The first of these concerned the number of important meteorological problems peculiar to Australia and pressing the need to solve them. This was especially so in the case of accurate seasonal forecasting, which could save primary industry a great deal of money, if dealt with successfully.

As his second line of attack, Bowen argued that no other Commonwealth organisation was interested in the problem and no scientific exploration of the subject was being undertaken at the time. Bowen believed that the Bureau's Research Section was not worthy of its name as it was mainly concerned with technical matters to do with the day-to-day functioning of the Bureau. Here he referred to the Simpson report and the recommendation that meteorological research of a scientific nature not be carried out within the national weather service.

Finally, Bowen pointed to a number of areas of meteorology which, he claimed, were outside the scope of the Bureau, such as the use of radar and radar aids in the conduct of research, the study of the physics of cloud formation, the continuing investigation of super-refraction and the scattering of radio waves by water droplets and ice crystals.

Bureau of Meteorology