The Origins of CSIRO by George Currie John Graham

Author:George Currie, John Graham [George Currie, John Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science, General, History
ISBN: 9780643106222
Google: SNUPfYy5OuMC
Publisher: Csiro Publishing
Published: 1966-06-01T02:52:09+00:00

The critical matter of the directorship had been raised earlier at discussions between Cameron, Richardson, Lightfoot and Gepp and the Minister, Massy Greene, at their meeting on 10 July and at that time it would appear that the Government had in mind a man who later declined the office. Dr Cameron said, ‘I stressed the point that this alteration (from three directors to two) would only be acceptable when one director possessed all the necessary qualifications such as scientific training, proved business ability and experience in organization’. The Minister then said, ‘It was such a man that the Cabinet contemplated appointing’. Cameron reported also that the Minister had then stated that he had sought from the Cabinet permission to disclose to certain people in confidence the man it had in mind but the Cabinet was against that course. A clue to the meaning of these comments and Gepp’s remark quoted earlier may be gained from a letter written by A. E. Leighton, the General Manager of the Australian Arsenal, to the Minister for Defence, Senator Pearce.20 The letter had to do with possible liaison between the Defence Department and the Institute of Science and Industry, and Leighton himself had a place in both camps since he was at the time a member of the Executive Committee of the Institute, having been appointed to that office in June 1919. The letter read in part: ‘Some time ago it was assumed by the Executive Council of the Institute that the Director of the Institute of Science and Industry would be Sir John Monash … it now appears however that Sir John will not be available for the position.’

Sir John Monash was appointed General Manager of the Victorian Electricity Commission in October of that year. It appears highly probable that he had been approached about the position of Director of the Institute in May or June and the conversations with the Minister in early July appear to bear this out. It seems that Monash had been the Cabinet’s first choice, had been approached about the directorship but had, between the beginning of July and the middle of August, decided to take the post of General Manager of the Electricity Commission instead.

However this may be, the Executive Committee, at its meeting in mid-September, must have believed that the position was then open again and still under discussion. As mentioned they decided to seek a private unofficial meeting with the Minister about the directorship but there is no record of such private discussion having taken place and no hint of their purpose in seeking the meeting.

In January 1921, the position of Director of the Institute was advertised in the Commonwealth Gazette and some two months later it was announced that George Knibbs, the Commonwealth Statistician, had been appointed to the vacancy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.