research in which he delighted,
and the whole scheme run by his own University?

Ladies and Gentlemen : I give you the toast : { The Immortal
Memory of Sir William Ramsay 5 .

11

Opening of 'The Model Engineer' Exhibition
20 OCTOBER 1952

Not long ago, the British Association for the Advancement of
Science decided to form a scientific committee to find out what
is hampering the practical application of new discoveries. Every
effort must be made to discover what is delaying and hampering
the use of scientific discoveries for public good and for the good
of the country as a whole.

There are many reasons for this gap between the blueprint
and the prototype, but one can see in this exhibition that the
lack of model engineers is not one of them.

44

British model engineers, indeed, are acknowledged to be the
finest in the world. The fact that they get a lot of fun and a great
deal of satisfaction out of their hobby does not lessen its value
to our advance.

Indeed many scientific projects that are news today have been
pioneered by model engineers radio control of guided missiles,
for example and many achievements that are now regarded
as commonplace would not have succeeded had not the model
engineer, with his love of craftsmanship, enabled the blueprint
to be transformed, at an economic price, from thought to solid
evidence.

Here in this hall is evidence of the British desire to create
of the dexterity, concentration, self-discipline, and originality
on which our past successes have been based and our future
depends.

Model engineering plays an important part in the develop-
ment of character. Whether it starts in the simple form of using
children's bricks to build a tower and knock it down again, or
with a simple construction set, it can lead to the making of these
models which so largely determine the form of the engineering
wonders of our world today.

It is a great pleasure for me to be here today and to see some-
thing of the work of our model engineers, and I have pleasure in
declaring your exhibition open.

45

12

Opening of Extension to Municipal College,
Portsmouth

21 OCTOBER 1952

This country has a record of achievement in science and tech-
nology which is admired by the whole world. In the early days
many great figures in the world of engineering were entirely
self-taught men. This is hardly possible any more as the whole
field of technology has become so much more complicated.
Present-day achievements depend upon highly trained men and
women and no one without the proper knowledge could be
expected to make any contribution of importance. That is why
it is so necessary to see that there are ample teaching establish-
ments and facilities for those who wish to become scientists,
technologists, or engineers. In fact, I personally believe that we
should go further; we should try to make provision for a greater
number than those who have positively decided upon their
careers, so that there is room for the waverers who could be
encouraged to take up those technical professions which are so
important for the future welfare of the British Islands.

The Portsmouth Municipal Authorities are to be congratu-
lated on their decision to carry out these extensions to the
Technical College at a time when there must have been great
temptations to proceed with other forms of building.

Their decision will benefit the industries of Portsmouth as
well as the whole of the south of England. This College, which
has already a long history of achievement, can now train more
recruits for industry as well as acting as a centre of research to
which industries can turn for help and advice.

Perhaps the most important feature is that by part-time
release and evening classes a growing number of people of
initiative, already engaged in industry, will be able to improve

their knowledge of their profession and at the same time im-
prove their prospects.

Research in the Navy is daily becoming more important and
it is therefore interesting to note that an increasing proportion
of students are coming from Admiralty Research and Experi-
mental Establishments. What they learn here about the design
and construction of ships and naval equipment can help to
improve the efficiency of the Sea Service, and incidentally per-
haps save the taxpayer some money.

I wish every possible happiness and success to all the teachers
and to all the students who pass through this College and have
much pleasure in declaring open this extension to the Ports-
mouth Technical College.

13

London Master Builders' Association

5 NOVEMBER 1952

Address to Students after presenting medals

Last year I accepted the position of President of the City and
Guilds of London Institute and two days ago I attended their
yearly meeting. The Institute, through its Department of Tech-
nology, seeks to help every branch of industry and commerce by
holding examinations in nearly 200 subjects. Last year out of
almost 80,000 candidates 14,000, or nearly one-fifth, entered
for building subjects.

To encourage the candidates and to reward exceptional merit
the London Master Builders' Association have very generously

47

offered these sixteen medals which I have just handed to the
winners. These are no minor distinctions and I heartily con-
gratulate all those who have been fortunate enough to qualify
for these awards. Not everyone can win prizes or medals nor are
they a criterion of ultimate success. If you have worked hard to
learn your trade and you like the work, there is plenty of room
in the building industry, where you will find the joy and satis-
faction of a creative job.

Buildings are a mirror of the age in which they are built.
They reflect the ability of their architects and craftsmen and
they show clearly the character and mentality of the people of
their time.

Good buildings stand as evidence of good builders. Slums,
sham fronts, and jerry-building are all there for the world to see
and to judge.

Inspiration cannot be taught and masterpieces do not come
to order, but craftsmanship can be learned. We can therefore
make certain that there are no pretences about our buildings
and that they are well designed, honestly built, sturdy, and
lasting.

There is one overriding requirement of the building industry.
The people must be properly housed. Unless housing is to be-
come a progressively heavy burden on the community, it is the
industry's most important duty to try every possible way to
reduce the cost of building houses without sacrificing quality.
These are desirable and, I believe, attainable ends.

You the medal winners are at the threshold of your careers,
you have made a wonderful start and I trust that this early
promise will be fulfilled. I wish you all the very best of luck.

14

Opening of New Engineering Laboratory,
University of Cambridge

13 NOVEMBER IQ$2

It is only eighty years ago since James Stuart, the first Professor
of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics, bravely built the first
workshops at Cambridge. The story goes that they soon fell into
disfavour because the noise from them disturbed the horse of the
Master of Corpus stabled nearby. But the seed had been sown
and under another great man, Alfred Ewing, known to the
Navy as the man in Room 40, the department flourished. He
built and equipped laboratories and put the teaching of en-
gineering on a firm basis, making the subject a rigorous disci-
pline, so that in 1894 the University established the Mechanical
Sciences Tripos. Quite apart from its value in fitting students to
earn their living as engineers, I am assured that the present
course still provides a stiff educational discipline in its own right.

With an increasing number of students the problem of ac-
commodation has always been difficult. The size and scope of
the department's buildings were greatly enlarged at the end of
the First World War. Then in 1949 the late Field Marshal
Smuts opened the engineering workshop and instrument shop,
which provide facilities for teaching as well as for the construc-
tion of research apparatus for the whole University. Even that
addition was not enough and in the same year work was started
on the construction of this fine building which is to be opened
today.

However important buildings may be in the process of train-
ing engineers, it is not the least bit of good turning out highly
qualified engineers if there are no openings for them in industry
or if industry does not value their qualifications. The response
therefore from industry to an appeal in 1948 to provide funds

49 E

to endow two new chairs, in Electrical Engineering and Applied
Thermodynamics, is very encouraging and ample proof of the
esteem in which British industry holds Cambridge engineers.

By their whole-hearted support no less than forty firms and
organizations, prominent among them being the British Elec-
trical and Allied Manufacturers' Association and Imperial
Chemical Industries, have demonstrated their faith in the work
of the Engineering Department of Cambridge University.

Once trained, it is the business of every engineer to create,
but in an engineering department research plays several special
and important parts. It is essential, particularly in a school such
as this where the emphasis is on fundamentals, that the teacher
should remain an engineer; the simplest way for him to do this
is to engage in applied research which will bring him into con-
tact with industry. Secondly, in the training of research students,
whatever is sometimes said to the contrary, many branches of
British industry are now well aware of the need to set up
research organizations, and the universities still provide the best
training ground for the men to staff them. Lastly, there is the
search for new knowledge and methods.

When some new discovery is made it is vitally important to
see that it is passed into practice as soon as possible. Professor
Baker's researches into structures and welding have resulted in
a fundamentally new approach to structural design. This piece
of new knowledge is being passed on to experienced engineers
returning from industry in a post-graduate course. This is a
wonderful example of a partnership between science and indus-
try for the benefit of the nation. Virtually a new branch of
engineering science, which has the great merit of making con-
siderable economies in structural steel, is going into the coun-
try's service with the least possible delay.

There are many different ways in which our industry can be
helped artificially, but if it is to compete successfully on level
terms with the rest of the world, then our scientists and en-
gineers must be just that little bit better than any others. This
can certainly be achieved if the system of teaching is good

50

enough and if it can properly anticipate the country's needs.
The solution of our industrial problem lies here in the univer-
sities and technical colleges; their efforts can turn our present
struggle for survival into a story of success.

15

Visit to the Military College of Science,
Shrivenham

21 NOVEMBER IQ52

Address in College Hall

As you know, I spent several years as a professional sailor, and
so I feel very diffident about addressing a gathering such as this,
and I must admit that I am largely ignorant of the special
applications of science and scientific thought, particularly to
Army problems; but, obviously, the necessity to use scientific
knowledge, and scientific brains is common to all three Ser-
vices, and, I think, it is recognized by all of them. Up until
now, and throughout history, the basic qualifications for
all officers has been that they should be able to handle
men. Modern warfare undoubtedly has added two other
requirements: the ability to handle machines, and the ability
to handle paper. Those are the three qualifications for
all officers, men, machines, and paper, and I know that we
have all spent a lot of time being taught how to handle
men. I am sure that the Army is no exception, and a great
many officers spend a great deal of time learning to handle

5 1

paper. Now, at last, for the Army here is an establishment
which sets out to make a really comprehensive study of the place
of the machine in land warfare. I am no authority on military
matters, neither naval nor otherwise, but I did, once upon a
time, spend a bit of time doing a naval staff course in Greenwich,
whatever that teaches you but one did learn that, when prob-
lems of strategy are considered, they depend very much on condi-
tions which are governed by equipment, whether they are ships,
aircraft, or lorries, or whatever it happens to be. In exactly the
same way the tactics depend eventually on the capabilities of the
weapons available on both sides, and the capabilities of weapons
likely to be available on both sides, which means, in the end,
really, that an officer, if he is required to make a strategic and
tactical decision, must fully understand and take into account
the effect of the machines; in other words, of the equipment or
the weapons which are going to be used, as well as all the
more traditional considerations, such as food and one thing
and another.

The idea that a commander can always make correct deci-
sions, if he is surrounded by a sufficient number of expert
advisers, obviously does not make sense. How on earth can he
be expected to judge the relative importance of the advice
without at least a background knowledge, and, equally, how
can the adviser, if he is such an expert, know that his advice
is going to be valuable unless he knows what the over-all
problem is? So that (and here you must forgive me, be-
cause I am obviously speaking to the converted) the modern
commander in any Service, just as his predecessor, must know
something about all the forces, all the weapons, and all the
equipment which are at his disposal, and more than that, he has
got to know something about the design and the capabilities of
those weapons.

Equally, on the other side, the most ingenious minds,
whether they are military or civilian, and the most scientific
brains, which are probably civilian, will never think up a new
weapon, or improve an old one, unless they have got a working

52

knowledge of the strategic or tactical use, and limitations of
existing equipment. Weapons and equipment, whether we
like it or not, are going to become more and more compli-
cated, and their design and control has already become a
scientific problem. There is only one thing for it, science has
got to be brought into the Army. And that is why an establish-
ment such as this, which teaches science to the soldiers, and
incidentally gives the soldier's point of view to the scientists, is
not an interesting novelty at all, but an absolute necessity. In
fact, some people go so far as to say that the ideal would be for
every officer in the Army to go through the course here that is
if he is going to be of any use eventually if and when he, or
when and if, he reaches high rank. Desirable, obviously, but
there are a great many difficulties in the way, and I am not
sure that it is absolutely vital. The aim should be for
the College to send back to the Army a sufficient number
of officers who by their influence, and also their effort, will
ensure that the Army as a whole gets some idea of the place of
science in warfare, and that the commanders, in particular,
should understand the scientific problems of weapon design
and development. In the end, the citizen depends on the
Armed Services for the defence of his country, and, as such,
he has every right to expect that the Armed Services, on their
part, will use all the devices known to man to achieve security
and discourage aggression.

53

16

Radio Industry Council Annual Dinner

25 NOVEMBER IQ52

Toast 'The British Radio Industry*

Fifty years ago there was no such thing as a radio industry. In
fact it was only in 1897 that J. J. Thompson introduced the
electron and Sir Oliver Lodge invented the tuning circuit, and
it was seven years later before Sir Ambrose Fleming invented
the two-electrode wireless valve. Yet today the industry carries
on an export trade alone worth 25 million annually.

I am always pleased and I think we are all encouraged to
hear of an industry which is clamouring for, and using, new
ideas. The very speed at which the radio industry has developed
in the last fifty years is ample proof that every new discovery
has been quickly exploited. I suspect that the reason is that the
radio and electronic industry is one of the few that were born
entirely in the research laboratory and therefore it does not
regard back-room boys with the usual suspicion.

Even the Post Office, which might easily have become too
well satisfied with itself, still remembers that if one parent was
Rowland Hill the other is certainly Dollis Hill.

Industrial electronics can play an enormous part in almost
every other industry, particularly by improving production
methods including control, inspection, and safeguarding pro-
duction processes. But you cannot expect electronic devices to
be readily accepted which are only a little bit better than
existing systems, they must be far and away better before in-
dustry generally will think it worth while to go over to them.

The Services, on the other hand, have come to the conclusion
that there is nothing that radio and electronics cannot do.
Through radio communications and navigation, with electronic

54

detection and weapon control, the whole art of war has been
revolutionized.

At one stage of the war on the east coast every destroyer was
fitted with a contraption to intercept the radio-telephone con-
versations of German E boats and every ship had an interpreter
in German to work it. One night a message was intercepted
which said: C I am about to fire a torpedo at the destroyer on
my starboard side.' This was immediately translated and passed
on to every captain on the coast and every destroyer out that
night from the Humber to the Thames took avoiding action.

The clamour for new and better equipment is still going on.
In fact, I was told in one research establishment that the
Services were now demanding the impossible. I am quite con-
fident that the industry can achieve the impossible, but it will
take a little time, and the research departments must have the
people they need.

In these days every industry is judged by its exports, so that
sales on the home market tend to become guilty secrets. But a
pioneering industry's ability to export at all depends upon a
lively and discerning home market. It is sometimes forgotten
that Britain had the first television service in the world and that
the present transmitters are the most powerful in the world,
covering 78 per cent, of the population of the British Isles.
Without that background we could not hope to try to install
radio and television systems, or sell receivers abroad.

Speaking from the customer's point of view, the wireless set,
radio, or television is no longer a modern scientific toy, it has
become a piece of functional furniture. We, that is the customers,
know that the things ought to work; our choice will now depend
upon what they look like. Indeed, radio and television them-
selves have gone far beyond the stage of being amusing and
entertaining novelties. Where the instantaneous connexion of
the radio telephone has become an established feature in the
political life of the Commonwealth, so too can radio and tele-
vision play their part in the cultural field to cement the ties of
Commonwealth and Empire. We should look forward to the

55

day when the member countries of the Commonwealth can
receive each other's programmes as easily as they can tune into
their own domestic stations.

I believe that the future holds almost unlimited possibilities
for radio and electronics. In the relations of the people of the
Commonwealth, in industry, in the home, in defence, and as
an increasing part of Great Britain's export trade, the radio
industry is a growing factor in the nation's economy. But it
cannot play its proper part if there is not a big enough entry of
properly qualified people. It is a highly skilled industry and it
needs highly skilled people. It is a very grave matter that there
are not enough qualified radio or electronic engineers and
physicists coming from the universities and technical colleges
to meet the industry's requirements.

There are millions of ordinary citizens who owe a great debt
to electronics for the defence of our country or in everyday
life; the least they can do in return is to encourage the younger
generation to take up radio and electronics as a career.

The industry has many problems to face, but if it tackles them
with the same initiative and enterprise as in the past, the whole
country will have cause to be grateful.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the toast: 'The British
Radio Industry '.

17

The Land Agents' Society Jubilee Dinner

l8 FEBRUARY IQ53

Proposing Toast 'The Society

First of all may I thank you very much indeed for a most
excellent and enormous dinner. I cannot help thinking that if
this is your usual standard, then I suggest that land agents
should eat half as much and then we should not have to produce
twice as much food.

May I straight away congratulate you on attaining your
fiftieth anniversary. I must admit that I should have thought
that this profession was much older than that, and I was sur-
prised to learn that it was only fifty years ago that you decided
to get together. But, speaking as a landowner, or a part land-
owner, it is just as well to learn that you did not get together
sooner. However, for all that, many congratulations.

Indeed, you have a great deal to celebrate. From a modest
start and growing from strength to strength over the years you
have now reached a very strong position where it is not only
landlords who listen to you, but even governments. The land
agent's job may or may not have changed depending on how
you look at it. It certainly has gone beyond the days when he
was required merely to explain to the farm labourer in the farm
labourer's words what he had to do. He has now, as far as I can
make out, to have a very good command of government and
legal jargon. He is also a farmer, a forester, lawyer, accountant,
and a diplomat. In fact, he is a universal uncle to the land
generally, and I believe that he has to have a nodding acquain-
tance with forms. On top of all this if that were not enough
I read in the newspapers this morning that food production has
to go up another 60 per cent. That is just the sort of problem, as

57

far as I am concerned, that gets handed straight on to the land
agent. I can just see your predecessors in the feudal age being
told very much the same thing, but at least they had the advan-
tage of thumbscrews and other inducements.

Seriously, I hope that this demand will not give rise to dust-
bowl farming, and equally I hope that it is appreciated that if
this increase is to come about, which I am told is a lenient
demand, then one of the first requirements is to get the water
out. In this connexion, may I, Sir, with your permission, take
this opportunity of offering my sympathy to everybody who
suffered as a result of the recent floods and devastation both
here and in Holland. I should also like to say which you all
know, of course what a great debt we owe to the Dutch for
this technique of reclaiming land, and I hope in the near future
we shall be able to repay the debt we owe to them by practical
help for all the help which they have given us in the past.

This country has 130,000 acres or more under water. More
food has to be produced. What does this mean? It means that
every man who is employed on the land has to be productively
employed the whole year round. Every new idea that is pro-
duced has to be used to the utmost. Every lesson which is
learned now and has been learned in the past has to be re-
membered, and who is it that has to do all this? It is the land
agent.

Let me give you this toast and, if I may, couple it with the
name of your President, Mr. Arnold, who I am told has the
distinction of never settling any dispute to the satisfaction of
both sides.

I give you the toast: 'The Land Agents' Society, coupled
with the name of the President, Mr. Arnold*.

18

Admission to the Freedom of the Mercers' Company

25 FEBRUARY IQ53

Reply to Toast 'The Health of our New
Freeman' at Luncheon following admission

Master and Gentlemen, thank you very much indeed for those
very kind words of welcome and the charming way in which
you have proposed the toast, and also for this cup, which will
remind me of the very pleasant day spent with you.

I should like you to know what a great honour and privilege
I consider it to be to join your Company, especially after what
you have told me, and also after having seen a list of previous
Freemen.

Also, that from what you say there is only one older profession
than a Mercer.

There is one thing I have in mind in connexion with Freedom
by Redemption. I am wondering what I have in common with
other Freemen as, like one or two of your members, I have no
connexion with the commercial world whatsoever.

I have not very much experience of City companies. I try to
take a certain amount of interest in the two other companies I
belong to, but time is rather short; I have always been very
much impressed by the way in which the life and vigour is
kept in the old bodies of City companies by the very great
amount of practical work done for education and charity, and
I am particularly interested in the support they give to the
technical education in this country, particularly in London
through the City and Guilds of London Institute. Indeed it will
be a very sad day if they forget their responsibility to the present
and only think of their glorious past.

