§ 18 and 20. Mr. EDGAR JONESasked the President of the Board of Education (1) whether all the turning lathes and high-grade machines in the technical schools and colleges of the country have been used in producing munitions of war; and whether, for the necessary testing of materials, the testing laboratories of the colleges will be placed at the disposal of the Minister of Munitions; and (2) whether he has yet drafted a scheme so that the services of trained chemists and scientists, engaged as teachers and lecturers in the technical departments of our schools and colleges, can be used, as in Germany and France, in directing and improving the scientific processes upon which the issue of this War will depend?
Mr. RUNCIMANI understand that the Board of Education have already communicated with the leading technical schools and institutions of the country, with a view to ascertaining the supply of skilled workers, and advising them to communicate with the nearest armament centre and munitions committee to which they could offer assistance in the output of munitions of war. The institutions have responded in the most public-spirited way; and, without going into details, I think I may say that the equipment, staff, and students of the institutions are being extensively employed in a great variety of ways on scientific and technical work ancillary to war purposes.