| Description | ' At the seventh meeting of the British Committee for Co-operation with UNESCO in the Natural Sciences, held in the rooms of the Royal Society on Monday, 232 October 1950 at 2.30 pm.
Present: Professor E D Adrian, Foreign Secretary R.S, Chairman; Brigadier R A Arnold, NAtional Committee for Geography; Professor J D Bernal, Association of Scientific Workers; Mr W K Brasher, Institution of Electrical Engineers; Mr E Graham Clark, Institution of Civil Engineers; Mr T Dewhurst, Parliamentary and Scientific Committee; Dr E Hindle, British Association; Dr O J Howarth, British Association; Sir Harold Spencer Jones, National Committee for Astronomy; Mr E Bolton-King, British Council; Sir Norman Kinnear, Ministry of Education; Dr J Needham, Royal Society; Sir Richard Southwell, National Committee for Mechanics; Dr A E Trueman, Advisory Council on Scientific Policy;
Sir Georg Thomson attended by invitation
Joint Secretaries; Dr D C Martin, Royal Society; Mr H C Rackham, Ministry of Education
Mr H L Verry attended in place of Sir Ben Lockspier, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Mr A H Waterfield also attended, and Mr F R Colwell, Ministry of Education.
Matters discussed;
55. Minutes of the sixth meeting, held on 8 March 1950, were confirmed
56. Matters arising from the minutes
(a) International Institute of the Hylean Amazon
(b) International Conference on Science Abstracting
(c) Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind
(d) International Insititute of the Arid Zone
57. Fifth Session of the General Conference of UNESCO
With reference to minute 54, Sir George Thomson reported on the Fifth Session of the General Conference, held in Florence from 22 May to 18 June 1950, which he attended as British scientific delegate. He mentioned in detail
(a) that the Conference had given favourable consideration to a proposdal from the United States intended primarily for Western Europe, that a regional laboratory possibly for nuclear physics should be sset upby groups fo states to enble scientists of these countries to enjoy the use of expensive apparatus which each woudl be unable to purchase independently and that special US funds might be available for this purpose:
(b) that it was agreed that the International Council of Scientific Unions should maintain its special relations with UNESCO:
(c) that a Swedish proposal for an international laboratory for theoretical rfesearch in meteorology had been withdrawn before discussion:
(d) that the proposal for an international institute of the arid zone had been replaced by a proposal to set up an international council on the subject:
(e) that the value of the Field Science Co-operation Offices had been highly apprieciated and that it was proposed to extend this activity:
(f) that the proposal for an international computation centre had become a proposal for an international institute of applied mathematics, with very different implications from the previously examined.
As general comments Sir George Thomson suggested that the administration of UNESCO might be easier and more practical if it were not necessary for every nation taking part in UNESCO to be represented on every committee, and that the work of UNESCO might be more effective if there were more concentrtion in the programme, the major items obtaining increased financial support by the deletion of the less successful projects.
After discussion of Sir George Thomson's report, the Committee Resolved - that the Executive Board by informed through Sir Ronald Adam, that this Committee is of the opionion that, while an international computation centre is desirable it should centre round the use and practical development of modern calculating machines as far as is practicable within reasonable financial limits.
58. UNESCO's Programme in the Natural Sciences
59. Relations with International Non-Governmental Organisations
60. UNESCO Coupon Scheme for Scientific Instruments
The Committee considered paper NS (50) 20 on the UNESCO coupon scheme for scientific instruments, an after some discussion, it was
Resolved - (a) that this Committee is unanimously in favour of participating in the scheme and
(b) that it is the recommendation of this Committee that the Scientific Instrument MAnufacturer's Association be invited to act as agents for this country and that they be invited to consult with appropriate professional bodies such as the Institute of Physics and the Royal Institute of Chemistry where appropriate.
61. Manila Observatory
62. Next meeting
It was agreed that the next meeting should be held some time in March to consider the programme and to brief delegates to the next session of the General Conference due in Paris in June 1951. ' |