59

If I may say so you would be like baboons all behind and
no forehead.

Thank you again very much indeed for your hospitality and
for the most excellent lunch.

19

Presentation of Prizes to Cadets on board
H.M.S. Devonshire

14 APRIL 1953

I would like to congratulate heartily all the prize-winners and
at the same time offer my sympathy to all those who were un-
successful an experience with which I am quite familiar.

I am afraid that I am in no position to offer you any advice
about your future in the Navy as I only served about half a
Dog Watch myself. However, I would like to expose what are,
in my personal opinion, three fallacies about the Navy.

First of all there is no such thing as a career for a naval officer.
Service in the Navy is a privilege enjoyed by those who prove
themselves capable of discharging the duties imposed upon
them satisfactorily. Promotion is not a question of 'jobs for the
boys' ; it is a competition of service in the interest of the Navy
and the country.

Lord Fisher wrote in the log at Dartmouth : 'Favouritism is
the secret of efficiency.' If by that he meant that all officers
should be yes-men, then I think he was wrong, but if he meant
that selection should be by merit in the best interests of the
Service, then I think he was right. If you put the interest of the

60

Royal Navy first at all times, you will be acting in the best
tradition of the Sea Service.

Second is the fallacy that a good seaman is necessarily a good
naval officer. There is absolutely no doubt whatever that every
naval officer must have a full and comprehensive sea-going
experience. But the best interests of the Service demand a great
deal more than that. Why is it that experienced people are
chosen for responsible jobs? It is because in making decisions
they are able to draw upon their experience which will prevent
them making mistakes.

It follows, therefore, that the foundation of a naval officer's
experience must be his seamanship, but the wider his knowledge,
and the broader his outlook, the more easily and ably he will
shoulder responsibilities. His outlook must encompass the func-
tion and importance of the men and ships of the Navy, the
relationship of the Services to one another and the State, and
their responsibilities in defence of the realm. And of course, the
position of this country in the Society of Nations.

The third fallacy I put forward with trepidation. It is con-
tained in the famous preamble to the Naval Discipline Act and
reads: '. . . relating to the Government of the Navy whereon
under the good providence of God, the wealth, safety and
strength of the Kingdom chiefly depends. . . .' That was certainly
true at the time that it was written. The safety and strength of
this country, Commonwealth, and Empire now can only be
ensured by power at sea, on land, and in the air. In the event
of war, the enemy can only be defeated by action at sea, on
land, and in the air.

The division of responsibility for the safety of this country
between the three Services is purely technical. The only effective
action in defence or offence is the concerted action of the total
defensive of war machinery of the country.

In conclusion, I wish you all who are standing here at the
beginning of your life in the Navy the greatest happiness and
success in the Naval Service.

61

20

Opening of the Imperial Cricket Memorial at
Marylebone Cricket Club

27 APRIL 1953

One of the most remarkable things about the British Common-
wealth and Empire is the almost universal delight in the game
of cricket. As a result the game has attracted to itself a wide and
devoted following who are bound together by ties of affection
for a wonderful game. They are a great brotherhood of kindred
spirits from every corner of the world.

The presence here today of so many High Commissioners is a
token of the unifying strength of cricket and a great tribute to
the cricketers of our family of nations.

It is therefore only right and proper that here at Lord's
Cricket Ground, the national centre of cricket, we should
remember the cricketers who lost their lives in war.

At one time or another we must all of us have made cricketing
friends from many different walks of life. Many of them must
have lost their lives and I am sure all of them are commemorated
by their regiments, or services, or in their home towns. But we
their friends would rather remember them as cricketers.

These men, wherever they were born and wherever they died,
whatever colour and whatever creed, were cricketers and this is
their worthy Memorial.

62

21

Opening of the Royal Yachts Exhibition and the
Octagon Room, Royal Observatory

8 MAY 1953

Thanks to a diligent grandmother, I have quite a working
knowledge of the Museums of London, and thanks to the last
Prime Minister, who made me a Trustee of this Museum, I
know something about how they are run.

The difficulty of all Museums is for the Director to find
out what the visitor is particularly interested in, and for the
Director to give us what the visitor wants to see. In this
particular case, and as far as I am personally concerned, the
Director has guessed right.

I see here the Admiral commanding Royal Yachts, and I
hope particularly that he will take a good look round, and also
perhaps that he might note the record of some of his prede-
cessors, as I believe that one remained in command of yachts for
thirty-five years.

As to the Observatory, I was most interested to hear what the
Astronomer Royal had to say; but to all who have the mis-
fortune to try to learn how to work out a star sight, the Observa-
tory is more like a rather awesome temple with the ghosts of
such high priests as Maskelyne and his Nautical Almanac, and
Marc St. Hilaire and his method. However, I am sure that one
would get over that with acquaintance. I cannot help thinking
that they would both be somewhat surprised to know that the
Almanac and the method of working out sights has been com-
pletely re-designed as the result of experience with air almanacs.
It seems to show that the Senior Service is rather left behind in
matters of finding its way about the sea. It will simplify matters,
I am sure, and it will be a great help, particularly to yachtsmen,

63

because it was difficult enough doing these complicated sums on
a perfectly stationary platform. I am sure, therefore, that these
Tables will be a great help.

The Octagon Room is only the beginning of the Museum
which is going to be extended at the Observatory. It is still in
use by various people, but as the rooms become available, so
we hope that the Museum will be extended.

Finally, although this has really nothing to do with either
this exhibition or with the Royal Observatory, I may say that
I am delighted to see one of the Presidents, or Vice- Presidents,
of the Cutty Sark Preservation Society as well as the Chairman,
here today. May I congratulate them on what they have so far
achieved and say how much personally I am looking forward to
the day when the Cutty Sark will also be open to the public to
remind them of the men who went to sea in the great days
of sail.

Unveiling of the Memorial Roll of Honour of the

Staff of the London County Council who lost their

lives in the war 1939-45

22 JUNE 1953

The names of 1 3 1 2 1 men and women of London County Council
Staff who lost their lives in the last war are inscribed in this
book in memory of their great sacrifice: 427 served with the
Armed Forces and the Merchant Navy; 414 served with Civil
Defence organizations, and 278 were members of the civilian

64

staff. These figures give some measure of the brunt of war borne
by the civilian population of this city and indeed of the civilian
population of the whole country.

Battlefields soon disappear under the plough or in the drifting
sands, but the towns and cities which suffered bombs and shells
show their scars for many long years.

We must never forget the valiant and courageous work of the
men and women in Civil Defence, and let us also never forget
that if ever war should strike again, this whole lovely country
of ours will be in the front line no one will be beyond the
reach of weapons of destruction.

Today we pay our tribute to the people whose names fill
this book; let us at the same time remember their friends and
relations. You have suffered much grief, but you can always be
proud of their devotion to you and to their country.

23

Annual Dinner of the Chartered Insurance
Institute

24 JULY 1953
Toast 'The Chartered Insurance Institute'

I cannot help feeling somewhat surprised that you have asked
me to propose this toast. As far as I know my life has never been
insured, and I doubt very much whether any of my personal
goods and chattels are worth insuring either. I do know Blue-
bottle, Cowslip, and Kiwi are insured, but you can put that down

65 F

perhaps to my knowledge of marine risks, especially if I happen
to be sailing them! I might, on the other hand, be interested in
other forms of insurance, for instance, my Lord Mayor, exces-
sive hospitality, and if I believe everything I hear it might be
useful not only in this country, but in Australia and other
places also.

I would dearly have liked to have met whoever it was who
first thought of the idea of insurance. He must have been a very
brilliant man, and if he came from nowhere else I am sure he
was a native of these islands. We pride ourselves on many
qualities, but it is the contradiction of qualities, which always
infuriates the French, which makes me think the idea started
here. After all it is the contradiction of the quality of adventure
with the quality of prudence from which insurance sprang.

The end of the Preamble to the Marine Insurance Act of
1 60 1 puts it this way:

... By means of which policies of assurance it cometh to pass, on loss
or perishing of any ship, there followeth not the undoing of any man,
but the loss lighteth rather easily upon many than heavily upon few,
and rather upon them that adventure not than those that do adven-
ture, whereby all merchants, especially the younger sort are allured
to adventure more willingly and more freely.

You gentlemen are, I am sure, well aware of the present
fashion of referring rather glibly to the first and second Eliza-
bethan ages. My Lord Mayor, you must forgive me now,
because you did not prepare your speech but I prepared mine,
and this is what I was going to say : whereas we only talk about
adventure after dinner, here is an exhortation to adventure
written into an Act of Parliament. If I see the like of it again
I will take a very much more optimistic view of our future !

However, I am wandering from the point of this toast, which
is the Chartered Insurance Institute. Once again it seems that
the very idea of members of a profession banding together
voluntarily to help the young to enter that profession and to
protect the old and infirm is very typically British, and it must
be a very good idea because so many other people have copied it.

66

The work of the Institute in running examinations for dip-
lomas and fellowships is well known to you all. I cannot help
thinking that as a result of maintaining the proper standards,
examinations, and encouragement the Institute has had a major
part in raising the premium income I took a great lot of
trouble about this and I have got the figures too in raising the
premium income from a paltry 200 million to 1,000 million
in the last twenty-five years.

Insurance, as you all know, is one of this country's most
vital and important invisible exports, and a vital factor in our
struggle now for solvency, and I think, if I may say so, that this
achievement is a tremendous advertisement for one particular
characteristic of British commerce, and that is its integrity. I
congratulate you on what you have done in the past, and I hope,
with a great many other people, that the business of insurance,
backed by the Chartered Insurance Institute, will go on from
strength to strength.

24

Passing-out Parade at the Royal Air Force
College, Cranwell

28 JULY 1953
Address to Cadets

At Odiham some days ago, the Royal Air Force put on a display
which will take its place as one of the great reviews of history.
In conception and execution, in smartness and spirit, it was in
the best British tradition.

Even though equipment displayed on the ground demon-
strated the enormous complexity and diversity of the Air Force,
it could not hope to show the full technical and organizational
background which alone can turn the squadrons we saw flying
past into an effective weapon in the air.

In the process of making you fit to become officers in this
great Service, you have been subjected to strict discipline and
trained to instant obedience. This is most necessary if you are
to be a useful member of the fighting team, but at the same time
do not forget that no Service wants automatons as officers. You
may be passing out from here in a block, but you join the Ser-
vice, and you are only wanted in the Service, as individuals.

Every year nearly 10,000 cadets join the three Services as
officers. They leave their colleges or training establishments
dressed in the uniforms and steeped in the traditions of their
particular Service, each group jealously thinking that on their
Service falls the main burden for the defence and security of the
United Kingdom and dependencies. I am sure this is a very
good thing up to a point, but it ignores the fundamental prin-
ciple that sound defence depends upon co-operation and team-
work between the three Services in thought, word, and deed.
As the equipment becomes more complicated, so the tendency
to grow apart increases; this must be resisted at all costs.

You have joined the Air Force to become specialists in air
warfare or some part of it, and for the time being you can do no
better than master your own branch. That mastery must in-
clude leadership and tactical skill as well as a thorough grasp
of the technical and scientific background of the Service. But
the demand for the specialists tapers off with seniority. You will
never, or perhaps, as it is only my personal opinion, I should
say you ought never to reach the top unless you have a proper
understanding of the art of war as a whole.

There will always be a strong tendency to assume that any
future war will start where the last one left off. We should learn
our lessons from what went wrong at the beginning of the last
war and not from what went right at the end of it.

68

One of those lessons was that the national weapon can only
be effectively wielded by the three Services working as a team.

If you think I am harping on this point, I can only say that
history is full of cases where co-operation ceased the moment
the dire necessity had passed.

One last point. I want to suggest that specialization, whether
within a Service or as between Services, should not be exclusive.
The Services have frequently been accused of having a very
narrow outlook. If this is true, it is certainly quite unnecessary.
There seems to be no reason why officers should not take an
intelligent interest in the industrial and commercial problems
of this country as well as the economic and political problems
of the world.

Indeed, military and economic problems are very closely
associated, and I believe that every officer should have a reason-
able acquaintance with those problems from the very first. How
else can you be expected to make the right decisions later on,
which may react on the whole economy of the country? When
the time comes for those decisions to be made you will be too
busy, and it will be too late anyway, to try to grasp the
problems.

To sum up, then. Make yourselves thoroughly acquainted
with your profession and serve it as individuals with the best
interest of the Royal Air Force always at heart.

Secondly, never lose sight of the fact that war is total and
demands that the three Services fight as one team.

Thirdly, try to see the defence organizations and problems of
this country as part of the broad picture of national and inter-
national conditions. Good luck to you all.

25

Annual Luncheon of the National Union of
Manufacturers

15 OCTOBER 1953

Toast 'The National Union of
Manufacturers'

My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, thank you very much for
your kind and hearty welcome. I am most grateful for your
invitation today because I have tried, and I will go on trying,
to get about and see as much as possible of industry in the
British Isles. But I cannot possibly get around to visiting every
manufacturer, which is what I should like to do. So I am
delighted to have this opportunity of speaking to such a large
gathering of manufacturers. It is rather like Mohammed coming
to the mountain.

First, I want to congratulate you on your really tremendous
efforts to get things going again after the war and to build up
the export trade which alone can put us on our feet again. Large
firms and small have all made their contribution and as a
result we are beginning to climb out of the red. It has been
rather like pulling yourselves up by your own bootlaces, but
you have done it.

Now secondly, having got you all on my side, I hope, I want
to suggest that if you can be proud of your achievements that
is no reason why you should be satisfied with them.

You all know much better than I do why it is so important
for us as a nation to sell our goods and services abroad.
After all, if a manufacturer is only able to sell his products to
his own workpeople he is not going to remain in business very
long.

70

No, the problem is not why, but how to increase the export
trade, how to pay for our imports, how to reduce prices.

Basically, I believe, the solution lies in our wits; we must
literally live by our wits. Judging by the past achievements of
this country we are certainly not a nation of nitwits ! In fact,
wits are our greatest single asset, and one upon which we can
still rely.

My business training, I regret to say, has been sadly neg-
lected, but I have picked up quite a bit of the jargon in recent
years. I hope I have the right expression if I say that it is only
businesslike to exploit our natural assets to the greatest possible
extent.

We must exploit the wit of the scientist and the engineer who
by their inventions start new industries. We must exploit the
wit of the specialist and the expert who can improve methods
of production and the materials. We must exploit the wit of the
designer who can improve the product itself and its saleability.
Finally, and probably most important, we must exploit the wit
of the manager, the co-ordinator who alone can bring together
and make use of the ideas of the scientist, specialist, and
designer. The manager should be the great brain-picker, con-
stantly on the look-out for new methods and new ideas.

But of course the full weight of responsibility lies on you
gentlemen the manufacturers, the impresarios of industry. It
is you who make things tick, who can really stir up the brains,
human and mechanical. This applies to firms great and small,
but whereas the big firm can help the manager by keeping a
research department and a studio full of designers, the small
firm is probably unable to afford these essentials. But that is no
excuse. Every manufacturer can use the Research Associations,
the Productivity Council, the Council of Industrial Design, and
countless other bodies which are there waiting to have their
brains picked.

It should not be necessary for these councils and associations
to point out where waste and inefficiency can be corrected.
If manufacturers were less satisfied with themselves and were

convinced that there is always room for improvement they
would go asking for help to solve their problems rather than
wait to be told what is wrong. Healthy self-criticism and an
abiding willingness to learn seem to me to be the most im-
portant requirements of any manager.

I do not want you to get the impression that I consider the
only way to improve productivity and the only way to keep
British industry on its feet is to concentrate on the technical
details. As much if not more can be done in the proper handling
of the men and women who do their work in the factories and
workshops. Lord McGowan, who has a certain amount of
experience of these things, said recently: 'Human or personal
relations are all-important in any industry. They are the basis
of its prosperity.' No amount of efficiency experts, labour-
saving devices, canteens, or even pension schemes will neces-
sarily make any difference to the spirit of the workpeople. Like
the old song 'It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it'.
That is what gets results. In my opinion, the working formula
is Happiness plus Efficiency equals High Productivity.

Finally, I would like to pay a tribute to the National Union
of Manufacturers for all it has done for British industry in the
thirty-eight years of its existence. It has fought many battles,
both for its members and sometimes with its members, but always
with the best interests of the manufacturers of this country at
heart.

I have great pleasure in proposing the toast: The National
Union of Manufacturers.'

26

*953 Alamein Reunion
23 OCTOBER 1953

When Field Marshal Montgomery very kindly asked me to
come to this Reunion, I was naturally most delighted to accept,
but I was also astonished to find that the great battle at
Alamein was fought only eleven years ago. That may be only
a personal feeling of astonishment, but such a tremendous lot
seems to have happened since then much more, it seems to
me, than could reasonably be contained in eleven years. But
there may be another reason for this astonishment. It may be
that if you live looking forward, you tend to lose track of the
timing of past events until you are suddenly reminded of one of
them. This may be bad for one's history but I am quite sure
it is much better for one's present and future.

The bald facts of history are obviously important in their
own way, but what we must all try to remember is the spirit
and feeling of the past events. We are often urged to show the
same adventurous spirit of the first Elizabethans, but there are
examples in our own lifetime which are just as worthy and
which we can all remember. The spirit of endurance which our
people showed in the dark days of the war, the triumphant
spirit which carried you through Alamein and the desert, and
more recently the unifying spirit which bound us all as brothers
at the Queen's Coronation this summer.

There has grown up in recent years the great fashion for
debunking, the theory that nothing is what it appears to be.
There is no harm in that; by all means let us debunk the false
and the sham, the boaster and the fool; but it is a very stupid
gardener who cannot tell the difference between his weeds and
his flowers. You know better than I do that the spirit which
turned the 8th Army into a fighting team was no sham. That is

73

something worth remembering and something that cannot be
debunked.

So tonight I would say this to you: look ahead, and keep
alive within you the spirit of endurance, triumph, and unity
which is our greatest heritage.

27

Visit to the University of Edinburgh

4 NOVEMBER IQ53

Installation as Chancellor

This is the third time that I have attended University cere-
monies in the McEwan Hall, but as far as I am concerned, this
occasion is by far the most important.

I consider it a very great honour indeed that you have
elected me to be Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh,
and I want to take this first opportunity to thank you all per-
sonally. I am naturally delighted with this new position and
perhaps a bit flattered, especially as I never had the privilege
of attending a university myself. However, if I cannot claim a
Scottish university I can at least claim a Scottish school. It
cannot be given to many to have the opportunity and the
desire to heap honours upon their former headmasters.

Although it gave me very great pleasure indeed to bestow
degrees upon our distinguished honorary graduates this morn-
ing, I am sure the others will forgive me if I say with what
particular pleasure I made Doctor Hahn an Honorary Doctor
of Laws of this University.

