21 SEPTEMBER 1945, Page 12

THE ATTRIBUTES OF SCIENTISTS

Snt,—Mr. Barr asks for an explanation of some words used by myself in a review of fiction in your columns, " . . the very attributes of scientists, which make for the common distrust of their activities. . ." The implications, ,of course, are general ; the attributes—crueIty, callous- ness, ruthlessness, irresponsibility, in a pursuit of knowledge for its own sake without any regard for the possible cost to humanity. In betraying the common man science has betrayed herself ; in the words of E. M. Forster : " Tolerance, good temper and -sympathy are no longer enough in a world which is rent by religious and racial persecution, in a .world where ignorance rules and science, who ought to have ruled, plays the