Scientific liaison offices

At the present time some eight foreign nations maintain official scientific liaison offices in this country. Six of these—representing Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom—are located in Washington; the other two—for Denmark and Sweden—are in New York although the representatives do much of their work in Washington. Now there are fashions in words just as there are in automobile styles and women’s hats, and the word “liaison” is one which reached the full flower of fashionableness during World War II. As a result it has been tossed about with considerable abandon ever since. It has been my impression that its use almost always raises two questions in people’s minds; one is “How do you spell it?” and the other is “Just what does it mean?”. The purpose of this account is to answer the second query with regard to the liaison application mentioned above.

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