Science and the War
Mr. Lyttelton's statement about the three scientific advisers re- cently appointed to his department was not criticised by any of the members who have been active in urging the claims of science to a higher place in the war machine ; and they must be taken as on the whole satisfied with it. The plea so often and ably argued by Professor A. V. Hill was that science must be enabled to make its voice heard, not at the departmental levels only, but at the War Cabinez level. The three new scientific advisers will, it' is true, be members of Mr. Lyttelton's department ; but the scope of their work will be at least as wide as the department's (which is now very wide), and their advice and recommendations —transmitted to Mr. Lyttelton through the Lord Privy Seal— will be brought by the former before the War Cabinet. The inter- vention of the Lord Privy Seal, under whose immediate supervision they will work, might seem odd to anyone unaware that the holder of that office is Sir Stafford Cripps ; who, as a very distinguished leader of the Patent Bar, has a wide professional familiarity with the problems of applying science to industry. Given that circumstance. the arrangement seems a happy one; and we look to Mr. Lyttelton. whose reputation grows, to work it in a practical and enterprising spirit.
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