November 27, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

1125

creates a custodian to hold money or property of
alien enemies until the end of the war. 1 '	*•

The new rescue station at Btirnley was formally
opened on Thursday, the 19th inst., by Mr. John
Gerrard, H.M. inspector of mines.

A lawyer, if he can, will always try
Trading to settle any question that may arise
With the by precedent; consequently, the diffi-
Enemy. cult problems that have had to be
assailed during the last four months,
breaking virgin ground in so' many instances, have
severely taxed the legal authorities, and, whilst the
necessity for constantly revising the official attitude
may be deplored, the “open mind” is really the
best of all.

Amongst the temporary measures that have
vociferously called for amendment is the Trading
with the Enemy Act, and the attempt which the
Attorney-General is now making to strengthen the
bonds and complete the “ blockade of trade ” will be
generally welcomed; that the “hostile character”
will be slim enough to find his way through loop-
holes that still remain is highly probable, and we
hope that the Government will be prepared to block
these up as occasion demands.

Certainly the new Bill in some directions proceeds
rather more gingerly than we should have liked.
The opportunities under the Act for illicit dealing
have arisen conspicuously in two places—viz. (1) the
limitation of the provisions of the Act to enemy
branches in Europe; and (2) the refusal to regard as
“ alien enemies ” any but those actually carrying on
business or resident in Germany or Austria-Hungary.
We do not think that Sir John Simon has even now
done all Ke might to remove these defects.

There are concerns so ramified that the same
shareholders are in the delectable position of being
contractors for military or naval stores to both the
British and the German Governments. As the
businesses of the firms, mostly of a predominantly
“ enemy” character, extend to neutral countries also,
there is no assurance that money may not filter
through to individuals who are now engaged in
fighting against us. On the other hand, the general
attitude which the courts have taken, that registra-
tion at Somerset House effectually “ whitewashes ” a
business founded upon German capital, is clearly
open to criticism. It is eminently a case in which
every such company must be tested on its merits.
Arbitrarily to close down all such businesses would, as
Sir John Simon said, result in great injury to our
own workers; but that is no reason why all restric-
tions should be removed in these cases. Sir John
Simon observed that “ a number of enterprises which
were German in character had endeavoured to
transform themselves in a very strange way since the
war by registering themselves at Somerset House in
the form of an English company. In some cases the
new company had been formed for the express
purpose of taking over the German enterprise; in
other cases nothing had been said as to the reason.
It was proposed to provide that during the con-
tinuance of the war, when application was made to
register a new company, the Registrar of Joint Stock
Companies should have filed with him a statutory
declaration made by a solicitor that the company
was not .formed for the purpose or with the intention
of acquiring the whole or any part of the undertaking
of an enemy.” This would be an excellent arrange-
ment, if it could be made retrospective, and would,
as Sir John Simon anticipates, do much to relieve
public anxiety.

In the meantime the Government have realised
the importance of providing for the suspension or
determination of continuing enemy contracts, and Sir
John Simon has offered to attempt to devise a
method of giving effect to the proposal. Many firms
have been placed in a really difficult position, owing
to the absence of any guidance on this point.

Another commendable provision is the creation of
an authority—called the “custodian”—to whom will
be paid all dividends, interest, or share of profits
which in a time of peace would have been paid to a
person whose address is in Germany or Austria, and
retained by han until the close of the war—subject
to one condition. That condition is that if the alien

enemy to' whom the money is owing is himself
indebted to . atayone in this country the funds
collected on his behalf will be available for
payment of his debt. This is an arrangement
that should be mutually advantageous, although
it is not clear that a creditor in this country
can enforce his claim except through a Govern-
ment department—a procedure that savours of the
Scottish method of criminal prosecution. It must be
clear that the proving of debts is still beset with great
difficulty, where the debtor is outride the pale of
jurisdiction. Under the German system all British
property in Germany passes under control, and
becomes liable primarily to satisfy the legitimate
claims of German debtors. Here we do no more
than lock up the assets that might be used to defray
just debts in the hands of the Public Trustee. The
Bill, however, does seem to reserve fairly wide
powers to the Treasury to deal with such funds as
the future may dictate. In the meantime, we feel
that Mr. Rutherford’s amendment received rather
less consideration than it deserved. Nearly all the
litigation that has arisen so far has turned upon the
difficulties of defining the “ alien enemy,” and of
serving notices of claim upon principals, who are
probably quite ready to discharge their obligations.

The announcement in the House of
The Coal Commons on Monday that the

Tar Colour Government is willing to assist in
Industry, the arrangements now being made
to promote the supply of aniline and
other dyes, marks a notable departure from the
attitude hitherto prevailing in this country with
regard to State-aided industry. It is a complete
reversal of our former policy, and it is a significant
fact that the War which we have been forced to wage
has also compelled us to practise methods which in
Germany have been so successful in building up
commercial enterprise. The situation which has
arisen is roughly as follows : —The chief dyes used
in the textile industry are aniline derivatives and
other products derived from‘coal tar. Of these we
imported last year dyes to the value of £1,892,100,
of which Germany supplied an amount represented
by no less a figure than £1,730,800. It is true that
we still retain a portion of this industry in this
country, and we even exported a small quantity last
year, represented by the value of £282,500, but it is
probable that a considerable part of this home
production merely represents the result of working
German patents on a royalty basis, in conformity
with the Patent Act requirements.