74

This is one of the occasions when the University is gathered
together and made visible; but the greatness of the University
has to be felt as well as seen. The student body can only be
represented here today by a small portion of its thousands of
members. Even more numerous is the General Council of
Graduates of the University. Many of these are, of course, with
us in this assembly, but the great majority are to be found far
beyond the bounds of this building, not merely in Edinburgh,
but throughout the United Kingdom and the British Com-
monwealth of Nations. Indeed, they are to be found scattered
over the face of the earth, wherever there is an honourable
profession or vocation to be pursued, or public service to be
rendered.

That is the University of the present, but there is also the
University of the past, and it is fitting that on this occasion we
should call to mind that long procession of men and women,
some great and famous, some unknown, who, over a period of
nearly 400 years, have passed through this University and gone
on to serve their country and their own community in almost
every walk of life.

Universities have always been the top of the educational tree,
and now that you have made me your Chancellor, although I
realize that it is only a titular position, I feel it is only fair to
warn you of my personal views on the ticklish subject of teach-
ing and learning. It is a subject with many experts, but I have
noticed that in their discussions the vigour of their arguments
is seldom matched by the unanimity of their opinions. I do not
claim to be an expert, but I am at least nearer the personal
experience of being educated than most of them.

I have chosen the subject of 'Education' for this address for
two very simple reasons. First, and this is purely a personal one,
I wanted to find out something about the subject myself.
Secondly, because of my conviction of its vital importance to
this country both now and for the future. Apart from the ob-
vious material importance, it will have a tremendous influence
upon civilized life in these islands in the years ahead.

75

The process of education that I wish to discuss starts in the
schools, but, unfortunately, the very term education means
different things to different people. To some it means mere
book learning and the ability to pass examinations, some again
concentrate on the powers of reasoning and observation, to
others it means a preparation for life and citizenship, but to
most of us it means a bit of all these things.

The difficulty is that while the purely book learning side can
be measured by standards and examinations, the development
of character is highly individual and cannot be measured by
classes or at stated intervals. Neither can the training of intel-
lect and the development of character be done separately, be-
cause character will be formed whether it is guided into the
right paths or whether it is neglected, and no amount of intel-
lectual training will make up for that neglect.

In addition, life in school should be so ordered that it is in a
real sense a preparation for life in a larger community; it is
out of classroom hours and away from home that many of the
practical lessons of life are taught and learned. The schools
therefore have this further duty, to teach the young to live as
members of a community with all that that implies in learning
to give and take and play their part in a common life.

Whatever the meaning of education, then, there can be no
doubt that all schools have the threefold responsibility of train-
ing the intellect, actively developing character, and providing
a practical preparation for life.

In the formation of character and the preparation for citizen-
ship, parents and schools are both in their turn helped by the
many voluntary organizations who teach the principle of ser-
vice to the community, such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides,
Boys' and Girls' Clubs, and the many Cadet units. In addition,
there are many short courses, as it were, like the summer camps
and the Outward Bound Schools, both of which have grown
out of the Duke of York's Camps. Each of them in its own way
plays a vital part in the educational structure, and between
them, by the very variety of their aims, outlook, and methods,

they can help every sort and kind of children. After all, it is the
qualities of initiative and perseverance, qualities of the spirit,
which are going to use the trained intellect to the best advantage.

When it comes to training the intellect the schools bear the
full burden of responsibility and they in their turn rely abso-
lutely upon the teachers. Theirs is a dedicated life, for there
cannot be any other profession with so many heart-breaks and
so much satisfaction, so much responsibility and such meagre
reward. It may be a splendid idea to have one examination for
all, but it would be a disaster if every child were prepared for
that examination in exactly the same way. Every school has its
own characteristics, which are due to the individuality of its
teachers and traditions; indeed, it is inevitable, and a blessing
for every part of our national life, that schools should be differ-
ent and each one unique.

But in the preparation for examinations and professions
teachers are up against the everlasting problem of aptitude.
There is no doubt that they have the opportunity and the respon-
sibility to find their pupils' natural bent, but should they then
concentrate on that or should they keep the scope of teaching
for those with natural aptitudes as wide as possible? Obviously,
to find the natural bent of a majority the range of teaching has
to be fairly wide in the first place, and ideally it should be kept
as wide as possible until it is essential to specialize for a particu-
lar profession or vocation. Far be it from me to tell the teacher
his business, but in my opinion intense specialization is neither
necessary nor desirable at any school.

The necessities of a successful professional career are a broad
mind and wide interests. Their foundations must be laid in
school. If narrowness begins in school it cannot be cured at the
university or anywhere else. It is in school and not at the
university that the budding scientist should be helped, for in-
stance, to develop a taste for music and the arts, and the young
historian an understanding and reverence for science, and both,
incidentally, an appreciation of the crafts.

The late Lord Tweedsmuir stated the problem in this way :

77

'That problem I should define as how to strike a just balance
between the academic and the practical; how to combine
education in the broadest sense, which is the training of the
mind and character, with the acquisition of the special tech-
nique which enables a boy to earn his livelihood 5 , and he goes
on: 'The primary purpose of humane studies is the understand-
ing of human nature, the broadening of the human interests and
the better appreciation of the values of human life.'

I personally believe that education should be one continuous
process particularly for those who are to enjoy the privilege of
going to a university. But this continuity can only be achieved
by the very closest understanding between the schools and the
universities. The schools cannot concentrate on the broad
training of the intellect and the building of character if the
universities are going to demand narrow academic qualifica-
tions for their entry requirements. Here, again, all depends on
the teachers in school and university working together to ensure
that the education of our ablest youth, the future leaders in
thought, is conceived as one whole and not in several bits.

At this point I would like to digress for a moment, because it
is only the minority who go on to a university from school. For
the great majority the two years National Service is really the
final stage of their education, so far as their preparation for life
is concerned. Service with the Armed Forces may not be a
severe intellectual exercise, but it is, or at least it can be, a very
important character-building experience. That has nothing to
do with the much discussed question whether National Service
is necessary or not from a purely military point of view. If I
may go to a shipbuilding yard to illustrate what I mean, if the
yard is home and the stocks are the school, then National Ser-
vice is the fitting-out basin. In the same way that a ship leaves
the stocks at her launching and goes to the fitting-out basin to
be made ready for sea, so must all men leave the intimate circle
of home and school to be fitted out for life. There are many who
do not like the experience of having the rough edges knocked
off, but there are very few who come to any harm.

78

Turning now to the university. As I have already said, I have
no personal experience of a university education, but I often
think of the differences between a Service and a university
training. I graduated in the Navy, and I know the value of
Service training in discipline, decision, and the art of handling
men; it is a specialized and practical training, and yet a broad
outlook and an original mind are essential to reach the top. In
contrast, the university seems to breathe an atmosphere of free-
dom, freedom to achieve as well as freedom to give up. Freedom
to make or mar oneself and the freedom of research and inquiry.
And with it go the friendships of university life which are such
a potent and interesting force in the community. However, I
still firmly believe that a university student has a great deal to
gain from National Service however much the specialists may
complain that it is a waste of time.

As I see it, university courses can be divided between those
which train the mind for general purposes and those which
train the mind for special or professional purposes. Originally,
I imagine, the proportion of one to the other was fixed by de-
mand. A university must undoubtedly be alive to the demands
of its members, but if it is to serve the best interests of the
nation it must also be alive to the needs of the nation.

The needs of the professions, of science, industry, and com-
merce are constantly changing, particularly in this age of new
invention. The university must continually assess the effects of
these changes and by inducement and encouragement play its
part in preparing men and women for the jobs that will be
waiting for them by the time they are trained, even if they do
not exist at the time of their training. If new specialist courses
are only to be instituted as a result of the combined pressure
from science and industry on the one hand and the students'
wishes on the other, a lot of valuable time is going to be lost
and the shortages which already exist are merely going to get
worse.

With the growing complexity of modern life, an ever-increas-
ing degree of specialization is becoming a professional necessity.

79

The universities may decry the necessity, cries of Polytechnic
may be raised, but specialization is here to stay. The real prob-
lem is to see that specialization does not become exclusive. The
budding specialist through school and university should first be
given the opportunity of acquiring wider interests and then the
chance to pursue them without detriment to his profession. In
this respect the university has a particular responsibility, because
the greatest virtue of the university is its universality. Every
graduate, specialist or not, is bound to be considerably in-
fluenced by the atmosphere of the university in which he lives
and by the varied contacts with his fellow students and teachers.
As a result, in time and with luck, one can hope that graduates
will see themselves and their professions in the proper perspec-
tive against the backcloth of their experience.

Perhaps it matters little to individuals if they are selfish,
narrow-minded, or bigoted, but it matters very much to the
community in which they live and work. Especially if that com-
munity forms part of a democracy where the power rests with
the people. The quality of a democracy is the reflection of the
qualities of its citizens, and it rests particularly with the univer-
sities to instil and foster those qualities of knowledge, under-
standing, and tolerance which are so badly needed by every
one of us.

Particularly understanding. We are continually hearing ap-
peals for better international understanding, but what we do
not hear so often are appeals for a better understanding between
professions and a better understanding between different sec-
tions of the community and different sections of the British
Isles. If charity begins at home, understanding should begin in
school and develop in the university.

It is quite possible that the most important task of the univer-
sity is the teaching of men and women, but it is not the only
task. It is a centre of learning as well as of teaching, and the
vigorous quest for new knowledge is a necessity to keep the
vitality of university teaching. Professors working on the fringe
of knowledge command respect, and, more important, have the

80

power to inspire their students as no pure lecturer can hope
to do.

Edinburgh University in particular has a great tradition of
fundamental work. When the great English universities were
floundering in the doldrums of the eighteenth century, there was
a vigour and vitality here which it would be hard to match
even today. However, with Sir Edward Appleton as Principal
and Vice- Chancellor there is no fear of stagnation here. We can
be properly proud and relieved that someone with such an
original and penetrating mind has the destinies of this Univer-
sity in his keeping.

Finally, the last stage of the process of education is reached
in the graduate schools. These are the creative cells of the
modern university and it is in them that the freedom of thought
and research should be fostered. Any attempt to convert, or
should I say subvert, them into commercial, professional, or
industrial research laboratories is a blow at the very integrity
of the university. They are the final flowering of the tree of
education, delicate but vital.

You may think that I have spent rather a long time laying
down the law with very little justification. May I remind you
then that the last time I was in this hall I was given full per-
mission to teach law in any university in Christendom, so you
have only yourselves to blame.

In education, if in nothing else, the Scotsman knows what is
best for him; indeed only a Scotsman can really survive a
Scottish education, but having survived it he has spread the
name and fame of his schools and universities throughout the
world.

I am proud and honoured to become Chancellor of this great
University, for the fame of it is universal and the list of my pre-
decessors is truly distinguished. I shall try all I can to be a
worthy successor. I cannot claim the great gifts and remarkable
career of the late Lord Linlithgow, but I hope you will find
in me a constant desire to further the best interests of the
University.

81 o

Edinburgh University has a wonderful history, but that alone
is not enough. The foundations for future success must be laid
now if the University is to play its full part in sending out into
this country and the Commonwealth men and women as con-
scious of their duties as of their trained abilities.

28

Commonwealth Tour, 1953-4

13 JANUARY 1954

Address to meeting of New Zealand Scientists at
Wellington, New Zealand

When the arrangements for our tour in New Zealand were first
under discussion, I had just been appointed President of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science. For that
reason, I asked to meet representative scientific workers here so
that I could hear at first hand of some of the scientific problems
under investigation in New Zealand, and also learn something
of the scientific atmosphere. I made this request because I am
convinced that the proper development and security of any
country depends to a very large extent upon a high level of
technology and scientific activity.

Somehow this idea of mine has led to the suggestion that I
should address you at this meeting and, while I do so willingly,
you cannot expect me, after such a short time, to be able to
discuss your scientific problems with you as intelligently as I
would wish and as you might perhaps hope.

82

As President of the British Association, I had originally in-
tended to bring you fraternal greetings from the scientists of
the United Kingdom. As you know, I no longer hold that
position, but I am delighted to tell you that Dr. Adrian, Master
of Trinity College, Cambridge, who this year combines the
Presidency of the British Association with that of the Royal
Society, has asked me to bring their greetings and good wishes
to the Royal Society of New Zealand and the scientists assembled
here in Wellington today.

I daresay that when this tour is over I shall have a chance to
collect my impressions and form some conclusions, but there is
one thing which seems quite clear to me already. I have always
pictured science as man's struggle with nature to discover her
secrets. Nature has been, so to speak, the scientists' adversary,
reluctant to part with her mysteries. But here in New Zealand
the picture seems to me to be entirely different. My impression
is that nature and science are working in happy partnership.
This may be because the principal efforts of scientists in New
Zealand have been in the field of agriculture in its broadest
sense. Indeed, New Zealand has produced many distinguished
men whose work has been devoted to agricultural science.

Most of these men are fortunately still alive and contributing
to our store of agricultural knowledge and to the advancement
of New Zealand's already outstandingly efficient agriculture.
It would be invidious to select a few names from amongst so
many. Their skill has used the wonderful climate of New
Zealand and her potentially fruitful soils to provide one of the
most, if not the most, economic systems for the production of
meat and dairy products in the world.

But the soil was not always fruitful before the studies of the
soil chemists showed the need for trace elements. The dairy
industry could not have been what it is today without the
remarkable work of the bacteriologists.

The study of the breeding and nutrition of livestock has
raised the quality of sheep and cattle to its present high level.
So well known is New Zealand for her meat, butter, and cheese

83

that we are apt to forget that scientists have also made possible
the successful cultivation of fruit and tobacco and have bred new
varieties of grasses and cereals to suit New Zealand conditions.

One name, however, I think I must mention, for he was
probably the most distinguished pioneer of much of this work
the late Dr. Cockayne. New Zealand owes him a great debt,
and in mentioning his name I would like to pay my tribute to
all those who have followed him.

Quite apart from the agricultural sciences, there is no doubt
whatever that New Zealand has pulled her full weight in
scientific development within the limits of her resources, whether
it be the care of children or the study of diseases such as goitre
or the close study of Polynesian migrations. The reputation of
her scientists, both those who have left these shores and those
who are working here, stands high in Britain and other countries.

The material achievements of scientific work in the past half
century have been so remarkable that they may have led to
claims verging on the extravagant, but, as Sir Edward Appleton
has pointed out, we must avoid at all costs the disagreeable con-
sequence of putting the scientist on a pedestal, for all true
scientists are humble in the face of their knowledge.

The advances in basic knowledge between the great wars were
prodigious, and since the end of the last war the pace has
accelerated still more and still there is no finality in sight. New
knowledge is being obtained at such a rate that one man
cannot keep abreast by even reading the abstracts of papers in
one of the traditional branches of science. Subdivision and
specialization are inevitable. Even so, the interest of the indi-
vidual scientist need not be lessened by this specialization.
There is still the pleasure of attempting to explore and under-
stand and pass on to fellow workers. In an ideal world each
scientist in his search for fundamentals builds on the work of
his predecessors and colleagues, irrespective of racial or national
boundaries, and we must keep this ideal in sight even if it is not
now fully with us.

It is perhaps a different story when this common, funda-

84

mental, scientific knowledge is applied to industrial or national
purposes. The field of applied science enters into questions of
relative industrial development or into defence in which
questions of national or group security arise. The matter is
further complicated because the cost of apparatus, instruments,
and facilities have become enormous, as it has become more and
more removed from the common facilities required in everyday
life. The string and sealing wax and simple flask days of research
in the physical and chemical sciences, for instance, are over.
Rutherford in his day could operate the material requirements
of his band of research workers on less than 1,500 a year
in terms of present-day money. Nowadays work in his field
needs machines and atomic piles which cost as much as a small
battleship and, relatively, this is the position in all branches of
science.

The day of the private adventurer in science is over. Even the
universities cannot meet the demands of their science faculties;
and it is the universities who train the nation's future scientists.
It has become a national problem and if the nation needs top-
class scientists it must help the universities to train them, which
means of course that the money must come in the main from the
taxpayer. Yet pure science can promise no definite returns in a
given time, while political interference or official lay direction
can do much more harm than good. However, by and large,
the public understands that it is a necessary investment, and, on
the whole, is sympathetic. As regards industry, particularly its
larger units, the problem is rather to find enough sufficiently
good men and women for the work. But as regards science for
national purposes, health, agriculture, transport, nationalized
undertakings, defence, the public can only be expected through
its government to provide funds if it can be persuaded that
science for itself is a good thing, that scientists as a whole and
their leaders are worthy, and that science has a direct influence
on its conditions of living and working.

Scientists, on the other hand, need conditions of work
peculiar to their avocation freedom to think and work in their

85

own way, freedom from unreasonable restrictions and regula-
tions an atmosphere in which they can enjoy their work, and
earn the just reward of achievement, particularly in the eyes
of their colleagues and universities. To obtain these conditions
our scientific societies must be careful of their standards, of
the leaders they elect or those whom they honour with their
distinctions.

For their part, scientists as a whole must help the public to
understand by making science and scientific method intelligible
to them, without making use of sensational publicity or cynical
fault-finding criticism.

Your own efforts are best applied to the problems near at
hand. Each country is dependent on all others for contributions
to fundamental knowledge which assist in the solving of its own
problems, and it only needs a high enough local level of scientific
thought to take reasonably full advantage of the work of others.
While the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
can be relied on to take care of all branches of science which
have a particular local importance, it remains for the universi-
ties to maintain a sufficiently high level of scientific thought in
all other branches.

You may think this is asking too much of a small country.
You may point out that the best of your scientific brains are
tempted overseas by the intellectual attraction of the larger
world. From Rutherford and Mellor, down through many lesser
but still distinguished lights, you are tempted to say that New
Zealand receives little but reflected glory. In the long run that
is not so. The fruits of their work are already returning to New
Zealand in the applications of their discoveries and in the
respect which New Zealand and New Zealanders enjoy, especi-
ally throughout the English-speaking world. If you create the
right conditions, you may look to see in New Zealand growing
centres of original scientific work of which you will be proud.

In applied research, however, particularly for military pur-
poses, there is less free flow of information, while the effort
involved is, in general, more expensive. In this field I believe

86

that it would be an enormous advantage if the countries of the
Commonwealth could pool their resources. Modern warfare
depends more and more on scientific equipment and trained
men to operate it. There are not enough workers in any one
country of the Commonwealth to provide all the up-to-date
equipment necessary to ensure that each unit is properly pre-
pared for war. It is good for morale if the Services know that
they all have the best equipment available. The provision of
such equipment depends on the scientific level of industry in
our Commonwealth which again depends on the resources of
high-grade technical manpower. Any effort to make the best
use of this manpower must surely lead to the common good.
But as in every other branch of science you must have defence
scientists who can understand and appreciate the work being
done elsewhere. Pooling resources does not mean that all
military research development can be safely left to somebody
else however great the saving may be.

I have been most interested to hear about the wise, far-
sighted experiment involved in the creation of your Defence
Science Corps. Trained scientists and engineers who understand
the problems of the Services are just as valuable as Service chiefs
who understand the capabilities and limitations of scientists.

It is not only scientists who can make a contribution to
science. Almost as much can be done by men in authority, in
industry, in the Services, in politics, or in administration who
have a scientific outlook. These men can help because they can
make the openings, they can authorize research and encourage
its application, and also because their faith in the scientist can
be his greatest inspiration.

