tion carried on by Germany for a generation. No one supposed that we should be required to hold the seas and also to raise an army on the continental scale. What we set out to do was done with extraordinary speed and success. We held the seas and dispatched an expeditionary force of moderate size, which forthwith proved itself to be of the very highest efficiency.
My object is to consider some of the steps we took or failed to take when the real nature of the German menace became evident. And I shall attempt to show that the failures which have occurred are nearly all due to the national neglect of science and the excessive predominance in Parliament, and especially in the Government, of the spirit that is most antagonistic to science—the spirit of the advocate.
It would not be right to speak on the national neglect of science without acknowledging with gratitude the patriotic position taken for many years by the journal Nature. If only the warnings given again and again in its pages had been heeded, I am confident that long before this time Germany's complete defeat and the freedom of the world would have been achieved.
First, then, it is necessary to show what the national attitude towards science has been and now is. The following indications are just scattered examples which have caught my attention or have happened to enter into my own experience.
The fiftieth anniversary of the 'Chemical Society of France' was held in Paris on May 16–18, 1907. At the banquet, on May 16, M. Pichon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in an eloquent speech, pointed out the advantage to the whole civilized world of such amicable meetings of scientific men of all nations, united in the common wish to promote science, and thus advance the well-