Calendar: 1975-1976 Page 408

xxxvi Annual Report of the Delegacy day and is perhaps more intensively pursued thereafter may not be notable for their industry What is unquestionable is that they are remarkable for their ingenuity Give or take vein or so puddle or two of fossil fuel the future of these people in the aftermath of empire depends pretty well entirely on their curiosity and their intelligence This is perhaps the last country in the world where it is sensible to reduce support for pure research Radical measures may be necessary Additional money will be needed You could tax association football betting bingo as heavily as other publicly available stimulants or anodynes such as tobacco or alcohol You might even legalise pot and tax that more heavily still and put the whole product of this into research am not of course suggesting here the legalisation of pot though when look around at what we tolerate and encourage and what we proscribe often wonder whether we have our priorities right What am suggesting is that however the money is raised to invest great deal of it in University research with heavy emphasis on early postgraduate work would do this country and the whole world great service now want to make some reference to scheme that has been before us for considerable time arising out of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Medical Education the so-called Todd Com- mission under which St Thomas's Hospital and Medical School and Westminster Medical School would be integrated with the pre- clinical departments in King's College in new and imaginative con- cept of medical education Our own interest in this is derived not only from an anxiety to promote the education of practitioners on lines more appropriate to modern scientific developments but also from wish to press forward in the study of the life sciences The KTW scheme as it became known was for some time the favourite scheme in the University of London of the three so-called 'pairings' under discussion Difficulties and believe some misunderstandings over site acquisition caused second thoughts in that it was argued that the KTW scheme would prove more expensive than the other two think myself that mistakes were made here but by the time they were rectified the plan for KTW had been relegated into third place and deferred Momentum had been lost We in King's had worked hard to retain momentum and at no time has our interest in the fulfilment of this scheme diminished There has recently emerged however strong probability that Westminster Hospital with its Medical School will not definitely remain upon its present site new hospital com-