Cambridge Meeting of the British Association

Abstract

THE meeting of the British Association which has just closed will long be remembered by all who attended it. At the first meeting of the General Committee, it was agreed to form a Division for Social and International Relations of Science (see p. 380), which may well prove a vital step in the history of the Association. Lord Rayleigh's address was received with much enthusiasm, and a specially warm welcome was given to Sir J. J. Thomson, who moved a vote of thanks to the president for his address, and also to Dr. G. D. Birkhoff, past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, who, as spokesman of the delegation from his Association, expressed his desire to see active co-operation between the British and American Associations in the cause of international friendship. The customary announcement at the close of the inaugural meeting, made by Dr. O. J. R. Howarth in the absence of the general treasurer, Lord Stamp, of the number of tickets issued for the meeting, showed that the attendance, 2,795, while not a record, was highly satisfactory. The services of broadcasting were utilized to bring the Association's activities before a wider audience in Great Britain and also in the United States. Prof. Allan Ferguson broadcast an account of the opening meeting through the B.B.C., while on August 19, Lord Rayleigh and Sir Richard Gregory were 'interviewed' before the microphone by Mr. Watson Davis, director of Science Service, and the 'interview' broadcast in America.