| Description | Referring to his letter of 1 August 1902, relating to the proposal that Great Britain should join an International Seismological Association and send delegates to a Congress to be held the next year, can now make this statement.
President and Council have consulted the Council of International Association of Academies and received replies from them, which have led to the following conclusion;
' The President and Council desire to express their regret that the matter in question was not formally brought before the International Association of Academies. Though it is true that the proposal to carry out international co-operation in seismology was made before the establishment of the International Association of Academies, yet the whole matter could have been brought before the Association at its meeting in Paris, in April, 1901, and the views of the Association formally obtained. This was not done.
Recognizing, however, as they are always prepared to do, the value of international co-operation in scientific undertakings, and seeing that very considerable progress has already been made towards the establlishment of an International Seismological Association, the President and Council are not prepared to recommend that His Majesty's Government should refuse to be represented at the proposed meeting.
But since the replies which the President and Council have received from the Associated Academies show that diverse opinions are held as to the best plan of organization and working of such a Seismological Association, they recommend that it be an instruction to the representatives sent by Great Britain to state that the participation of Great Britain in any International Seismological undertaking must be conditional upon the organization and plan of working of such undertaking being approved by the International Association of Academies. ' |