Finally, of course, there remains, particularly for you in New
Zealand, the all-important question is it all worth it? Does all
this effort and money pay any dividends? I think the answer is
contained in last year's Presidential address to the Royal Society
of New Zealand which is a most comprehensive and instruc-
tive review of the application of research here in New Zealand.
I would like to remind you of the concluding paragraphs:

8?

Such is the tempo of the times that it is easy to forget the sig-
nificance of achievements of a few years past. They easily become
accepted as a matter of course, and the anxiety and worry they
occasioned, as well as the effort demanded for their solution, being
easily forgotten.

And again:

The review also reveals that New Zealand industry has shown a
readiness to adopt scientific advances and to use them in ways which
promote our national prosperity, which to an increasing extent must
depend on the assistance which scientific effort must supply.

Finally, there exists abundant evidence that where applied in-
telligently the results of scientific effort pay very handsome dividends
whether in Government Departments or in New Zealand industries.

Science pays all right, but there is more to it than that. For
the future prosperity of the nation it is essential that everyone
should realize that the essence of science is a way of thinking, an
adventure of the mind and deed of partnership with nature.

29

Commonwealth Tour,, 1953-4

20 JANUARY IQ54

Address at Canterbury Chamber of Commerce
Luncheon, Christchurch, New Zealand

In 1945 I was serving in a destroyer here in the Pacific, and the
time came for the ship to be docked and refitted. It so happened
that another destroyer in the same flotilla was also due for a
refit, so we returned to Sydney from the Gulf of Ley te together.
We suspected that one of us would go to New Zealand, to

88

Wellington, and the other probably to Melbourne. Well,
someone in the Commander-in-Chief's office spun a coin, or
whatever they do to decide these things, and we went to Mel-
bourne and Wager went to Wellington. After the refit they told
us all about it and ever since then I have been waiting for a
chance to visit New Zealand. Here we are at last, and both the
Queen and I are delighted to be here, and everything we have
seen and done has given us the greatest possible pleasure.

This visit to New Zealand is already nearing its end, but what
we have seen and learned will remain with us as long as we live.

John Robert Godley must have been a most remarkable
pioneer. His choice of such lovely names as Christchurch and
Canterbury shows that he must have had a reverence for the
past while he built for the future, and that mixture of feelings is
still apparent today in Christchurch, as in many other parts of
New Zealand.

It has become rather fashionable to make fun of old-fashioned
ideas and for the younger generation to belittle the efforts of
their elders. It would need a very small-minded man not to
admire the founders and builders of Christchurch. If you can
keep alive their outlook and their determination to build a
community combining the best of the old and the advantages
of the new, you will be rendering a tremendous service to the
whole of New Zealand.

Everybody will always have something to worry about, but in
Europe just now the problems seem to be never-ending. The
difficulties of reconstruction and the tensions of the international
situation tend sometimes to obscure the blessings of this life.
So that a visit to New Zealand is like a breath of fresh air, just as
much for the gentle climate and lovely countryside as for the
atmosphere of vigorous development which is apparent in every
part of the country.

If nature has smiled on New Zealand, then New Zealanders
have certainly made the most of it. Your agriculture is a credit
to your farmers and an immense benefit to Great Britain and
other countries who need your food products. I am frequently

89

told that next to peace food is the world's most difficult problem.
But food feeds people, and the demand for more food is not so
that people can eat more, or even so that the under-nourished
can have enough, it is wanted because almost everywhere in the
world populations are swelling with incredible speed.

Here you grow enough to feed yourselves, and with the sur-
plus you can buy all the gadgets that you need for your homes
and farms. Until, of course, the population gets so big that
there is no exportable surplus of food. This is what Sir Theodore
Rigg said recently in Canberra :

With a population increasing at the rate of 2 per cent, per annum,
a steady increase in farm crops, dairy and pastoral products will be
necessary to meet the food needs of our people and to obtain the
necessary overseas currencies to permit the importation of manu-
factured goods and capital equipment required in the country.

In twenty-five years the population of New Zealand, based on a
2 per cent, yearly increase, should be over 3 million, i.e. a 50 per cent,
increase of our present population. To maintain the same standard
of living which we enjoy today, not only must food crops consumed
in New Zealand be increased 50 per cent., but exports likewise
should be increased by about the same amount.

In agriculture, and I include forestry in that term, you have
the tremendous advantage that good agriculture, as opposed
to the exploitation of land, works with a renewable raw material ;
it is a continuous cycle; unlike mines and oil-wells it does not
dig into capital assets. (Naturally I am not suggesting that
mineral or other deposits should not be worked where they
exist.)

I see no reason to doubt that the solid interlocking of your
economy with that of the United Kingdom will continue for a
great many years. It is most unlikely that the farmers of the
United Kingdom could be able to feed much more than half the
present population. I also see no reason to get fussed about
the last meat agreement with the United States. It is perhaps not
appreciated that in 1951 New Zealanders consumed 228 Ib.
of meat per head against 74 Ib. per head in the United Kingdom.

90

You can take it from me it is not because they do not like
meat. In any case, * Canterbury lamb' is a recognized symbol
of quality, and more than that, it has become a habit and a
tradition, and, as you know, the people of the old country are
great believers in tradition.

The most remarkable aspect of New Zealand's agriculture,
to me at any rate, is that although it is the basis of your economy
and the bulk of your export trade, it only employs 20 per cent, of
the working population, which is 6 per cent, of the total popula-
tion. I can think of no other undertaking so nationally reward-
ing or so cheap in manpower.

In any process of production a plentiful supply of, preferably,
cheap power is probably the most important factor in achieving
high productivity. Here again New Zealand seems to be especi-
ally blessed because the main source of your power is con-
tinually renewing itself, and that source will be available to you
and your descendants until the rain stops falling. You are also
fortunate in that both agriculture and electricity, hydro or
geothermal, can still be greatly developed. I am told that the
number of cattle and sheep could be doubled and electricity
could be increased two and a half times in North Island and
twenty-five times here in South Island. But for all that there
is no reason to lose sight of the fact that there is a limit to
expansion.

Every country should aim at a balanced economy, if only as
a cushion against changing world conditions. In this respect the
secondary industries play a most important part, and once more
looking at it through the eyes of a European, you are par-
ticularly well placed, if only for the time being. With the flood
of new knowledge, methods, and materials the manufacturing
industries are hard put to keep up, particularly where plant
and buildings, tradition and custom are old and well entrenched.
Here you can build from scratch and be certain of at least a few
years' production before drastic reconstruction is necessary in
order to maintain efficiency.

But industry is not merely a question of factories, railways,

9'

ports, and manufactured goods. Industry depends on the men
and women who work in it, and it cannot thrive without a happy
industrial society. Security and amenities play their part, but
probably the most important single contribution to a happy
industrial society is good housing.

You are fortunate in that you have room to build, and if New
Zealand builds now with an eye to the future, as Christchurch
was built, the foundations will be laid for the health and happi-
ness of the future generations of men and women who will find
their livelihood in industrial and urban jobs.

These things may be priceless assets to New Zealand, but
there is something else here which ought to be an encourage-
ment to the whole world. The history of many countries is
shamed by racial intolerance, and in many others it is still
a burning problem. Here in New Zealand, after a stormy
beginning, you have set a wonderful example for all races and
countries, of two peoples living happily together in peace and
concord.

These are my impressions, for what they are worth. I know
they are superficial and do not take into account a great many
serious problems, but if I have sounded envious I hope I have
also conveyed my admiration for your achievements and for
your efforts for the future.

Progress is not measured by gadgets, but by the development
of human nature, and prosperity is not measured by the
quantity of inhabitants, but by the quality of their standard
of living.

30

Commonwealth Tour, 1953-4

I 6 FEBRUARY I 954

Opening of University House, Australian
National University, Canberra, A.C.T.

It was a wise and bold decision to establish this National Uni-
versity of Australia. Wise because it recognizes most clearly the
importance of higher education and scientific research to the
welfare of the State, and bold because there are always more
reasons for not doing something than there are for doing it.

The University with its present four postgraduate schools can
look forward to becoming a focus of scientific talent in Australia.
But I hope that in order to leaven the scientific lump, the study
of the humanities will not be neglected. A broad scope of intel-
lectual activity stimulates and freshens each of its parts. The
greater the necessity for individuals to specialize, the more
important it becomes for that specialization to be done against
the widest possible background. A narrow field of work must
not be allowed to give rise to a narrow outlook.

This University is also being established at a moment when
the first flowering of Australian science is giving a promise of
great things for the future. I have heard something of the
remarkable work that is being done in the biological sciences,
in science applied to agriculture, in radio-physics and radio
astronomy, and by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organization. I regret very much that there has been
no chance to see something of this work or to meet some of the
people concerned with it. But I will come back to see their work
because as surely as the efforts of the pioneer farmers built the
Australia of today, so it is the pioneering scientists and engineers
who are building the Australia of the future.

93

Science and scientists will receive great support and en-
couragement from this University, but it takes more than good
organization, nice laboratories, and a tidy arrangement of
responsibilities to get the best out of human material. In science,
as in many other walks of life, only good leadership can produce
brilliant results from a team of good scientists. High standards
of teaching and research are invaluable, but the University can
perform a further and most important service to Australia if it
can find and encourage the natural leaders and teachers, who
can do so much for science.

I hope everyone who works here, both now and in the future,
will have good fortune and a useful and happy life.

31

Commonwealth Tour, 1953-4
20 APRIL 1954

Opening of the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya,

Ceylon

We are both very pleased to be here today and to witness the
start of the career of the University of Ceylon.

I am particularly delighted to be here because I have the
honour to be Chancellor of the Universities of Edinburgh and
Wales, and I bring you their greetings and best wishes for the
future.

Under the terms of the Kandyan Convention Her Majesty
is the successor of the King of Kandy who had the good sense
to choose this site for a palace, and I also understand that one
of your chronicles has described the river which passes the
University Park as a 'necklace of pearls around the neck of a

94

Queen of Kandy 5 . You can pride yourselves therefore that the
past, the present and the poets all approve the choice of this
lovely site for the University.

The foundation occurred during the dark days of 1942, when
an enemy fleet was in the Indian Ocean and the thoughts of all
in Britain were on Ceylon. It was a great act of faith and a
hope for the future of mankind that the people of Ceylon should
choose that moment to establish a seat of learning.

It is perhaps also significant that these same surroundings
housed the headquarters which planned a major part of the
defeat of a particularly nasty example of aggression and tyranny
and brought freedom to a great many people. Now these gardens
have become a headquarters in the more peaceful battle against
ignorance.

There is another interesting coincidence. At about the same
time that I was President of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, His Excellency the Chancellor hap-
pened to be President of the Classical Association. I told him
the other day that I had read his scholarly Presidential Address
with great interest, and somewhat to my surprise he admitted
that he had read mine. But I hope that this coincidence of our
association with the start of this University is a good omen, for
it is my strong belief that we need a better understanding be-
tween the arts and science; an agreement that knowledge with-
out wisdom is of little use.

The accumulation of knowledge is useless and indeed danger-
ous unless we produce men and women wise enough to know
how to use it. That is where university life and activities are of
the utmost importance. The free atmosphere of a university
preserved and enhanced by self-restraint and self-discipline is
urgently needed to expose prejudice and uncontrolled emotion
as the greatest enemies of knowledge and wisdom.

Science is turned to useful as well as to destructive purposes,
and the discoveries of those who study human behaviour can
be used to enlighten and improve or to hoodwink and bam-
boozle. The power of both is immense and growing. If our

95

civilization is to survive we need men and women of the highest
integrity and moral strength to control that power.

A university is where students first take to the wings of
thought, and like ordinary fledgelings some remarkable feats
of intellectual aeronautics are not only to be expected but en-
couraged. For the ultimate object is that men and women will
leave with a sound knowledge of how to think with honesty and
integrity, how to see through false propaganda and with the
strength of mind not to be driven from the path of truth.

I listened with interest, Mr. Chancellor, to your praise of a
government, for usually governments are given more blame for
what they have not done than praise for what they have done.
In this case the Queen and I would like to add our congratula-
tions to the Ministers and Members of Parliament and the
many other benefactors who provided the land and the money,
the architects and engineers who drew the plans and executed
them, as well as the many thousands of working men and women
who laboured with their hands to produce what we see around
us today.

Beautiful buildings and lovely surroundings will not by them-
selves ensure the success of this University. Success depends on
the type of man and woman who graduate from here and their
subsequent work. It also depends on the teaching and adminis-
trative staff, who must found and build up traditions which
will be a source of strength and pride to all Ceylon. It is you,
the human element, who will confirm or deny the faith of the
Government and people of Ceylon when they decided to build
this place. And do not forget that the university system has
many friends in the world, and I can assure you that they too
will be anxiously watching the development of the human side
of this the latest addition. In the Navy it is said that you can
judge the state of a ship by the state of her boats, and I do not
think it would be too much to say that a country can be judged
by her universities. You have been given a wonderful chance,
the rest is up to you.

The whole future of Ceylon will be moulded by members of

96

this University; they will have far-reaching opportunities and
responsibilities. We believe that this can become one of the
great universities of the Commonwealth, a Commonwealth
which has, happily, many great universities.

You have remarked, Mr. Chancellor, that it is not easy to
open a university because once established it is always open.
However, like the shopkeepers of London during the bombing,
I can declare this place to be 'more open than usual'. And in
doing so I wish the University of Ceylon, now established at
Peradeniya, and all who may come here to teach or to learn,
every success in all their undertakings.

32

English-Speaking Union of the Commonwealth
Dinner to General Gruenther

8 JUNE 1954
Toast 'The Supreme Allied Command Europe*

This dinner tonight falls very near the tenth anniversary of the
Invasion of Normandy. That great undertaking will be remem-
bered as long as history lives, but we remember it tonight for
one very special reason. The Invasion was probably the supreme
example of co-operation for success. Co-operation between
Services, between nations, between planners and leaders, it will
always be there to show what can be done.

We are also gathered here for another reason. This dinner
is being given in honour of General Gruenther, whose main
job at SHAPE is to get people and nations to co-operate now.
We had also hoped to entertain Mrs. Gruenther, who has
played such a notable part in helping the General to build a
happy and co-operative atmosphere at his headquarters, but she
has been unavoidably prevented from joining us this evening.

97 H

Europe at the end of the War needed two things very badly,
social stability and military security. To build up confidence
those two problems had to be solved. The solution of one
without the solution of the other could not and will not achieve
the desired result.

I think perhaps I had better not go any further with that as I
shall certainly end in trouble and there are altogether too many
experts here tonight. But at least I can say this: here is the man
who is tackling the problem of building up in Europe a sense
of military security, and a sense of military security only follows
from the facts. We know he is fitted for this difficult job by his
previous record as a Staff Officer, but even more by his remark-
able record as Supreme Commander since he succeeded
General Ridgway.

He has been in Europe some time as Chief of Staff to the two
previous Supreme Commanders and has most certainly acquired
an extensive knowledge of the unpredictable ways of Euro-
peans. At any rate he knows enough to be accepted, indeed
welcomed, as an impartial umpire in the age-old game of
European rivalries. (Having been an international bridge
umpire in his spare time may have something to do with it.)

He is the third Supreme Commander in Europe and the
third American in that post. That is a compliment to America
as well as a tacit acknowledgement that America is playing the
leading part in building up military security in Europe. I think
we in this Union can also take pride in the fact that he speaks
English, or perhaps I had better put it that he speaks a language
which we can all understand. I think it would only be fair to
add that he has, of course, the invaluable support and assistance
of an English-speaking Field Marshal.

In the last six months the Queen and I have had a unique
opportunity to discover, by practical experience, that unity
between peoples is brought about by a common acceptance of
ideas good ideas which have the quality of striking a respon-
sive chord in human minds. Unity of thought cannot be brought
about by coercion.

98

The good ideas which are embodied in the British Common-
wealth and Empire have developed and grown over many
centuries. SHAPE, on the other hand, has had to achieve the
same sort of unity in a notoriously disunited area in a few short
years. We have every cause to be thankful to the Supreme
Commanders for what they have accomplished in the face of
tremendous obstacles. If anything the present will prove to be
one of the most testing periods. With increased resources,
experienced staff, and a slight reduction in tension, General
Gruenther must somehow keep alive the sense of urgency, ex-
tend and improve the machinery of the organization as a whole.

We can help by showing our confidence in him and in all
those who are working for him.

Personally I am looking forward to seeing something of
General Gruenther's 'set-up 5 in a fortnight and I hope that
what I have said proves to be true. In the meantime, on behalf
of the English-Speaking Union, everyone here tonight, as well
as many others, we thank you for what you have done, we wish
you further success in the future, and we would all like to drink
to the health of General Gruenther and, although she is absent,
to Mrs. Gruenther.

33

Visit to the Staff College, Camberley
30 JUNE 1954

Address after Lecture by Sir Frederick
Brundrett

I am delighted to have had this chance to listen to Sir Frederick
Brundrett here at the Military Staff College. I have listened to
his remarks with the utmost interest and attention. I was par-
ticularly fascinated by his reference to helicopters. I am

99

delighted to think that my presence here is due to an abortion !

The lecture we have just listened to has brought out most
clearly the way in which the relations between science and the
Services have developed over the years. It also brings out the
enormous contribution which scientists have made to the con-
duct of war in the past and the possibilities which are being
opened up for the future. It now rests with the Services to make
the best use of scientific development.

Lord Montgomery said this at the end of his annual exercise
at SHAPE 'and the conclusion I reach is that we must adjust
our affairs to the progress of science'.

The point is whether the Services are in fact in a position to
adjust their affairs to the progress of science at all levels.

I have a feeling that Sir Frederick may have left the impres-
sion that science should only be handled at the very top level
and in the rarefied atmosphere of the Ministry of Defence or
possibly with bated breath in the Service Ministries. That is
obviously an exaggeration, but that is my feeling.

In fact, of course, scientists and science can and do cope with
problems at all levels so long as they find people at all levels
able to understand what they are getting at. It is obviously
more rewarding to discuss improved infantry weapons with a
company commander who has fought in Korea than with, let
us say, a general who was at Balaclava. But if that company
commander does not understand what the scientist is trying to
do there will be no significant progress either.

The development of weapons and equipment of all sorts and
for all Services demands the very closest co-operation between
scientists and the Services at all levels.

The second field in which science has proved itself to be most
useful to the Services is in operational research. Here, again, no
problem is too small or at too low a level which the scientist is
not prepared to have a shot at solving. But the problem must be
stated in terms which he can understand and the solution worked
out jointly in such a way that it is both scientifically, militarily,
and practically sound. This can only be done if there is the very

100

closest co-operation and understanding between the Services
and the scientists at all levels.

In this connexion I was most impressed to see the way in
which just these difficulties were being tackled at the Military
College of Science at Shrivenham. There the dreams of scien-
tists are kept near the earth by battle-experienced soldiers and
there the sometimes narrow and inflexible military mind is
given a course of mental gymnastics. There they both learn
which problems stand the best chance of being solved by science
and which are best dealt with by specialized officers.

In this present age officers need more than the ability to
understand what scientists are talking about. In my opinion
officers need to have a scientific attitude of mind themselves.

By that I mean first of all the ability to look at the problems of
war and defence without prejudice and without inter-Service
jealousy. Honour, prestige, tradition, and envy must never be
allowed to cloud judgement on matters which affect the safety
of the nation in war.

