The point I was making was that the British manufacturers will not pay the same attention to a new discovery unless they think there is an enormous fortune to be made immediately, and they have not displayed for the last 50 years the same courage in developing new industries as have been displayed by some of our foreign competitors. At the present time this country is not doing well from the point of view of scientific research, and as a matter of fact it is not really encouraging it. In 1917, during the War, a Committee of Inquiry considered the question of the application of science to the industries of this country, and eventually a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was established to promote scientific research amongst the industries of this country. After some time a scheme was brought forward by which the Government itself was going to pay pound for pound to the manufacturers in certain industries to encourage them to take an interest in research. It was a pretty expensive experiment, as has been shown by the results of the quinquennial valuation of the work of the research associations, and why? Not that the research that has been done has not been of first-class importance; not that if it had been done in America, or Austria or Germany it would not have commanded the respect and the attention of all the business men in those countries; it was not that at all, but merely that the British manufacturers will not take the least interest in research, with a few notable exceptions, and they are amongst the best run industries in this country, and they have not only been able to pay their workers well, but they have made a handsome margin of profits and have indulged in other schemes in South American railway companies out of the profits which they have made in this country.

The majority of the manufacturers in this country do not appreciate scientific brains, and they will not put people in control of their industries having any vast knowledge of science, and even a Government stands condemned for the type of director it has put on the British Dyestuffs Corporation which may, I hope, be remedied in the very near future. When these researches have been undertaken by the workers in the research associations most of them get pound for pound, and some get as much as £9; but in many cases firms that have only contributed £1 against the £9 contributed by the State do not want to continue to experiment and co-operate in this way, but it must be clearly understood that they cannot still proceed by their own unscientific rule-of-thumb methods and still command the markets of the world.

If there is one thing we have neglected in this country it is the application of the work that has been done. There are some people who look back to the 4½ years of war as a period of intense scientific research in this country. As a matter of fact, it was the worst period for the last 20 years from the point of view of the output of research. It was certainly the period when discoveries made in science during the previous 15 years were applied intensively for the protection of the country, and incidentally for the destruction of other countries. Some of the most extraordinary applications of science were made during the last War. It may interest hon. Members to know of one which was brought to my notice by Professor Wood, of Baltimore, last year.

We were in a difficulty with regard to submarines destroying our transport trade, and the difficulty was that the transports, particularly convoys, wished to keep in touch with each other without showing any lights. That was very difficult, and wireless would not enable them to solve the problem. It was, however, solved by a very simple application of X-rays. In that way the convoys were able to signal to each other for a distance of some miles by a very simple application of X-rays. I do not think anybody in their senses a few years before the War would ever have imagined that X-rays could have been put to any such use, because we have always associated their use with medical treatment.

I do feel that one of the great drawbacks has been in the last few years, when the country owed a real debt of gratitude to the various scientific men who placed their services at the disposal of the State, without any hope of reward, and most of whom, since the War, have been most shabbily treated I can think of one in particular. It was by the adoption of a suggestion of his, when he was honorary adviser to the Colonial Office, that British companies were enabled to control certain raw materials in British Guiana, which are absolutely essential for certain industries in this country. His advice was taken, but quite recently he was told that the Treasury did not think they could retain his services any longer, particularly now that, since he is getting an old man, he thought they might pay him something as a retainer. We have not, as a country, applied our scientific discoveries in a way which will improve, not only our export trade, but our import trade. I have already suggested, for example, the possibility that we need not be so dependent upon oversea supplies of raw cotton. I am not suggesting that naturally-grown cotton is not the most economical source of such fibres for clothes at the present time, but I can envisage, as I expect most hon. Members can envisage, the time when we shall not need cotton plantations at all, but shall be able to synthesise fibres and make clothes from them.

One might go further and say that the time is not so very far distant when we shall be able to get, at any rate as much nourishment, if we do not get as much physical enjoyment as we do at present, from our meals, by using synthetic foods. It is a horrible thought, I agree, and it would not give us a great deal of physical satisfaction; but the time may come when man will not need the same amount of physical satisfaction as he does at the present time. If hon. Members would read the Lord Chancellor's nephew's last book, "Daedalus," they might find there a good deal of food for thought in that direction. I need not say anything further on that, because it has not a great deal to do and, indeed, is not even remotely connected with, export trade. In a number of directions this country is dependent upon our Overseas Dominions and upon foreign countries for supplies, as raw materials, of commodities which may very well, in the near future, be made synthetically. The history of the dyestuffs industry in this country is a tragedy of lost opportunities. We have tried our utmost, in the last few years, to get back our old markets in dyes. It is true that we have succeeded in this country in producing a large number of dyes, and now the whole world can supply such quantities of dyestuffs that the world could be overstocked with them.

There is another aspect of the export trade which has not been touched upon. I do not want to enlarge upon it, but we are thinking a great deal in these days about the markets which we have, as has been said by the hon. Members who moved and seconded this Motion, inevitably lost in certain directions because the peoples concerned are themselves manufacturing on their own account, and, as they have the necessary raw materials in abundance at their very doors, we quite obviously cannot face competition of that kind. It is doubtful whether it would be a good thing for this country to attempt to compete unduly in certain natural markets, such as the Bombay market in the case of cotton goods; but there are still vast tracts in thickly populated countries where there is a tremendous avenue for our export trade, if only the populations of those countries increased their needs.

If there is one thing above all others which increases the needs of any population, it is the spread and growth of education. As man's education improves, so do his needs increase, and this fact should provide any Committee of Inquiry with food for thought. Think what a thoroughly well educated Russia would mean from the point of view of the export trade of this country; but it will take some years for the Russian people to develop the needs that have already been developed by the people of this country. One could go on applying that to various other countries, where the standard of civilisation is a poor one, owing entirely to the want of any proper system of education. In other words, it would pay this country to spread propaganda of an essentially peaceful kind to the effect that all peoples on earth should be thoroughly well educated. It would be sound economy from this country's point of view, and would give this country's export trade, as far as one can gather, the impetus that it needs. I must say that I was intensely interested in the plea—for it really was a plea—made by the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Sir C. Marks) for the recognition of the brains of the people of this country, and for the craft traditions of the people of this country, although I cannot go quite so far as the hon. Member would like to go with regard to the dilution of labour. At the present time we have to make the best of the existing system, and, while the financial system of this country and of the whole world is on its present basis, I doubt very much whether any army of workers, in this or any other country, should fling away the one weapon that they have—the protection of their own interests.