Record

FS - Papers of Sir Francis (Franz) Eugen Simon
- 7 - Correspondence
  - 4 - Correspondence with Institutions, Groups and Organisations
    - 6 - Correspondence with the Foreign Office and the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning

RefNo	FS/7/4/6/18
Level	Item
Title	Letter from Professor Simon to Sir Henry Dale
Date	15/10/1947
Description	Note typed at head of first page; "The original of this letter was sent to Sir Charles Darwin for his personal use. Shown by him to Sir Henry Dale and the Secretary of the Committee and then destroyed." Marked "Private and Confidential" 'I had a word a short time ago with Sir Charles Darwin on a few matters concerning German scientists and he advised me to write to you about them. The original point which gave rise to our discussion was the fact that Fraser, our scientific representative at Gottingen, had suggested that a scientist, Justi, should be sent over to this country to give lectures. I know personally and have recently had it confirmed by some decent German scientists that this man was a Nazi and remained one throughout the war. His entire career shows that he is an opportunist of the worst type who collaborates with anyone who happens to be in power. in addition, he is a poor scientist who has produced a lot of stuff which later turned out to be wrong. This particular case is now closed as Professor Mott, after consulting me, refused to have him invited; it still retains its siginificance as an example of the sort of thing that is going on. I am very much in favour of inviting German scientists to this country but I think it is extremely important that the right people should be invited. At the present time, so soon after the war, I think it is essential that we should invite only people who have behaved decently and preferably those who have been actively anti-Nazi. Of course it goes without saying that we should only invite good scientists. There are not very many who fulfil both condition but quite a fair number. I think it would be quite intolerable if one of the first invitations waas extended to a man who neither is an outstanding scientist nor has behaved decently. I have heard from a few friends in Germany how depressing it is to them to see the wrong people being favoured by the Allied Occupation Forces and this happens more often than not. I agree that it is very difficult to judge and unsderstand properly people of another country, particularly Germany, where mental honesty is not a common characteristic. This makes it all the more important that some method of choosing the right people shoudl be established. An essential thing is that we should have a man in Germany with a proper appreciation of the whole problem. It is of course very difficult to find a sutable person - active scientists will generally not accept such a job as it would interrupt their scientific careers completely. Scientists in the minor grades are in a very delicate position, particularly when dealing with German scientists of very high standing who are often very clever politicians also. It seems to me what has happened in this particular case in Gottingen is that Heisenberg has Fraser completely under his influence. Heisenberg is of course one of the greatest living scientists, but on the other hand he is also a very shrewd politician and was always a nationalist of the first water. He has never been a real Nazi but he was quite prepared to share the spoils - one might call him a "fellow-traveller". Fraser feels extremely flattered that such a world-famous man, with whom he would never in the ordinary way have had the slightest contact in scientific matters, has taken him into his confidence. He is very thrilled that he has the ear of such a person and through him is able to get to know so many top ranking people of the scientific world. A man of strong personality would not be taken in by such obvious manoeuvres but I am afrraid Fraser is not that type of person. He has now made up his mind that the picture which Heisenberg and his friends have given him about the situation in Germany is the right one and he refuses to listen to any other point of view. That at least was the impression I got when I saw him here and this has been strengthened by his later actions, particualarly in the case of Justi. This is of course only my personal opinion but I know that other people share it. May I suggest that you discuss this matter with Mr. M. W. Perrin, Deputy Director of Atomic Energy, Shell Mex House, who knows a lot about Fraser? I should add that Fraser is personally very agreeable and certainly has good intentions; nevertheless he (is) in my opinion not the right man for this position. It is not very pleasant to have to write a letter like this and I would not do so if the question were not of such real importance for our future relations with German scientists, and also for the development of democratic ideas within the German scientific community. In addition Sir Charles Darwin told me that you and your Committee would welcome my views. I should mention that I have had some correspondence on the question of German Universities with Lord Pakenham, to whom I have also sent two reports from German scientists who are known to me to be above reproach and who drew a very grim picture of the political position in the German Universities. If you are interested, I could have another copy made of these reports and send them on to you. '
Extent	2 pages
Format	Carbon copy
AccessStatus	Open
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