Secondly, it means the ability to look upon war as a complete
undertaking where all available and allowed weapons and re-
sources are used to achieve success; to be able to profit, without
recrimination, from past mistakes; for it is from the mistakes
which we made at the beginning of the last war that we must
learn and not only from what went right at the end of that war.

The scientific attitude of mind implies that nothing is taken
for granted, to accept facts no matter how unpalatable, and to
distrust anyone who starts off 'I always say the only solution is*.
It means keeping an open mind when long-cherished ideas are
proved false and out of date. Merely because a certain problem
has always been solved in a certain way is no reason to believe
it is the best way; it may be but there may be a better way.

It means the ability to distinguish between fact and conjec-
ture. Above all it means that complete integrity of thought
without which no scientist can do good work and no officer can
hope to render valuable service.

To sum up then. Officers of all three Services must make it

101

their business to learn to understand the potentialities and limi-
tations of science in war. Secondly, the development of weapons
and equipment is a joint undertaking and demands the closest
co-operation between designer and user at all levels. Thirdly, if
operational research is to pay the best dividends scientists and
the Services must get close together. Lastly, all officers should
attempt to develop a scientific attitude of mind to everyday
military problems.

34

Visit to Canada,
10 AUGUST 1954

Broadcast, from Yellowknife, over Northern
Network of Amateur Radio Stations

I am speaking to you from Yellowknife on the Great Slave Lake
in the North- West Territories.

I left Vancouver on Sunday, and since then I have visited
Whitehorse on the Yukon, Fort Nelson, Fort Simpson, Port
Radium, and Coppermine on the Arctic coast. I have met, and
spoken with, a good many people in those places, and I have
seen something of what goes on.

You may be wondering why I am doing this tour. Well, there
are two reasons. In the first place, like many other boys, I read
stories about Canada's North- West and I have long had the
ambition to see what it looked like. The second reason is that
three years ago, when the Queen and I were in Canada, we
heard a great deal about the new developments in this vast area.
We heard of new mines and new discoveries, and of growing
communities. In the last few years I have had a chance to see
quite a bit of industry in different parts of the world, and I know

102

from that the increasing importance of the base metals. So I
decided to see where those metals came from. Nobody could
think of any good reason why I should not come and have a
look so here I am.

I realize only too well that I have only seen a very small
fraction of this part of Canada, and, of course, I have not seen
it in winter. As a matter of fact it was warmer at Port Radium
than it was at Vancouver.

All the same I shall go back with a much better picture in
my mind of the North- West Territories, its people and its
resources.

I am still a bit dazed by the immense size of the Territory,
and when I think of the distances I have covered in terms of
miles on foot, by water, and by air, my admiration for the early
explorers and pioneers is greater than ever.

Men first came to Canada for the fish in the waters off
Newfoundland, and British seamen explored the Canadian
arctic in the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth. On land they
found fur, and the fur trade led them into the interior to exploit
the forests and farm the rich land of the prairies. Now, in the
reign of the second Queen Elizabeth, the pioneers are turning
north again to satisfy the world's hunger for minerals. The land
here is rich in mineral wealth, and rich too in water power
which can be harnessed to make electricity. I have seen what
they have done at Kemano, where a power-house inside a
mountain will produce 2% million horse-power. I am told that
the Hamilton river in Labrador is capable of generating
10 million horse-power, and that is quite something when you
think that the total developed hydro power in Canada at the
moment is about 1 5 million horse-power.

None of this can be done without people. I have met some
of the men who are opening up this country, and I was even
more impressed by them than by the possibilities of these
territories.

I was also able to meet many people who have made their
homes here and are raising families. Aircraft and modern

103

science seem to have made life not only tolerable but almost as
comfortable as in the more temperate zones. However, I feel I
must add a special tribute to the wives whose cheerfulness and
courage does more than anything to make life pleasant in
remote settlements.

I was also delighted to meet a number of Indians and
Eskimos, and I know that my children will be enchanted with
the presents which I was given to take back to them.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this tour, and I
am looking forward to the rest of it, to Churchill and the giant
project at Knob Lake.

I am most grateful to everyone who has made this journey
possible, and particularly to my kind hosts. They have made
this visit very interesting, and very enjoyable.

Everything I have seen confirms my belief that Canada is on
the threshold of an era of great prosperity. I congratulate you
on what you have done, and I wish you all the best of luck and
good fortune in the future.

104

35

Visit to Edinburgh

12 OCTOBER 1954

Address to meeting of the Speculative Society of
Edinburgh after having received Honorary Mem-
bership and having listened to reading of essay

As you know, Gentlemen, I am by profession a sailor, and in my
Service the ability to give clear orders is valued more highly
than skill in oratory. So if, this evening, I do not cloak my words
in the neat garments becoming to the Speculative Society, you
will, I know, forgive me.

Ever since I first enjoyed Scotland's hospitality at school and
later in the Navy, I have had a great affection for this country
and this city. Then suddenly I found myself with the name and
later the Freedom of Edinburgh. Since that time I have tried
to take an active interest in all that goes on in this northern
capital. Indeed, so many of the institutions of Edinburgh have
been kind enough to enrol me in their ranks that it is not always
easy to reconcile their conflicting interests. I understand that a
hundred years ago the Speculative Society disapproved of the
idea of a Canal at Suez. But the Edinburgh Chamber of Com-
merce to which I also belong proudly told me that they
were represented by Mr. Josiah Livingstone, the then President,
at the Opening of the Canal in 1868.

But tonight I cannot help feeling that I have been admitted
to Edinburgh's inner circle and I am proud and happy to accept
the honorary privileges of this ancient Speculative Society.

Speaking as Chancellor of the University, I skip lightly over
the explicit hints of the essayist, except to say that I am sure
that Members of the University are delighted that you have

105

invited their Chancellor to be an honorary Member of this
Society.

If 'the Senatus holds these rooms in trust for the Speculative
Society exclusively' then by the same token I must be one of
the trustees. I have discussed with my fellow trustees the ques-
tion of our attitude towards this Society and we have agreed
that we feel rather like an uncle whose rather difficult nephew
has finally made good.

In my instructions from your Secretary I was told that a few
words of thanks to the Society and a compliment or two to the
essayist would be in order. So now by your leave I thank
Mr. Guild for his expressions of welcome and congratulate him
on his Speculation. All of it interested me, particularly his views
about the exclusion of female influence from this masculine
fortress. May I perhaps remind him that much the same
opinion has been held in ships of the Royal Navy for several
years past now?

Before I conclude it might interest the Society to know some-
thing about the Prince William of Hesse, who was admitted to
membership at the same time as Prince Alfred. Born in 1845 he
was the youngest brother of the Grand Duke Louis of Hesse who
had recently married Queen Victoria's eldest daughter. Princess
Alice, my maternal grandmother. On this occasion he had just
accompanied his sister-in-law on a visit to Balmoral. He then
came here to spend two months with Prince Alfred as, presum-
ably, a companion of about the same age. He fought against the
French in 1870 and died in 1900 a general in the Hessian Army.
He must have been a man of parts as a letter from Princess
Alice to her mother says : 'William will probably join us in
Rome. He is quite a connoisseur in Art and a good historian,
quite at home in Rome.'

I wonder if any other members can claim two grand uncles
as previous members, and admitted on the same day at that.

As we have heard so much this evening about the freedoms
which this Society enjoys, I hope I may be allowed to add one
positive freedom and one perhaps that is more important than

1 06

any namely the freedom to speculate, a freedom which has
become increasingly rare but which still flourishes in our islands
and in our Society. In Communist countries the censor's clamp
has closed on free expression and even in many parts of the
nominally free world it is not always safe to speak one's mind.
It is my hope that this Society will always remain a champion
of the outspoken and a stronghold of free debate.

36

Visit to Cardiff

I DECEMBER IQ54

On receiving The Freedom of City and County
Borough of Cardiff

My Lord Mayor,

Any thanks which I may be able to offer on this great occasion
would be quite inadequate to the honour and privilege which
you have conferred upon me. I realize, of course, that I owe
you thanks four times over, because I feel that in conferring the
Freedom of Cardiff upon me you have given much pleasure to
the Earl of Merioneth, you have honoured the University of
Wales in the person of its Chancellor, you have paid tribute to
the gallant Regiment of Welsh Guards, and speaking personally
and on behalf of your humble servant you have amply rewarded
all my meagre endeavours. No one man could wish for more
than that.

But for all that you have made me feel somewhat conscience-
stricken. I do not really deserve this; for one thing, I have not

107

spent nearly enough time in Wales. May I say that I am not
suggesting that this is your loss far from it the loss is entirely
mine. Every time I set foot in the Principality I wonder why I
do not come more often. There may be some who think it
strange that an erstwhile sailor should find anything beautiful
about the land; but here in Wales there is a strange wild beauty
which makes each visit a delight.

That is not all, my Lord Mayor, for I would be lacking in
truthfulness and courtesy if I did not pay a tribute to the very
genuine kindness and hospitality of the people of Wales to
myself and indeed to all visitors. That is one of the reasons why
I am so pleased that Wales will be host to the athletes of the
British Commonwealth and Empire for the British Empire
Games to be held here in Cardiff in 1958. I saw at Vancouver
what a wonderful family occasion the Games can be and I have
no doubt that Wales will prove to be a popular and highly
successful host.

That occasion will also be an admirable opportunity for a
great many people from all over the world to see at first hand
the remarkable contribution which Wales has made to the
post-war recovery of this country. The products of your skill and
industry are in great demand everywhere, and we all fervently
hope that it will long remain so.

There have been changes and upheavals, difficulties and
disasters, but through them all the tough tenacious spirit of
Wales has risen in triumph.

My Lord Mayor, I thank you for the charming way you have
conducted this ceremony, and for giving me the chance to pay
my tribute to a great city and a great people.

1 08

37

The British Commonwealth and Empire Lecture
to the Royal Aeronautical Society

l6 DECEMBER 1954

Aviation and the Development of Remote Areas

I. INTRODUCTION

It is a very great honour indeed to find myself addressing the
Royal Aeronautical Society. If, as I am often told, a little learn-
ing is a dangerous thing then you are in for a very dangerous
address. For much as I would like to say that I know nothing
about aviation it would not be altogether true. My knowledge
is of the picked-up rather than the learned variety. During the
war I was either at the receiving end of enemy aviation or under
a friendly and comforting umbrella, which counts as passive
experience. I started flying as a passenger in about 1935, and in
common with many others I have put up with all the frustra-
tions and delays of airline travel, particularly getting to and
from the airfields this I put down to semi-active experience !
The active part of my experience began two short years ago
when I started to learn to fly.

From this you will gather that any views I express this even-
ing must be treated with caution if nothing else.

For the purpose of this address I would like to divide aviation
into three broad divisions. First, Service aviation, and I do not
think I need define it any more closely than that; secondly,
scheduled airline operation which can include some of the long-
distance passenger charter work; and in the third division, the
rest, which is in fact largely made up of aviation in the remote
areas of the great countries of the world.

I do not propose to make any further reference to Service

109

aviation or civil airline operation or to the development of
aircraft for their use because a great many people, far more
qualified than I am, have covered those subjects in very great
detail. In any case, it is my contention that there is much more
to aviation than fighters, bombers, and airliners. A comparison
of figures may give a clearer picture.

Broadly speaking, in the United Kingdom there are 5,000
aircraft in the Air Force, 639 airliners, and 1,618 others. In
Canada there are 2,000 in the Air Force, 285 airliners, and
2,409 others. In Australia 1,000 aircraft in the Air Force, 185
airliners, and 634 others. New Zealand has 200 aircraft in the
Air Force, 44 airliners, and 416 others. South Africa has 300 in
the Air Force, 44 in airline work, and 441 others.

It is the 5,500 aircraft in the last division which I would like
to talk about.

Not very long ago the aircraft used in the three divisions were
roughly comparable in cost and performance, and some aircraft,
notably the Dakota, have served in all three. In recent years,
however, invention and development have tended to open up
an ever-widening gap between the third division and the other
two. To the Air Force and airline operators higher, faster,
bigger, and better may be an excellent motto, but it means
nothing to the man who wants to do top-dressing or crop dust-
ing from the air. It means that in a few years' time there will be
little use for the second-hand high performance aircraft except
in the role for which they were designed. It is therefore perhaps
a good moment to take stock of the position in the third division
of aviation and see what is going on and what is likely to happen
in the future.

II. THE CONCEPTION OF AVIATION IN
THE OUTBACK

During the recent tour of Australia and New Zealand, and
then later in Canada, I had a wonderful opportunity to hear
about and sometimes to see the enormous variety of uses other

no

than passenger carrying to which aircraft have been put in
those countries. It is not perhaps surprising that they have
found so many uses for aircraft considering the conditions.
Australia and Canada are enormous countries by any standard
and although New Zealand is not much bigger than the British
Isles the population is about 2| million compared to roughly
50 million in these islands. The distances involved alone make
aircraft the obvious choice for general transport.

In this country all forms of aviation and transport are be-
devilled by chancy weather, to say the least of it, while Australia,
New Zealand, and Canada are blessed with relatively good
flying weather for most of the year. Services in Australia work
to a 98 per cent, regularity. On top of that, the attitude to flying
in those countries is quite different; it is part of their life and not
in the least restricted to the relatively few people who go abroad
regularly, as it is largely in this country.

Aircraft and the men who fly them occupy quite a special
place in the minds and affections of the people who live in
remote districts. For instance, the pilots of the aircraft engaged
in the outback services in the Northern Territory of Australia
are doing by air, with all the added difficulties, what the
carriers and bus drivers are doing in the rural areas of this
country.

(Incidentally, since writing this, I caught sight of an article in
Flight describing the Beaver Service in Nyasaland, which said,
among other things : 'There is a genuine similarity between the
work of the Beaver and the country bus. . . .')

The pilots are required to service their aircraft, repair minor
defects, refuel, collect fares, issue invoices for passengers and
freight, and do the loading and unloading. In addition, they are
expected to run to a strict schedule, navigate over poorly mapped
areas which they must know well, land and take off from a great
variety of bush airfields under varying weather conditions. In
fact, the pilots become well known to all the residents and
become part of the life of the Territory, and the whole thing is
accepted as being perfectly normal.

in

Many things are quite reasonably done by aircraft out there
which would be the height of extravagance or folly in this
country. In many cases, of course, aircraft are used not because
it is easier, quicker, or cheaper, but simply because there is no
other way at all.

Distances, weather, and the absence of other facilities, there-
fore, make aviation a vital and integral part of the civilization
of those countries and no longer an interesting novelty or a
convenience for the relatively few.

My first-hand knowledge of Africa and the Indian continent
is rather more limited, but I imagine much the same applies
there, or will do before very long, especially if the right kind of
aircraft are forthcoming.

III. AIRCRAFT IN AGRICULTURE

Now, for a moment, I would like to get down to cases, because
it is only by quoting cases that I can try to show you the
extraordinary range and importance of aviation in the
Commonwealth.

To take agriculture first. Aircraft are being used for crop-
dusting which is really a form of pest control, for seeding, top-
dressing, and for the survey of land and in forestry. That is, of
course, broadly speaking because it would be almost as difficult
to describe all the uses of aircraft in agriculture as to enumerate
all the uses of a farm tractor.

Top-dressing is a speciality of New Zealand, and the object
of the exercise is to drop fertilizer on to otherwise inaccessible
pasture-land to improve the grass to feed sheep. It is important
to remember that this is not an alternative way of doing it it is
the only way. Top-dressing is done by air or not at all. I do not
think that there is any doubt about its usefulness. Let me give
you some figures. On a goo-acre block in the Auckland district
two seasons of top-dressing with 4 to 6 cwt. of phosphate and
potash per acre the capacity of the block has been increased
from 1,200 to 2,300 ewes, and it is hoped to increase that to

112

3,ooo in the next two years. Throughout New Zealand there
were twelve aircraft employed on top-dressing in 1939. That
figure has now risen to 162. In 1953 they distributed 140,000
tons of fertilizer over i million acres. Some people estimate
that aerial top-dressing is capable of increasing meat production
in New Zealand 50 per cent, in ten years, and the ultimate
target is to treat 10 million acres of hill country.

To give some idea of the cost of this work, it is estimated that
counting fertilizer, transport, dropping, interest on capital, &c.,
it works out at between 30^. and 34^. per acre or some 3 per
ton dropped. The latest development is a product consisting of a
hormone and a superphosphate for the dual purpose of weed
killing and fertilizing.

Apart from top-dressing, aircraft are used to spread trace
elements (this is done commercially in New Zealand for between
6d. and is. per acre), for sowing seeds, dropping fencing and
other supplies such as fodder and poison bait, and frost protection
of valuable crops. In America it is estimated that aircraft used
for agricultural purposes and there are 7,000 of them, com-
pared to 65 in Western Europe spend 55 per cent, of their
total flying time in pest and disease control, 35 per cent, in
seeding and fertilizing, and 10 per cent, in photographic surveys
for erosion, pest infestation, and for planning irrigation works.

So far as aircraft for agriculture are concerned, particularly
in spraying for pest and weed control, they have one important
advantage in that they avoid any mechanical injury to the
crop which would be unavoidable with ground machinery.

Whatever purpose aircraft are used for there is one funda-
mental rule, the aircraft must be employed all the year round
to make it worth while. The whole difficulty of operating air-
craft for agriculture lies in finding a variety of uses which will
achieve this ideal.

IV. AIRCRAFT IN PEST CONTROL

There are many sides to pest control from the air, but they are
mostly alternatives to ground methods. In Africa, however,

113 i

aircraft arc used for locust control and in this case there is no
alternative which is anything like so effective. For every pound
spent on aerial spraying of locusts, crops up to the value of i 10
can be saved. In 1954 a battle was fought in East Africa by ten
light aircraft operating from a 6oo-mile line of bases in Kenya
and Tanganyika against an invasion by some fifty swarms with
a total area of about 500 square miles and containing something
like 50,000 million locusts weighing perhaps 100,000 tons. This
time the locusts won, although many large swarms were attacked
in flight and several were completely destroyed. During the
battle it was found that 300,000 locusts can be killed by one
gallon of poison sprayed from aircraft at a cost of 6 per
million locusts killed.

Also in Africa aircraft are used against what is probably the
greatest obstacle to development of that continent. In Tangan-
yika alone 75 per cent, of the total land is unsuited for settlement
because of the tsetse-fly. They could be wiped out from the air,
but at the moment it takes three applications and that is still
rather expensive.

Almost every country in the Commonwealth and Empire can
provide examples of the use of aircraft in pest and disease con-
trol. Forests are surveyed to find infected areas and in Canada
budworm in forests have been attacked with DDT with great
effect.

The most important and effective way of controlling pests
and diseases if good husbandry and good sanitation prove
inadequate is by the use of poisonous chemicals. The immense
developments of potent new chemicals in recent years has meant
that only from i to 25 gallons of spray per acre are required
where 100 to 3,500 gallons would have been necessary a few
years ago. In fact, the low dosages at which the new chemicals
are effective have been directly responsible for the increased use
of aircraft for the control of pests and diseases in the last twelve
years. The essential quality of aircraft which suits them for this
work is their independence from the nature of the countryside,
which enables them to reach standing crops, deserts for locusts,

114

tree tops for forest pests, and swamps breeding mosquitoes, that
would be inaccessible to ground machines, and to treat infested
areas with a speed quite impossible by any other means.

