Secret Research For War?

Dr. A. G. Bogle struck a discordant note. He was out of sympathy with his audience. Speaking on 'The Scientist and the Community," he began by saying that he was an engineer rather than a scientist, and ended by denying that a scientist needs to worry about his relationship to the community anyway. That includes the question of secret research for war purposes in peacetime. Why should a scientist bother his head about such an abstract moral issue as how many human beings will be unnecessarily slaughtered as a result of his work?

Unfortunately the students had an answer to this question. When they had the University Chancellor. Sir David Smith, in the dock, they cross-examined him on the Senate's decision to turn down the Academic Board's recommendation against secret war research in the university. Sir David spoke vaguely, in justification, about an impending threat to our freedom. We could almost hear red time-bombs ticking under the seats!

However, we shook our heads. Neil Mountier shook his forelock, and moved, "that this Congress protests against the decision of the Senate to permit secret research in the university, and support the policy of the Academic Board requiring complete freedom of publication for the results of all research." Opposition was shrill for a few minutes. Even Auckland's Sainsbury Strack, bearded and loin-clothed like John the Baptist, seemed to have been bowled over by the Chancellor's eloquence. The resolution was put to the vote, and carried by a substantial majority.