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Record

RefNoCMB/108/1/14
LevelFile
TitleUnited Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation; Minutes of a meeting of the Executive Committee of the British Committee for Co-operation with UNESCO in the Natural Sciences
Date28 February 1952
Description ' At the second meeting of the Executive Committee of the British Committee for Co-operation with UNESCO in the Naturl Sciences held at the Royal Society at 10.30 am on Thursday, 28 February 1952

Present: Sir Cyril Hinshelwood, Chairman; Dr E Hindle; Dr O J R Haworth

Joint Secretaries Mr H C Rackham, and Dr D C Martin

Sir David Brunt and Sir George Thomson attended by invitation.

1. Minutes
The Minutes of the first meeting of the Executive Commitee held on 16 January 1948 were confirmed.

2. Correspondence
The Chairman reported on action taken with regad to the proposed establishment of a European Nuclear Research Centre since this was discussed by the main Committee on 16 November 1951 (see minute 74), following which an advisory panel consisting of Sir John Cockcroft, Sir Ben Lockspeiser, Sir George Thomson, and Professor H W B Skinner under the chairmanship of Sir James Chadwick had been appointed and upon the recommendation of this panel the Executive Committee had nominated Sir James Chadwick and / or Sir George Thomson to attend a conference in Geneva in February 1952 for the final completion of the agreement setting up a Council of Representatives for planning the international laboratory.

3. Report of the Geneva meeting
The Committee received a report on the Geneva meeting (NS (EXEC) 52 (1) and Sir George Thomson reported on developments between the international meetings in Paris in November 1951 and Geneva in February 1952 and in particular the result of interdeparmental committee meetings by which the British delegates to Geneva were not empowered to sign the agreement on behalf of the United Kingdom nor to commit the United Kingdom to participate formally in the proposal. It was noted that the time for considertion of the draft agreement before the Geneva meeting was however too short for the Foreign Office to give adequate consideration to the proposal. On the grounds that the document approved at Geneva was substantially different from the original draft agreement, it was agreed tht it would be desirable for the Royal Society to ask the Foreign Office to reconsider the position of the United Kingdom in relation to the proposed establishment.

4. Agreement constituting a Council of Representatives of European States for planning an international laboratory and organising other forms of co-operation in nuclear research.
Consideration was given to the agreement approved and signed by certain European States at Geneva and it was agreed that it was desirable that United Kingdom representatives should be empowered to sign it. After discussion which showed that the Committee was in general agreement it Resolved -
(a) that it is the opinion of this Committee that it would be of great advantage scientifically to the United Kingdom to co-operate by means of the offer by Liverpool University to work in with the Copenhagen centre, and that this collaboration would not be fully fruitful unlesss associated through membership of the Council of Representatives with the wider European co-operation; absence of such co-operation would be a disadvantage to this country:
(b) that this Committee request the Ministry of Education to explore with the Foreign Office the possibility of effecting co-operation of the United Kingdom with the Council of Representatives of European States for planning an international laboratory and other forms of co-operation in nuclear research.

5. Other forms of co-operation
The Committee agreed that in the event of H.M. Government not being willing to subscribe to the agreement discussed in minute 4 above it would be desirable for the Executive Committee to meet again for further consideration of the position.

6. Subsequent liability.
The Committee endorsed Sir George Thomson's statement in document NS (EXEC) 52 (1) that no further liability would be incurred by the United Kingdom since this country had no present intention of contributing financially to the building, or running, of any machine and recommended that the Liverpool offer be included in the agreement in the terms quoted in Sir Geoge Thomson's statement. '
Extent2p
FormatTypescript
AccessStatusOpen
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