Another method of dealing with pests is by biological control.
This means spreading harmless insects which will live on the
pests and reduce their numbers. This sort of thing can be done
most efficiently by air in fact it can also be done unintentionally
with harmful results. For instance, before starting the South
Africa-Australia air service it was discovered that there were
fifty- two varieties of pests which existed in South Africa but not
in Western Australia, which were liable to be transported inside
or outside the aircraft on that route.

V. AIRCRAFT IN SURVEYING

Considering the immense size of Canada, Australia, and
Africa, and the large proportion of unexplored country, it is not
surprising that aircraft are used extensively in the survey of vast
areas of unknown country. These surveys are made for a number
of reasons apart from ordinary map-making. In Africa 30,000
square miles were mapped for the purpose of choosing the best
route for a projected railway line. In the Gold Coast 16,000
square miles were mapped for a hydro-electric scheme, and in
Northern Rhodesia 1 1,000 square miles have been looked at for
a possible extension of the copper belt. In India 180,000 square
miles have been photographed for the survey of India. In
Pakistan under the Colombo Plan 300,000 square miles are to
be photographed for geological and irrigation surveys.

Probably the most important aerial surveying is done for
geological reasons. Aerial prospecting is indispensable in
Canada and Australia, and many interesting techniques have
been developed. Geological interpretations of photographs,
measurements of the earth's magnetic field, measurements of
electromagnetism, and measurements of radio-activity all play
their part in laying bare the hidden resources of those great
countries.

"5

Allied to geological surveys are the aerial soil surveys over
country otherwise inaccessible, or where the use of land changes
rapidly. Over- or under-developed land and soil erosion are
quickly detected in photographs, and volumes of timber per
acre can be estimated with fair accuracy. Canada has led in the
development of the technique of assessing the composition,
wealth, and best logging plan for her vast forests using stereo-
examination of photographs combined with ground work.

The great attraction of aerial surveying for whatever purpose
is the speed at which it can be done and hence the tremendous
amount of time saved. For instance, before building the hydro-
electric plant at Kitimat in Western Canada it was necessary to
find the best route for a 5O-mile power line across mountains
5,000 feet high. By any other method the survey would have
taken three years, but, using helicopters, the work was com-
pleted in thirty hours flying. Or again, the survey of the Frazer
River Canyon in British Columbia which took five years on
foot was completed in one season from the air.

As early as 1923 aerial survey was used in Canada to sketch
waterways, lakes, rivers, and areas of burn and merchantable
timber. The cost was J cent per acre against 2\ cents for ground
reconnaissance and it was done at the rate of 36 square miles
an hour.

VI. AIRCRAFT FOR FREIGHT

I think it can be generally assumed that aircraft are not
employed on jobs which can be done more cheaply by other
means. In the moving of freight, however, a whole host of com-
plicated problems make the issue rather more difficult. I do not
propose to deal with express air freight because from the aircraft
point of view it is not so very different from passenger carrying.

For many years there was a tendency in this country to think
of air freighting as rather expensive and unnecessary. This is not
altogether surprising considering the difficulties of weather,
short distances, and, in the early days, the relative lack of funds
available to the aviation industries. There are now, I am glad

116

to say, many welcome signs of growing interest in the rapidly
expanding market for air freight.

Development was very different in Canada, for example,
where as early as 1937 Canadian aircraft carried 24 million
pounds of freight compared with 9 J million pounds lifted by
United States carriers in 1939.

Air freight opened the Canadian North in the 2o's and 30*5
and every further development in that area depends entirely on
aviation. Take, for instance, the Eldorado uranium mine at
Port Radium on the Great Bear Lake less than 30 miles south
of the Arctic Circle. In the first place it was discovered by
Gilbert Labine in 1930 from the air in an aircraft flown by
C. H. Punch Dickens, a famous name among the bush pilots of
Canada.

The mine at Port Radium is entirely supplied by air from
Edmonton 1,200 miles away, except for particularly large or
heavy equipment. The Eldorado Company also look after
another establishment at Beaverlodge 350 miles from Edmonton.
The Company operates one Dakota and one Curtis Commando
which between them lift on the average 3,000 passengers and
about 3,000 tons of freight every year. A total of roughly
2^ million ton miles at a cost of 22 cents per ton mile. The only
other transport system is by water, and although this is con-
siderably cheaper it costs $80 for every ton taken to Port
Radium compared to $225 per ton by air navigation to Port
Radium is only open for one month and to Beaverlodge for four
months in the year. Therefore, allowance must be made for the
cost involved in carrying large inventories of waterborne freight
and equipment. In fact, the water route is only used to bring
out the products of the mine.

The figure of 22 cents per ton mile becomes rather more
interesting when it is compared to the cost of road transport
over comparable distances in northern Canada which is at a
rough estimate about 15 cents per ton mile, although the
average for the whole of Canada is 5 J cents per ton mile.

Two of the reasons why this Company can operate at such a

"7

relatively low cost are that both aircraft were picked up cheap
as war disposal, and because of the large back haul of passengers
and concentrates which make for the high load factor of 90
per cent.

The important point here is that these establishments, thanks
to aircraft, are in no way cut off from the outside world. Since
fresh food and vegetables, newspapers, and books can be flown
in all the year round, the community, which includes several
families, lives a normal full life.

Passing now from Canada to Australia, where an experiment
has been running some six years on the flying of beef from a
cattle station to the coastal port. These cattle stations can be
up to 5 million acres in extent and 500 miles from the nearest
railhead or harbour.

The experiment was started by Air Beef Limited who estab-
lished an experimental abattoir at Glenroy some 180 miles
inland from Wyndham in the north-west corner of Western
Australia, with a capacity for dealing with sixty head of cattle
per day or 300 a week. During the six years an average of 4,000
head of cattle per annum have been killed and the result has
been to up-grade the meat from 23 per cent, export quality to
65 per cent, export quality, and total frozen carcass weight has
gone up 13 per cent. Before the introduction of Air Beef only
about 7 per cent, of the cattle raised ever reached the meat
works. Although the value of the meat has only gone up by
345. a head, the increased production of meat has increased
revenue by over 200 per cent. The number of cattle marketed
from that station has doubled and the station has been enor-
mously improved by the increased income and by using the
aircraft to transport to the station all the equipment required
for the development.

The possibilities for Australia are immense. It has been
estimated that by using inland abattoirs and air freighting,
beef production in Australia could be doubled in ten years.

There is one other use for air freight which I would like to
mention. It is in connexion with the giant construction jobs in

118

remote districts. Early this year a sso-mile railway from the
St. Lawrence to Knob Lake on the border of Quebec and
Labrador was completed to carry iron-ore. This railway is
capable of carrying trains weighing up to 10,000 tons. The
railway was built principally by air. Using six landing strips,
men, equipment, and food were flown to work on various
sections of the line. I have already mentioned that helicopters
were used to survey the route for the power line from Kemano
to Kitimat. I think it is worth mentioning here that the line
was also built with the use of helicopters which carried every
man and piece of equipment to remote spots up to 5,000 feet
above sea-level.

VII. AIRCRAFT FOR OTHER USES

I have tried to describe to you the major fields of employment
for aircraft other than fighting or passenger carrying. There are
one or two fields which do not fall into any category but which
ought to be mentioned.

There is the flying doctor service in Australia which has made
such an enormous difference to life in the outback. I am not
going to describe the organization except to point out that the
pilot has a lot of problems which normally do not apply. The
mere fact that weather or airfield conditions are such that
normal flying would cease does not matter very much when a
life is at stake. The pilot often has to make a decision knowing
that if anything happened to the aircraft it would not be
covered by the insurance. Emergencies are much more likely to
occur after floods or storms just when air strips are at their
worst. Night flying is not possible at the moment so there is
the added hazard of not getting back in time and having to
make a forced landing in the desert. The flying doctor service
is a wonderful achievement, but flying the doctor is no piece
of cake.

In the exploration for and production of oil, Shell have five
aircraft in British Borneo which are used to carry staff between

oilfields, camps, and the nearest major airport at the rate of
about 1,000 a month. Journeys which would take 14 to 20 hours
on the ground are done in 50 minutes by amphibian.

Quite apart from the practical advantages, the moral effect
on staff of the ability to extricate casualties from difficult places
and get them quickly to hospital has been one of the most
welcome results of using aircraft. For instance, a suspected
typhoid case was in the main base hospital within 5 hours of the
emergency message being received. The out-station was 200
miles away and the surface journey would have taken 24 to
36 hours.

Much as I would like to say something about the private
owner and flying for fun, I am afraid the subject is too big
and complicated to be dealt with here.

In spite of the claims I have made for the contribution of
aircraft to the progress of civilization, I must admit that there
are other uses not quite so Utopian.

At Yellowknife in Canada this year, a man succeeded in
pinching two gold bars which he put in his kit-bag. He then
hired an aircraft and flew off to Edmonton and vanished. The
story goes that the pilot helped him to lift his bags into the air-
craft and when he felt the weight he is supposed to have said:
'What have you got in there a couple of gold bricks?'

VIII. HELICOPTERS

I have deliberately avoided the subject of helicopters simply
because the relative expense at the moment puts them out of
the reach of most people. However, now that they have caught
the imagination of the public and official mind I have no doubt
that their development will not lag through lack of interest or
funds. Neither does it need a particularly vivid imagination to
think of the uses for helicopters once they can be produced
reasonably cheaply.

I also do not wish to become involved in an argument about
the use of helicopters, but judging by present trends it looks as

120

if this country particularly could benefit from their character-
istics. Fixed wing aircraft are ideal for agriculture, pest control,
and survey so long as the geographical scale of countryside is
large. When it comes to dealing with small detailed work, which
is the rule in this country, then the helicopter is the only really
useful type of aircraft for that purpose. In fact the greatest part
of air spraying in this country is done by helicopters, and some
thousands of acres of potatoes are sprayed by helicopters each
year.

IX. REQUIREMENTS

That really concludes my rather sketchy summary of what
aircraft are used for in the Commonwealth and Empire.

There are several conclusions to be drawn. The first and most
important is that apart from the Bristol Freighter and the
Beaver, and later the Otter, not one single aircraft used in any
of the fields I have mentioned was actually designed for the job.
Every sort and kind of aircraft are used from Moths to Dakotas
and they are all old and were all designed for something else.
It is like using a double-decker bus as a milk float or a Bentley
as a farm tractor.

It is also perhaps interesting to note that both the Freighter
and the Beaver were private ventures, the latter being designed
and built in Canada. I may be wrong but, so far as I know, the
only aircraft on the stocks which falls into the category I am
discussing is the Twin Pioneer known to some as the 'Double
Scotch'. This started and is still substantially a private venture;
it was designed and is being built by a company that has only
produced one type of aircraft previous to this effort. I think it is
worth remembering that when the Beaver was first mooted
the makers went to considerable trouble to find out exactly
what the bush pilots of Canada really wanted, and throughout
its development their opinions, experience, and criticisms were
sought and used. The result is an aircraft which they like and use ;
113 Beavers and 51 Otters are in use in Canada already. Not
unnaturally, this aircraft is in demand outside Canada also.

121

Several attempts are being made to produce a D.C.3 replace-
ment, notably the Herald in this country, but it is not an easy
thing to do because the D.C.3 wiH on ty be replaced by an air-
craft which is better in all respects and, most important, con-
siderably cheaper to operate.

The secret of success seems to be the very closest co-operation
between the makers and the operators. That co-operation exists
in development of airliners; it is not always present in the
development of aircraft for the outback.

The Civil Aviation Journal of New Zealand introduced an
article with these words :

While it is not usually the policy of the Civil Aviation Journal to
reprint articles from other publications this article is so apposite to a
major problem of concern to operators in New Zealand that we have
on this occasion departed from normal policy. Acknowledgment is
made to the publishers of Aviation Age for permission to reproduce
this article.

The Journal then prints an article called We Want a Flying
Tractor'. I will not weary you with details, but the author wants
an aircraft of one ton capacity, a biplane, low wing loading,
load and engine ahead of the pilot, no flaps or slots, simple,
low speed and price.

In fact, an aircraft obviously based on these requirements has
been built in America and is expected to cost between 5,000
and 6,000. Trials already indicate that using this specially
designed aircraft the operating cost of chemical application is
roughly half that of the cost of the best existing aircraft con-
verted for the purpose. The other interesting fact is that a third
of these aircraft to be built will probably be sold to New Zealand.
I have also heard that more than one British aircraft company
is giving careful attention to the needs of New Zealand's top-
dressers and aerial agriculturists.

From Australia, I would like to read an extract from a letter
from the Operations Supervisor of Connellan Airways at Alice
Springs who among other things run the flying doctor service
there:

122

The one difficulty which is faced by bush airline operators is the
lack of a suitable type of aircraft. At the moment there is no aircraft
being manufactured, nor, as far as is known, is one even contem-
plated. Tough conditions are experienced and the aircraft must be
designed for the job. Specifications for such an aircraft, the 'Brolga',
were published in the Australian Aircraft magazine in 1950 and were
sent all over the world to manufacturers. A great service would be
done to bush operators, not only here, but in other undeveloped
parts of the world if this need could be presented to the aircraft
manufacturers, for then it is possible that such a suitable aircraft
would be produced.

Quite obviously this is only one side of the picture and no
one would deny that the makers have their troubles and diffi-
culties too. After all, even pilots and operators are not well
known for being able to state and stick to their requirements,
although they can be relied on to say with considerable emphasis
what they do not want. But the fact remains that aircraft are
needed for these operations, that aircraft will be used for these
operations and somebody has got to make them.

There can be no doubt that aviation is an essential element
in the development of the Commonwealth and Empire. Hence
it follows that aircraft must be designed for the jobs for which
they are required or the aircraft must be highly versatile; that
whatever the job the aircraft must be simple, robust, and easy
to maintain; that speed is a secondary consideration for the
simple reason that even if they only flew at 30 knots they would
still get to places several months before dog teams or ox carts.
This does not mean that aircraft have got to be slow. If high
speed makes them more economical to operate so much the
better.

Eventually, of course, in anything of this sort the question of
relative cost creeps in, and quite rightly. This applies equally to
bush or outback operations as it does to the movement of heavy
freight over long distances. The difficulty about estimating the
cost of this type of aviation is that it is very difficult to find
comparable figures. In northern Canada the cost per ton mile
by air is not much greater than by road, but that takes no

123

account of the cost of the road in the first place or its mainten-
ance. In Australia the railways, as in quite a number of coun-
tries, are run at a loss, yet quite obviously they must go on
running.

The difficulty at the moment seems to be to estimate cor-
rectly exactly what type of operations are most suited to each
system of transport. The conclusions, as I see it, are that the
scope for aviation will be considerably broadened : first, when
the full advantages and possibilities of aircraft are thoroughly
appreciated and trusted by potential operators, and second, if
and when suitable aircraft make their appearance.

Although it is really outside the scope of this lecture I must
draw attention to the very great importance of a strong flexible
air cargo fleet in the event of war. After all it is the combination
of the Navy and Merchant Navy which constitutes our maritime
strength. Similarly, our power in the air depends upon the
combination of the Air Forces and the Merchant Air Fleets of
the Commonwealth.

X. CONCLUSION

At the risk of becoming monotonous, I would like to repeat
that aviation has become a vital and integral part of the
civilization of the countries of the Commonwealth and Empire,
and that their further development depends upon operators
demanding and the aircraft industry producing machines cap-
able of doing a wide variety of work cheaply and efficiently.

At the moment the centre and head of the aviation industry
for the Commonwealth and Empire is in these islands. It is true
that great strides have been made in some of the Dominions in
the design and production of aircraft suited to their own needs,
but the industry in these islands is still the leading partner and
capable of making many useful contributions for a number of
years yet. If it is to do this it must not be blinded by the chances
of lucrative Ministry of Supply contracts or have its attention
to the requirements of the Commonwealth and Empire dis-
tracted by the clamour of Britain's airline operators. The

124

Ministry of Supply, the Service Ministries, and the civil opera-
tors are obviously the industry's best customers and patrons,
and they cannot be blamed for only considering their own
special requirements. But if the industry is to play its proper
part it must look beyond that and consider the progress of
aviation as a whole and all over the world.

I have no intention of telling them how this can be done. All
I wish to do is to draw attention to what I think has become a
neglected part of aviation. What is more, it is that part of avia-
tion which has the most important part to play in opening up
the remote areas of the new world.

It rather looks as if I have placed all the burden of the future
development of outback and bush aviation on the makers. That
is not the impression I want to leave. It is much more important
that each party concerned should understand and appreciate
the demands, difficulties, and limitations of the others and of
aviation in remote areas in general.

I started the preparation of this lecture thinking it was going
to be quite a burden, but thanks to the wonderful help I have
had from people all over the Commonwealth and Empire, I
have learned more about aviation than I could have done in
any other way. For that reason I owe a debt of gratitude to the
Royal Aeronautical Society for asking me to give this lecture.
I have also acquired an even greater admiration for the pilots
and operators of aircraft in my third division of aviation. All
over the world they are doing their work without fuss or fan-
fare, without publicity or uniforms, and nearly all of it is done
with makeshift equipment.

We hear often enough about the need for a strong, modern,
and efficient Air Force, and I fully agree with that. We hear,
not quite so often, about the need for a strong, modern, and
efficient Mercantile Air Service, and at the moment that seems
to me to be even more important. But above all we must have
an aircraft industry capable of meeting our own needs as well
as the special needs of those countries whose development and
future well-being depend upon aviation.

125

38

Visit to Glasgow

15 FEBRUARY IQ55

On receiving The Freedom of the City of Glasgow

This most generous gift of the Freedom of this great and historic
City of Glasgow has given me a very large measure of quite
undeserved pleasure. It is an honour, indeed an unexpected
honour, for which I am profoundly and humbly grateful. I
will not attempt to guess at the reasons which prompted this
gesture, but I look upon it as much more than a charming com-
pliment to myself. I prefer to see this ceremony as an expression
of Glasgow's loyalty and adherence to the idea of the constitu-
tional monarchy as it works in the United Kingdom today. I
am, for the time being, a small part of its fabric, and in honour-
ing a part you acknowledge the whole.

Several members of the Royal Family in years past have had
the privilege of being Freemen of this city and I was particularly
interested to see that the last Duke of Edinburgh was given the
Freedom in 1866. On that occasion he also inaugurated a
statue in George Square. At one time I was rather expect-
ing to be asked to reverse his good work, but I am glad to say
that both the statue and I have been spared that awkward
possibility.

Very naturally, and quite rightly, the Freedom of the City is
looked upon by those who give it and those who receive it as a
very great honour indeed, and the ceremony is full of charm and
dignity; unlike the ownership of Glasgow which, I understand,
can be obtained with a couple of drinks any Saturday night.

In common with all the great cities and institutions of this
country Glasgow has a long and fascinating history. There
have been good times and bad, prosperity and depression,

126

but throughout it all her citizens have remained steadfast and
industrious.

