Abstract
IT is announced in the Times of August 28 that Prof. A. G. Green, director of research of the British Dyestufi Corporation, has resigned his post on account of “dissatisfaction at the lack of technical knowledge on the board of directors, and his belief that the permanent establishment of the dyestuff industry in this country is impossible under these conditions.” In Great Britain it is common for power to be in the hands of people without the scientific knowledge essential to make the best use of it for industrial and social progress; and Proi. Green has proved by experience what has often been pointed out in these columns and publicly stated by scientific workers in various industrial fields. In political appointments the same principle is adopted of placing the power over scientific departments in the hands of politicians without regard to their scientific knowledge or training. Sir William Joynson Hicks has, for example, just been appointed to succeed Mr. Neville Chamberlain as Minister of Health-this being the fourth Government post he has occupied in less than a year. Though it is accepted that a Chancellor of the Exchequer should know something about finance and a Solicitor-General something about law, apparently a Minister of Health need not know anything about science in order to control the manifold activities of a department mainly concerned with scientific problems.
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Current Topics and Events. Nature 112, 331–333 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112331a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112331a0