To the Editor of the "NortH-Cutwa Datty News!
Sm—A letter under the above heading from the pen of Captain Howard, published in your issue of Wednesday last, is so full of half-troths, untruths, exaggerations and misrepresentations, and moreover contains so unwarranted an attack on the German dyestuff industry, that it calls from a reply from one of Captain Howard's nationality. clusions drawn by Captain Howard from the Treaty of Commerce and of opinion, although man; who share Captain Howard's hatred of Bol sary to view every international agreement through—red-coloured spectacles. Many will be in sympathy with the suggestion that wiser statesmanship on our part would have preserved the Anglo-'Japanese alliance. Those who know the facts will deplore the ridiculous statements made in regard to the activities of the German dyestuf factories and regret that these should have appeared in a reputable British newspaper, The true story of the development of the modern industry does indeed read not one of th type as Captain Howard seems to imagine, The ce tar dyestuff industry originated in England in the year 1857 as the result of an accidental discovery made in the previous year by a young English student, William working in the laboratory of Dr, Hofman at the Royal College of Chemistry. For two decades England and France were the leaders in the new indus try, but they were gradually 0 taken and tually left far behind by the The reasons for success of the Germans have been the subject of much speculation and are probably complex, but undoubtedly the main, cause more thorough seléntific vailing in
Lee earliest "years is one of the, Sort area ta "fine" Beem patient, unrising asearch worl combined with high technical skill, faralghted policy, een salesman: ship and unstinted service to their customers, and. their success fnuch that until a few years ago, they had ladle to feat from competition outside. their own country. nly fair to state that the German diyentaft firms, us they. have been known for qunyter of a century ar more, are big and. honourable concerns' whose achievements in the realm of applied science have been Hothing. less than stupendow Tt In. grotesquely untrue to. say] that by means of "dumping and sabotage"" the Germans had vestab-Tished before. the "Great War a monopoly in this industry. Tf they ade things dificult for their weak er rivals by greater effiency and resources it is no. more. than was fand Is done by powerful. business German," British and all the world over, it is nevertheless a fact that a competi tive dye industry of very reapectble dimensions grew up and flourished at Germany's very doors, and avoung Basel on the German: Swisn oundery, and several factor-fea were operating successfully. England and. America, The dominating position of the German dyestuff rms ntl 'a few years ago was de not to "trickery," hot to bringing competitive products Into. disrepute by the method. comically suggested by" Captain Howard, but_to the fact that the ans offered a wider range of in more reliable quality and at lover. prlets than their competitors were able to do, "Your correspondent's paragraph con the part played by the. German dive industry. in the European Wer} as quaint. and naive as his preceding revelations. The German Uyestuft industry certainly enabled the country to prosecute war, but the same obtains with equal rath for their coal miner, icon and steel works. and some other industries, However, the fact. that these chemical' factories were extremely useful, perhaps. essential, proof ' that other nations "were Fenguifed in the methodic entangle-mont of the German dyestuffs in-Bastry." Tt so happens that many gases and explosives for Killing, as Mas druge for healing, are
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.