Over the centuries Glasgow has made a contribution to the
prosperity of these islands in more ways than any other city.
From tobacco and from cotton, from shipbuilding and the
heavy industries, the citizens of Glasgow have made money and
fame for themselves and put muscle on the sinews of the nation.

I have heard you, my Lord Provost, boasting that Edinburgh
may be the capital but that Glasgow has the capital. I am very
proud of the fact that I have the Freedom of Scotland's capital;
if you are now offering me Glasgow's I shall be very happy if not
a little surprised.

Glasgow is a great city in every sense of the word. Great in
size and numbers, her people are great in toughness and energy,
and her products from ships to sealing wax bear the stamp of
great engineers and craftsmen. Why this should be so I have no
idea, except perhaps because there is no other city in the world
quite like Glasgow, none has quite the same background or
environment, none has quite the same people. With cities as
with people, the great are always different from the rest.

If history is any guide it is worth remembering that if we
want great men in all walks of life in the future we should en-
courage differences in background and upbringing, differences
in education and development within, of course, the broad
limits of current political thought and circumstance. There is
quite enough uniformity in this age of factory and office life to
make difference in character and intellect more important than
ever.

Cities and industries, commerce and trade would never grow
or develop or have the flexibility to meet change or depression
if all men thought the same way. We need the enterprising and
the cautious, the pillar and the rebel, the clever and the slow, the
lazy and the industrious. Without them we would amount to
no more than a row of beans. Only different and independent
minds are capable of having new ideas or of understanding the
changing conditions of our times. Only original minds can

127

offer solutions to our many problems. You may set up an organi-
zation to cope with a particular difficulty, but nothing will
happen unless the men inside are capable of constructive
thought.

Throughout her long history Glasgow has produced great
men in abundance, in commerce and medicine, in shipbuilding
and industry, and in the arts and science, and there is every
reason to believe that she will go on doing so for a very long
time to come. If Glasgow has great people she herself will grow
in greatness to the pride of her citizens and as a strong support
to the prosperity and stability of the British Islands and Empire.

39

Visit to the Mediterranean
20 MARCH 1955

Broadcast to the Fleet at Malta

I am not going to make any secret of the fact that I enjoy going
to sea. I realize of course that there are some who do not. It is
true that being a passenger all the time is rather deadly, but one
cannot have everything, I suppose.

I do not know what you thought of the recent Exercises, but
from my point of view they were most interesting and instruc-
tive. We are going through a period in history roughly compar-
able to the time when gunpowder was first used in warfare,
although the introduction of nuclear weapons will bring about
a far more profound revolution. Gunpowder affected the battle-
field only and, even just before the atom bomb, damage due to

128

high explosive only affected a relatively small area. If there is
another war the whole world will be the battlefield.

I do not think anybody would disagree that nuclear weapons
are forcing a revolution in military thinking, but no two people
seem to agree about what form the revolution will take and
what the result will be.

One thing is quite definite, the revolution will be a painful
process for all three Services. There is no easy way out of the
problems we are facing, whatever some people may say. New
ideas will only emerge from argument and discussion and from
trial and error. There will be good guesses and bad guesses and
everybody knows that even good ideas are not always accepted
at once. The arguments and discussions are bound to be violent
at times and a lot of hard and sometimes irresponsible things
will be said, but it is all part of the process of feeling our way
towards solving the military problems of the atomic age.

As I am not intimately connected with any one Service any
longer, and as I have had various opportunities of seeing the
three Services at work and of listening to their ideas, it is quite
possible that I see some of the problems in a slightly different
way. What I see is this.

If the Services are to fulfil their proper functions at home and
abroad efficiently in this new age there must be a very much
higher degree of understanding and co-operation between them.
To make N.A.T.O. really effective the national contributions
must be properly national and not just so much from each
Service.

Secondly, the other point which strikes me is that many inter-
Service arguments start from the wrong conception. There
seems to be an idea that the difference between the Services
lies in the difference between the weapons which they use,
whereas the real difference lies in the functions which they have
to perform. We must be properly equipped to fight in all
elements and in all parts of the world, and the weapons we
choose to use should be treated as a means to that end.

The question of the relative importance of the Services is a

129 K

red herring, for defence is now one problem. The thing to
remember is that whatever weapons are used we must be able
to fight at sea, on land, and in the air under conditions governed
by the situation of potential enemies and the weapons available
at the time.

The present period of readjustment is bound to bring personal
difficulties to almost everyone serving with the Armed Forces
of the Crown. That is inevitable, but it may make them a bit
more understandable if you can keep in the back of your mind
that it is all, ironically perhaps, part of the price of progress and
well worth while in the interests of our national safety.

To get back to the Combined Fleet Exercises. They were
interesting to me because it is always comforting to know that
the Navy is trained and prepared for the worst. They were in-
structive to me personally because after four years away I have
learned a great deal about the changes in tactical doctrine and
technical equipment. In both cases it is quite obvious that the
Navy is doing everything possible to keep up to date, and there
is certainly no lack of original ideas.

Well, I hope you have all had a very pleasant time here in
Malta. I must admit that I shall be sad when we sail. Good luck
to you all.

130

40

Visit to 'Windyridge* Approved Probation Farm

Home

12 MAY 1955
Opening of the Home

It is nearly seventy years since the Whitechapel Mission began
its work for destitute boys in the East End of London. Estab-
lished by Methodists, it is a practical demonstration of their
concern for the poor, the neglected, and the unhappy.

This new venture will continue the work of coping with the
problems of the day using the methods of today, but based on
the eternal principles of lively Christianity. This is a wonderful
undertaking in every way, particularly as it recognizes that
misfortune rather than evil intent is at the bottom of most
problems.

We must recognize that in a large and relatively free society
such as ours many people are going to get hurt through no
special fault of their own. Not everyone can hope to go through
life, particularly early life, with a full measure of affection,
guidance, and opportunity. Getting hurt can take many forms
and can have many different results, but the thing to remember
is that it is happening all the time and that it is a duty, not a
charity, for the more fortunate to do what they can to help.

One of the difficulties is that there are many people who do
not know or do not want to know what can happen to people
who have not had the benefit of the same care and protection
as themselves. However, I am convinced that there is a great
well of sympathy and understanding in the community as a
whole largely untapped, because the problems are not recog-
nized. The more people know of the dangers the more it will
become a matter of course to attempt to minimize them.

The Whitcchapel Mission deserves to be most warmly con-
gratulated for pioneering this work. It must be a perplexing
task to convert the disappointed, disillusioned, and un-coopera-
tive, and to set aright the false values which do so much harm.

Here lads on probation will be helped to prepare themselves
to take their place in the community as steady and dependable
citizens. I have no doubt that at the end of their training they
will leave here happier and more responsible people, able to
face with confidence the difficulties which confront them. Above
all they will leave with a fresh understanding of the things in
this life that are worth striving for.

41

Dinner with the Royal College of Surgeons of
Edinburgh

20 JUNE 1955

Toast ' The Craft of Surgery

First of all, I want to say how pleased and honoured I am to
become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
on this its 45Oth Anniversary. And, as Patron of the College, I
offer myself a hearty welcome.

In the same breath, perhaps, I ought to give an immediate
undertaking not to attempt to practise the craft of surgery. I
understand that James IV sometimes used to have a go at
members of his Household. Mine are quite safe, I value their
assistance and friendship too highly to take that sort of liberty

132

with them. I am gratified to become an apprentice because,
though you may not believe it, I can read and write.

However, I take it that I am also absolved from replying that
I am an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of
Edinburgh if anyone should ask if there is a doctor in the house.

Some of you will no doubt know the story about the
glamorous film star who bruised her leg in a liner. The purser
looked through the passenger list and hurried to get help from
the first doctor on the list. But the man insisted that he was an
LL.D. 'Never mind', said the purser, 'she won't know the dif-
ference.' When the LL.D. got to the girl's cabin he found he
had been beaten to it by a D.D. The only reason the D.D. got
there first was obviously because there was no Hon. F.R.C.S.E.
in that ship.

If I know nothing of the business end of surgery, so to speak,
I am almost ignorant of the receiving end. In fact, I have only
been under the knife, which is an unattractive expression, twice
to my certain knowledge.

For all that, I am full of gratitude to Sir James Young
Simpson. I ought to feel just as grateful to Lord Lister, but it is
already so difficult to imagine what conditions were like before
him that we, as patients that is, are beginning to take the results
of his work for granted. That is something that can never
happen in any college of surgeons anywhere in the world.

As Chancellor of the University, and as Patron and Honorary
Fellow of this College, I am very proud that the two bodies
have been so intimately associated over the years in the great
enterprise of medical teaching. Of course, I am particularly
delighted that the President this year is a Professor in the
University. These two with the Royal College of Physicians
have made the Medical School of Edinburgh one of the most
famous in the world.

I hope that this co-operation will long continue for the benefit
of medicine and for the comfort of the sick.

This college has had 450 years of achievement. I hope the
college's next 450 years will be just as successful.

133

As you will see from the card, I am supposed to be proposing
a toast to the Craft of Surgery. In these days when everything is
either raised or reduced to a science, which really means that
the human element is removed as much as possible, it is refresh-
ing to find the word craft applied to something so august as
surgery. In one respect it is certainly the right word, for the
surgeon is, after all, the craftsman who draws together the
laboratory work of the chemist and the physicist, the nutri-
tional expert and the bacteriologist, the biochemist and the
psychologist, and through the skill of his hands is the person
ultimately responsible for the multiplying of human enjoy-
ments, and the mitigation of human suffering.

I only hope that those people who, quite rightly, believe that
surgery is more than a craft will forgive me, but I look at it,
still, from the point of view of the patient. If anyone is going to
tinker about with my insides I would rather he were an ac-
complished craftsman than an experimental scientist.

Since the days of John Hunter many brilliant men have made
surgery progressively surer, safer, and wider in scope, and that
work continues today. Whatever the future holds, there is still
a lot to be learnt about the art, craft, or science of surgery
(whatever you like to call it) and mankind will be grateful to
those who practise surgery for many years to come.

And now in recognition of past services, in appreciation of
present efforts, and in confidence of future successes, I give you
the toast: The Craft of Surgery coupled with the President of
the College, Professor Mercer*.

134

42

Renaming the New Schooner for the OutwardBound
Moray Sea School at Springfield Quay, Glasgow

30 JUNE 1955
Address to Meeting on board Carrick

Prince Louis of Battenberg was my maternal grandfather. Un-
fortunately I was only born the year he died so I never knew
him, but by all accounts he was a most remarkable man. At the
end of a distinguished career in the Navy he became First Sea
Lord and was largely responsible for keeping the Reserve Fleet
mobilized just before the start of the 1914 War.

I have no doubt that he would have been delighted to know
that his name was to be given to a ship to be used to teach
young men and boys about the sea and about themselves.

It has frequently been said that war often brings out the best
in people. There are doubtless many theoretical explanations
for this, but basically it is rather like saying that if you throw
some people into the water it will show that many of them can
swim remarkably well. In other words, if you throw out a
challenge it is sometimes surprising how many people take it up
and how well they overcome it. That is the principle on which
the Outward Bound Sea Schools are based.

The challenge is largely a personal one until the individuals
become members of the crew of the training ship, when the
challenge goes out to the crew as a team. In both cases it is
astonishing how many hidden reserves and unsuspected talents
are discovered and used. Once a boy is made aware of his own
possibilities his confidence increases and his sense of uncer-
tainty in a rather bewildering world is correspondingly reduced.

The training and the experience offered at the Outward

Bound Schools cannot fail to do some good to almost every boy
who attends them. However, that is the point of view of the
organizers of these schools and their very reason for going to
all the trouble to set up the Sea Schools and the Mountain
Schools.

There is also the boys' point of view. Although I never at-
tended an Outward Bound School, I did sail on a number of
occasions in the old Prince Louis when she belonged to Gordon-
stoun, and in her predecessors. I think the first Prince Louis was
called the Maisie Graham before my grandmother came to
Hopeman to rename her for the school after her husband.

It is not so long ago that I cannot remember what it was like
to go sailing in those ships. In fact, I remember only too well the
times when I was wet, cold, miserable, probably sick, and often
scared stiff, but I would not have missed that experience for
anything. In any case the discomfort was far outweighted by the
moments of intense happiness and excitement. Poets and authors
down the centuries have tried to describe those moments but
their descriptions, however brilliant, will never compare with
one's own experience.

And now there lies the second Prince Louis waiting for those
boys who are fortunate enough to go to the Moray Sea School
at Burghead. Waiting to give them an experience they will
never forget.

The important word here is 'fortunate'. There can be no
doubt that the Outward Bound residential schools have intro-
duced healthy activities into the lives of thousands of boys, but
they are the fortunate few.

I am quite certain that using the combined experience of the
residential schools and the youth organizations there is a way
of bringing the challenge of achievement to a much wider circle
of boys. The aim must be to bring the young into contact with
all that is good and healthy by arranging for them to experience
a wide variety of pursuits. In this country we must avoid at all
costs the mistakes that have been made elsewhere, we must
never resort to conscription for youth organizations, we must

136

never be tempted to try indoctrination and I am sure there is
no reason to add to our very comprehensive array of voluntary
organizations.

Our greatest need is to make each new crop of boys, as it
were, aware of the possibilities for healthy recreations and use-
ful service. Different outlets suit different characters and unless
boys know about the choice before them they may easily drift
into bad habits. I cannot believe that there are not enough
healthy pursuits, or channels for voluntary service, to suit almost
every boy and girl in the country once they know of their
existence.

The Outward Bound Schools, like the Scouts, the Boys'
Clubs, Athletic Clubs, and many others, are only one of the
many outlets available which are doing great work introducing
young people to new and fascinating experiences. Somehow all
these organizations must be helped to extend this work and I
hope that a way may soon be found.

I am delighted to have been here today to rename this ship
and to see her on her way into the service of the Outward
Bound Trust. Delighted, partly because I agree that attendance
at a Sea School is good for any boy, but particularly because I
think that any boy lucky enough to go for a cruise in Prince
Louis will have a perfectly wonderful time if only in retrospect.

137

43

Royal College of Art Convocation Ceremony
8 JULY 1955

Address to the Convocation

First, I should like to say how much pleasure it has given me to
become an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art. Per-
haps I may speak also for the other Honorary Associates and
Designers in thanking the College for its kindness; we are all
delighted to be associated with its work.

But I think perhaps the College should warn future Honorary
Fellows of the ordeal they will have to undergo in being made
to wear flannel dressing-gowns in the summer.

I should like also to congratulate all those who are receiving
Diplomas today and to wish them the best of luck.

Not very long ago I had the good fortune to pay a short visit
to the Royal College of Art and to see something of the work
going on. I want to say right away how much I was struck by
the vitality and enthusiasm which was so obvious in every de-
partment I visited. This, of course, is exactly as it should be,
because, after all, if any artistic endeavour becomes dull, repeti-
tive, boring, or uninspired, it loses its claim to have anything to
do with art.

It is particularly important that this College should always
keep a fresh outlook and an adventurous spirit, otherwise it
cannot hope to exert any influence for the good upon modern
domestic design.

Industrial design, or art in industry, is really a misnomer. The
artist or designer may work in an industry, but the stuff he
designs ends up in the home, in the streets, in the office, and in
the workshop. I am sure that people like seeing and living with
nice things. I do not believe that the critical or appreciative

138

faculty is automatically switched off on leaving an art gallery.
After all, most people take their eyes with them to work just as
they take their eyes to the National Gallery or the bathroom.
They may not always look but there is a growing tendency to
look much more critically. We even have a new word Subtopia
which is proof of a new awareness.

There is no excuse for unattractive design in anything that is
likely to be seen by human eyes, even less if it has a function to
perform as well. With all due respect to that august body, it will
be a great day when it is considered as important to have some-
thing shown in the Design Centre of the Council of Industrial
Design as it is to have a picture hung in the Royal Academy.
This day is bound to be some way off, as the Design Centre is
only to be opened next spring !

To put it kindly, you are lucky if you own a picture painted
by an R.A., but most people have got to live with furniture,
domestic objects, cars, shops, pubs, and everything else which
surround our daily lives. It is inevitable that we should see
more advertisements than old masters.

Some people bewail the passing of the artist craftsman, others
have no time for anything unless it is made by hand. Of course
the artist craftsman is still there but he cannot possibly meet the
needs of any but a very small section of the public. It may be
very sad that things are not made by hand, but the fact remains
that to make anything in sufficient quantity it must be made by
machine, and there is no reason why the machine should not
make nice things if it is given half a chance. What we lack is not
artist craftsmen but artist engineers. There is no reason whatso-
ever in this day and age why we should be palmed off with
second-rate stuff on the excuse that it is machine-made.

Artists cannot divorce themselves from the materials they
work with and the tools of their art. Even a painter must know
some technical details about his paints, brushes, and canvas.
Likewise, I imagine a sculptor has to know the difference be-
tween wood and stone. Therefore, it does not seem very much
to ask that an artist, if he wants to be employed in industry,

139

should know something about the capabilities and limitations
of modern machinery.

Conversely, it can also be said that those engineering draughts-
men who are in fact product designers should have some specific
training in the aesthetic side of their job. There is no mystery
about it and they are certainly just as susceptible as most other
people to artistic influence if they are given the chance and the
encouragement.

It is frequently suggested that to produce a well-designed
article you need the active co-operation and united efforts of
artist and technologist. That may be true, but is it not rather
like painting a picture second-hand? I would like to suggest
that the best designer is the artist engineer. Only the artist
engineer can readily understand the enormous possibilities
which are constantly opening up with new materials and new
techniques. The combination of qualities necessary to be an
artist engineer give him the best chance of tackling those op-
portunities with experiment and invention, with practical
originality and with taste.

Artists in any medium have something in common they
belong to the same world; but their knowledge of their art alone
will not let them into any other world. So that quite apart
from any practical considerations, if artists wish to be whole-
heartedly accepted into the industrial world they must have
technological qualifications. That is only human nature.

To sum up then. First, I believe that there is plenty of room
for good design in all the things which surround us in our daily
lives. Secondly, the machine is with us and I think it is here to
stay, therefore we need artist engineers who can so control our
machines that they will produce only attractive things.

I fully appreciate that I am preaching to the converted. No
one can visit the College without realizing how much import-
ance is placed on technology. But I believe that it is not a bad
idea to give even the converted a bit of encouragement now
and then.

This College can have a profound effect upon the lives of

140

millions of people, and I want each one of you to leave here
convinced that you personally can do something to make the
everyday things of this life and this country nicer to look at,
nicer to feel, and nicer to use.

44

Opening New Mycological Institute of the
Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux

13 JULY 1955
Reply to speech of welcome

There are various ways to increase or to maintain agricultural
production, but probably the most important is the control of
plant disease. The fight against plant disease is seldom 'once and
for all'; new diseases and new variations of old diseases are
always cropping up.

Where whole areas specialize in a certain crop the danger of
disease is greatly magnified, for it does not only affect the over-
all production of the crop, it can have disastrous economic and
social results.

The spearhead of the attack on crop diseases is research. It
is essential to know the nature of the disease, its powers, and
its weaknesses before any effective action can be taken. This is
so well recognized that research laboratories are growing up all
over the world for the special purpose of research into crop and
plant diseases. Some research is obviously highly specialized,
but a great deal of work is being done which would be of interest
in widely separated laboratories.