Exactly how much of the coal tar colour industry
Great Britain can be said to possess in her own
right it is difficult to ascertain, but one thing is
certain, and that is that the stoppage of German
supplies has threatened a .famine in dye stuffs, and
at the same time has hampered an industry in which
millions of our people are employed. The Government
appears at last to have become thoroughly alive to
the dangers of the situation. It is very properly
considered that the excessive dependence of this
country on a single foreign country for materials of
such vital importance to the textile industry con-
stitutes, as Mr. Runciman declared, a permanent
danger, which can only be guarded against by a
combined national effort on a scale requiring, an
exceptional measure of State encouragement.

Nor is it this country alone which is suffering. In
the United States a critical situation has also arisen.
At the present time, as has been publicly stated by
a prominent manufacturer of dye stuffs in the United
States, there are not more than about four factories
in that country making aniline dyes, but the total
production is only about 15 per cent, of the total
consumption, which is valued at nearly two and a-
half million pounds sterling. The United States
manufacturers say. that they cannot compete with
the German under normal conditions, because that
country has a great advantage in capital invested,
experience and cheap production. They demand,
therefore, that the Government should assist them
in two ways, viz., by a protective tariff and a modifi-
cation of the patent laws in the direction already
adopted in England, a movement in favour of which
in 1909 was frustrated by German diplomacy.

The questions with which we, in this country, are
mainly concerned are two-fold, viz., the immediate
alleviation of the present threatened scarcity of dye
stuffs and the establishment on a firm basis of the
future of the industry. It does not seem to be quite
correct to speak of a recapture of the industry,
because we never have yet held any pre-eminence
in this department. It is true that we enjoy the
distinction of having been the first to prepare a
commercial coal tar dye. Perkin’s mauve was
accidentally discovered in 1856 in the course of a
search for a method of making artificial quinine, and
this marks the first stage in the recognition of the
enormous possibilities afforded by the oxidation of
aniline. It led at once to an appreciation of the
importance of aniline, and to the value of the light
oils of tar distillation. When once it had been
established by Hofmann and others that aniline,
first obtained by the action of caustic alkali upon
indigo, was readily produced by the reduction of
nitrobenzene, a wide range for research was opened
up, and was actively pursued in Germany, France
and England ; but full recognition of the apparently
unlimited possibilities of the aniline dyes can
scarcely be said to have been realised until 1865,
when August Kekule of Bonn first enunciated his
views on the atomic constitution of the benzene
molecule. The fertility of this conception can hardly
be over-estimated, and if we should give a place of
honour to the work of Perkin and Hofmann as
pioneers of the coal tar colour industry, we must
likewise accept the conclusion that Germany’s
share in promoting this industry was primarily due
to the rapidity with which the chemists of that
country realised the consequences arising from the
benzene theory.

There have been offered many explanations of
the commercial success of Germany in this direction.
It is not unprofitable to refer to them again, because
if Great Britain is to take up this business seriously
she must study the methods by which her rival
achieved so much advantage.

Amongst the most prominent of the advantages
possessed by Germany in the early days of the colour
industry may be mentioned the condition of the
patent laws in the several German States both before
and after their incorporation into the Empire. The
net result was that, while we gave full protection to
German patents in this country, our own chemists
could secure no such privileges in Germany. Thus,
wholesale piracy of British discoveries was possible.
Then, again, our chemists were for a long time
handicapped by the excise laws, while Germany,
with an established sugar beet industry, possessed
an unlimited supply of cheap methyl chloride, a
valuable aid to the production of a large series of
methylated compounds. Amongst other drawbacks
to British enterprise it is usual to lay stress upon the
discouragement of research by manufacturers. It is
difficult to deny the facts recently brought forward
at Bradford by Dr. Mollwo Perkin, and it will ever
redound to our discredit that the disparagement of
scientific research in the decade following 1875—a
critical period in the evolution of the coal tar industry
— played a prominent part in enabling German
enterprise to capture and control the industry.

What then should be done to recover this lost
ground? The above-mentioned factors no longer
exist—at any rate, in a dangerous degree. Perhaps
the most important is the position of industrial
alcohol, in which respect the Government must be
prepared to smooth the way without the intrusion of
obstructive red tape. In the meantime the matter
is urgent, and the Board of Trade has already taken
interim steps to encourage the immediate expansion
of existing sources of supply. It has been proposed
to form a combine of all British firms interested in
the colour industry, and the Government has indicated
its willingness to participate—not only by subscribing
a part of the share capital, but also by guaranteeing
debenture interest for a term of years. In this
connection several things have to be considered. In
the first place, what is the status of German colour
firms established in this country ? Some years ago
the Hoclister Farbwerke began the manufacture of
synthetic indigo at Ellesmere Port. The Mersey
Chemical Works was a company including three