141

This Institute has a most important part to play in making it
easy for workers to follow what is going on elsewhere. It will
help to avoid duplication of effort, or where the same problem
is being tackled in different places it will help progress and
techniques to be compared, and so speed the solution of urgent
problems.

The quantity of scientific literature on even a relatively
limited subject must be reaching immense proportions. By far
the most impressive room in any research laboratory that I have
visited is the technical library. Its management can have quite
a remarkable effect upon the work of the establishment, for the
selection of material can never be automatic.

I am delighted that it is possible for the countries of the
Commonwealth to co-operate in this field. We hear quite a lot
about the invisible links, but not quite so much about the
tangible advantages of the Commonwealth. This Institute by
itself may not loom very large in the public imagination of
Commonwealth co-operation, but then it is not by itself. It is
in fact a part of the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, and
even the biggest ropes are made up of quite small yarns.

I am quite certain that this Institute will make a very im-
portant contribution to plant pathology in the years to come.
I hope everyone who works here will find it a rewarding occu-
pation. I wish you all the best of luck.

14*

45

Visit to the Gordon Boys' School at Woking
16 JULY 1955

Presentation of New Colours

I congratulate you all on today's parade. I was very impressed
by your smartness and good drill.

May I also offer my congratulations to the cup and medal
winners. Do not forget that prize winning is no reason to relax.
Prizes may be awarded for past merit but they are also intended
to encourage greater efforts. Whether you have won a prize or
not, let me remind you that the only prize worth winning is a
clear conscience at the end of your days that you have lived a
useful, Christian life. There is no better example than the man
after whom this school is named.

A few minutes ago I presented you with new Colours. These
will replace the original Colours presented by Dr. Hope in 1 895
which have now been honourably retired after sixty years' ser-
vice. These Colours are a symbol of the spirit of this School.
When you take them into Chapel and ask for God's blessing on
them you are asking Him to bless this School as a complete
entity embracing boys and masters, work and play, old boys
and past achievements, members of the Committee of Manage-
ment, and hopes for the future.

The Colours bind together everything and everybody in any
way connected with the Gordon Boys' School. It is therefore
most important that you who are here now and have temporary
custody of these Colours should look after them with respect so
that you can hand them on untarnished to those who come
after you.

In recent years I have frequently driven past the School, and
I have often seen boys in uniform outside. I am delighted to say

that they have always been smartly dressed and, as far as I
could sec, well-behaved. In fact, I formed a very good impres-
sion of the School. Now that I know a bit more about it and
have seen you at closer quarters that good impression is con-
firmed. But do not forget that the important time of your lives
will come when you leave here. It is then when you are on your
own, responsible for your own actions, that what you learnt here
will count. No matter how successful you are at school it is all
wasted if you do not stick to the rules of good behaviour when
you leave here. There will never be too many decent, honest,
hard-working men and women in this country of ours.

Finally, when you leave here I hope that every one of you
will find something more than just a good job and a comfortable
home. I hope that you will feel a pride and a satisfaction in your
work and find real happiness through service to others.

46

Inaugural Meeting of the Conference of European

University Rectors and Vice-Chancellors at

Cambridge

20 JULY 1955
Address at the Opening

My first duty is to read a message of good wishes from the
Queen :

The opening of this Conference of University Rectors from all over
Europe is a unique occasion. I am most happy that such a gathering

144

of representatives of European universities should take place for the
first time in my country to which I should like to welcome all the
distinguished members of the Conference. I wish the Conference
every success in its deliberations and I hope that it will make a
valuable contribution to the unity of Europe and to the heritage so
dear to us all.

Now may I say how glad I am that the Western European
Union has asked me to take part in the opening of the Con-
ference and how grateful we are to you, Sir, for allowing this
Conference to take place here in Cambridge. The problems of
education, particularly university education, are common to all
countries. Every university is trying to do much the same thing.
Therefore, I am delighted, as it were, to be able to ignite the
train of discussions and comparisons of methods, ideas, and
problems which I hope will mark this Conference.

The privilege of being Chancellor of two Universities has
taught me that all, or almost all, the responsibilities for running
universities fall on you, the Rectors and Vice-Chancellors.
Therefore, as a titular head you must acquit me of any re-
sponsibility in what I say or of any special knowledge.

In the Middle Ages it was the Church and the universities
which were primarily responsible for knitting together the
nations of Europe in a common culture. This amounted to a
system of thought and behaviour, conditioned by a reverence
for the classics and restrained by religion and social custom.
Two world wars and the advent of science have completely
upset those conditions and removed those restraints. So far we
have neither returned to them nor put anything in their place.
The responsibility of the universities is therefore much greater
today if they are to minister to the specialized needs of modern
society and to regain their position as the spiritual and moral
reservoirs of Europe and the world.

One of the marks of the Middle Ages was the free movement
of scholars from university to university across the face of
Europe. Since then the world has grown much smaller and that
mobility ought in our day to cover the whole world. Teachers

145 L

in the arts must surely benefit from a wide personal knowledge
of the places where those arts flourished most nobly, and the
science teacher must surely draw inspiration from working in
the universities which were responsible for some of the greatest
strides in science. Perhaps even more important, the movement
of teachers and students alike between universities must surely
help to break down the narrow nationalism which grows up
with isolation. A proper respect for the achievements of others
may not be easy in this competitive world, but it is after all the
first step towards a broad mind.

European culture, thought, and ideas have drifted all over
the world, and although they have received some hard knocks
in recent years there are many far-away places where people
still believe that Europe has something good to offer. We shall
have nothing to offer unless our behaviour, our ideals, and our
achievements gain universal respect. We can only have some-
thing to offer if the universities have clearly before them what
they are aiming to do.

With the inevitable growth of specialization I see the uni-
versities facing two great dangers. First, it is very easy to get so
involved in the technical details of education that the object of
education is lost. And secondly, in an effort to condition a
university to the needs of its students and to the needs of the
State it may lose its power to make or mould those students into
reasonable and responsible men, capable of thinking for them-
selves and capable of expressing the result of their thoughts to
others.

A university must do more than merely provide a high-class
professional apprenticeship. It does not matter in the least what
a student's specialized line happens to be; the fact that he is a
specialist cannot excuse him from his responsibilities as a man.
Students must emerge as complete human beings capable of
taking their proper place in society as a credit to their univer-
sities both for their professional knowledge and as men.
There is no conflict between the disciplines here. Nobody can
be termed a complete man who has no knowledge of what

146

science has to teach, and, equally, human obligations cannot
be escaped on the grounds of being a specialized scientist or
technologist.

By human obligations I mean the ability to behave in a
reasonable way, to observe restraint so that restraints do not
have to be imposed, to be able to think clearly and objectively
so that false doctrines cannot gain ground. I believe that it also
means the ability to see through nonsense, political, economic,
scientific, and so on, and the feeling that it is a duty to resist it.
This in no way conflicts with the amount of specialized know-
ledge, whether scientific, classical, or anything else, which the
student can absorb and turn to good account for himself and
the community at large.

The universities have a special responsibility to send people
of that sort out into the world, because by their influence and
example in the community at large they can extend the work
of the universities to every corner of the world.

However, to produce the complete man with that balanced
sense of obligation and understanding we need to know much
more about man himself. Our knowledge of science, the classics,
or medicine is beautifully documented, indexed, and ordered.
We may not know everything about the subject, but what is
known is neatly bound. I imagine that is why we sometimes
call this an age of reason, but we forget that in the midst of all
that reasonable knowledge man himself remains as unreason-
able, irrational, and unpredictable as ever.

Everything around us has been found to have laws and order,
and there are some who faintly resent the fact that man refuses
to be ordered in the same way. But we must take care not to
treat man, with his immense variety of prejudices and emotions,
as just another statistical unit. There is the conflict; and it is
perhaps inclined to become most noticeable in scientists who
deal with ordered things and thoughts in their professional lives,
but when the problems are human ones it is not altogether sur-
prising that their ideal solutions are not universally accepted.
The reverse is, of course, also true. If you spend your life making

147 L2

compromises it is hard to understand why that is not possible
in science.

I would like to repeat that the conflict is not between dis-
ciplines, between humanism and science. The conflict lies
between man and the world he has made for himself. Man has
succeeded in changing many things but he has not changed
much himself.

It is just because we have got such a grip on nature and such
a store of knowledge for its own sake that we must remember
the central character, man, and his possibilities, limitations, and
the depths he can sink to if he relaxes his self-control.

Now, I do not claim that any of this is original, and I cer-
tainly do not claim any particular right to say these things, but
at least I am neutral. I am not a graduate of any university,
I am not a humanist or a scientist, and, oddly enough, I do not
regret it. I owe my allegiance to another of the world's few
really great fraternities, the fraternity of the sea. At sea you will
find all the conflicts that man has had to contend with now and
in the past. The fear of the unknown, the power which is greater
than man and his machines, the necessity to reconcile human
frailties to scientific gadgets. For every modern ship, particularly
a ship of war, is a small scientific world, ordered, mechanical,
reasonable, but if it is to function at all the central characters,
the men, must work together or there is anarchy. In order to be
able to work together they must understand their obligations and
must practise certain restraints whatever their specialized jobs.

There are technical problems to be overcome in designing a
ship as a scientific gadget, and there are the human problems
to be overcome to make that ship work, and at sea you fail if you
neglect those human problems.

Now, Sir and Gentlemen, these are only random reflections
and taken by themselves have probably no great merit, but I
have advanced them in case some chance remark sparks a train
of thought in another mind, or in agreeing or disagreeing with
something I have said, somebody may find his own thoughts
made a bit clearer.

148

So, finally, I would like to wish this Conference every success,
and I hope there will be many opportunities in the future for
the universities of Europe to meet together for their own good,
for the good of Europe, and ultimately to the benefit of the
whole world.

47

Taking the Salute at the Sovereign's Parade at the
Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst

28 JULY 1955
Address to the Parade

First of all, I want to say that I was very impressed by your
drill and smartness this morning. I congratulate the instructors
on a good job. This parade is a great credit to the Royal Military
Academy. You can be certain that the Queen will get a good
report.

I congratulate also the prize-winners. Remember that you
have much more important prizes to aim for after you leave
here.

To those who have not won prizes or distinguished themselves
in any way and to those who passed out not quite at the top of
the list I only want to say this: success in any career can only
be measured at the end of it. Every one of you leaving this term
has exactly the same chance of eventual success.

You must all realize by now that your most important and
most difficult job when you leave here will be to lead men of

the corps and regiments which you join. This job is more
important than ever now that such a large proportion of the
young citizens of this country pass through the ranks of the
Army.

Your influence upon them while they are serving in the Army
can be a very great help to them and to the country as a whole
when they return to civilian life.

Your next job will be to understand and to learn how to
handle your technical equipment. This part of your job may not
be so rewarding as the leadership of men, but unless you can
thoroughly master the machines as well as thoroughly under-
stand the men you will never be properly equipped to exercise
executive military command in any sphere.

There is one other thing to which I would like to draw your
attention. While it is most necessary that you should constantly
try to improve your professional qualifications as soldiers, do
not lose sight of the fact that your corps or regiment is part of
the Army, that the Army is a part of the Armed Forces of the
Crown, and that the Armed Forces are part of our national
fabric. If you are to serve this country well in positions of trust
and responsibility later on, you must keep yourselves well in-
formed about political as well as military events and thought in
this country and in the rest of the world. By keeping informed
about these events, I naturally do not mean that you should
get involved in theqj in any way whatsoever while you are still
serving.

Finally, as you grow older try not to be afraid of new ideas.
New or original ideas can be bad as well as good, but whereas
an intelligent man with an open mind can demolish a bad idea
by reasoned argument, those who allow their brains to atrophy
resort to meaningless catch-phrases, derision, and finally anger
in the face of anything new.

I know that soldiering means hard work and is a serious
business, but I still hope that you will all have a lot of fun in
your chosen career.

Good luck to you all.

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48

Presentation of Awards at the Royal Society
of Arts

26 OCTOBER 1955

Presidential Remarks

The bare business of today's meeting is to present the Society's
Bicentenary Medal to Sir Charles Tennyson and to make Uffa
Fox a Royal Designer for Industry.

Put like that, I must admit that it sounds most uninteresting.
Yet, oddly enough, I think both the men concerned and the
reasons for their being here are full of interest.

If you will all forgive me, you could not find two people with
less apparently in common. The one: Eton, Cambridge, the
law, industrialist, company and then government service. The
other: apprenticed in a shipyard in Cowes, then in the Royal
Naval Air Service, successful small-boat designer and sailor, a
genius at enjoying himself, and an expert and passable per-
former at the more obscure folk-songs. At least they have this in
common. They are both authors.

We honour Sir Charles today because in our opinion he has
encouraged good design, and that really means a lot more than
one might think. Anybody can display a passing interest by
adverse criticism. It is only too easy to demonstrate your sup-
posed independence of mind or disregard for convention by
destructive comments. What is much more difficult is by the
use of your own judgement to decide what is good, and to be
right, if possible, more often than not.

In any age in any fashion only about 10 per cent, is original
conscious good design, the rest is copied or worse still is styled.
The particular genius of what used to be called the Tatrons',

and Sir Charles might be so described, is that they can recognize
that 10 per cent, when they see it and encourage it for the benefit
of the rest of us.

The encouragement of good design and good taste is the
special interest of this Society. We already give rewards for
good design, the Bicentenary Medal is now given for the en-
couragement of good design, and I expect we shall have a prize
for the most discriminating consumer before long.

I suppose I shall have to say something about Uffa here. All I
can think is that he must find it just as difficult to see me as
President of this Society as I do to see him as an R.D.I. That is
not meant as any reflection on his work, it is just that when
sailing together in small boats personality counts before
trappings.

There is a tendency nowadays to imagine that everything
new must be scientific or rational. Uffa Fox as a helmsman in
his day was a world beater and as a designer of small boats he
is also a world beater, and I can state categorically that there is
practically nothing scientific or rational about Mr. Fox. Like all
the great designers, his genius is entirely human.

152

49

British Olympic Association Banquet at Grosvenor

House

21 NOVEMBER 1955

Toast 'The British Olympic Association*

The British Olympic Association was formed in 1905, so tonight
we are celebrating its fiftieth birthday.

Since the formation of the Association it has been responsible
for raising the money and organizing every British team to take
part in the nine Olympic Games held since then. That represents
a very great deal of money and a very great deal of hard work,
most of which was voluntary and unpaid.

I do not propose to get involved, this evening at any rate, in a
discussion on the merits or otherwise of international sport. I do
not really know whether the Olympic Games have realized the
dreams of their founders or not. It is just as easy to be cynical
or sentimental about this subject. But I do know this: the urge
to pit one's skill or ability against others is present in everyone
from childhood and has been with man as a whole since he ran
races up and down the trees, or threw a stone axe.

The Olympic Games thrive on that urge and their real con-
tribution is their brave effort to ensure that the contests are
conducted in an honourable and sportsmanlike manner.

The purpose of this dinner tonight is to start the campaign to
raise money in order to send British teams to the Games next
year in Sweden, Italy, and Australia. Very few individuals
likely to be chosen to compete could possibly pay their own
expenses. Very few indeed [of the governing bodies of amateur
sport, who act as selectors, have got anything in the kitty at all. So

153

that is the point of the British Olympic Association's appeal for
funds. I expect you will be hearing more of the details later.

The fact that the British Olympic Association is also cele-
brating its Jubilee is relatively unimportant.

As far as we are concerned in this country, there is something
quite special about the 1956 Games. The athletic part of the
Games is to be held in Australia, which some of you will recollect
is a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and the
first of those nations, after this country, to be host for the
Olympic Games.

It is, therefore, not just a matter of sending a team to the
Olympic Games as such. It is also a matter of sending a team
of athletes to Australia. Here is an opportunity to show our
interest in Australia and to support their very considerable
efforts to arrange the Games properly. But if our team lacks for
anything or the funds are not sufficient to send our best men
and women it will be a clear demonstration to Australia and
indeed to the whole world that we are not interested in one of
our sister nations, and secondly not interested in the Olympic
Games. And that, in my opinion, would be a very great disaster.

Many people will be saying that the Government should take
a hand in this: that it is monstrous that something so important
should be left in the hands of volunteers, and they probably add
the word incompetent for good measure, very unkindly and
unjustly.

I think that is quite wrong. The team we want to send should
be composed of amateurs, and not temporary civil servants.
This venture must rest squarely on the voluntary support of
individuals in this country who would like to see our best
athletes in competition with the best athletes from the rest of the
world, and in front of the eyes of our Australian cousins.

It may be argued that there is a lot of national prestige to be
gained from successful competition in the Olympic Games. In
my opinion, there is a lot more prestige to be gained if we stick
to the spirit as well as the letter of the rules both in preparing
for these Games as well as during the Games themselves.

Let us try to send the best party we can, and I sincerely hope
the numbers will not be limited by lack of money; and, in-
cidentally, let us show the rest of the world what a free people
can do to help themselves.

Let us also hope that our team win a lot of medals, but win-
ning or losing it is much more important that they should come
home having added lustre to the reputation of British sports-
manship.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you a toast to the British
Olympic Association, and may their efforts exceed all our
expectations.

50

sgoth Anniversary Festival Dinner of the Royal
Scottish Corporation at Grosvenor House

30 NOVEMBER 1955

Toast 'Hie Royal Scottish Corporation 3

First of all, as your Chairman, may I welcome you all to
this dinner this evening, and may I say how delighted I am to
be with you at this agoth Anniversary Festival of the Royal
Scottish Corporation on this St. Andrew's Day.

It is always a pleasure to be associated with or to attend any
function which is in aid of a charity, especially when such a
good dinner goes with it. I imagine that the excellence of
the dinner is designed to prevent any guests feeling that their

155

presence here is in any way a charitable action. I take it rather
more of them is demanded.

You will be pleased to hear that my charitable action this
evening will be a short speech, but those who cannot make
speeches will have to think of something else to do.

It says a very great deal for the unselfish instincts of the
Scottish people who such a long time ago provided for their
less fortunate brethren in the form of this Scots Box, and later
the Royal Scottish Corporation. I notice, incidentally, it was
started at the time of King James I and VI, who came to unite
England and Scotland.

Nobody knows quite what inference to draw from that. Is
it perhaps that there were no Scots poor in London before he
arrived? If so, does it imply that he perhaps brought them with
him? Or do you think they all suddenly became poor as a
result of celebrating his arrival?

If I had lived at that time I would have been celebrating too,
not because I claim any very great proportion of Scottish blood,
but only because his queen, Anne, was in fact a princess of Den-
mark, and therefore presumably might have been a relation.

That gives us a very good reason for celebrating, and possibly
the only other reason I might have to celebrate St. Andrew's Day
is that my father was called Andrew. As I say, I can claim very
little Scottish blood by birth, but if you can acquire Scottish
blood in the same way that you can acquire Nelson's blood

However, to get back to this toast, which is to the Royal
Scottish Corporation. The fact remains that over the years ever
since 1611 they have done a very, very great deal to alleviate
human suffering and want and, in the words of the oldest
publication in the Corporation's possession, 'may answer fully
the true design of charity'. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you
the toast of the Royal Scottish Corporation.

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