129 



early orders came In from September 1915 which could 

 not be filled and cans had to be sent out as soon as they 

 had passed the observation stage. 



Only experts know, moreover, how much fish has to 

 be rejected as tainted or soft from long detention in the 

 boats and how short a time — a few hours — is available 

 from the arrival on shore, even of fresh fish, before the 

 fish in these tropical regions are useless for canning. 

 Only when catching is organized as completely as 

 canning (i.e., when the habits and methods of the fishing 

 classes and their subservience to local capitalists are 

 radically altered) will it be possible fully to utilise any 

 cannery, and even such organization would be useless in 

 seasons such asi9i5-i6 when fish are totally absent 

 not merely from the neighbourhood but from the coast 

 in general. The negotiations for a motor launch which 

 is a necessity even in ordinary years for the main reason 

 given above, viz., the necessity for frequent supplies of 

 absolutely fresh fish, have unfortunately fallen through, 

 but a cannery launch will be necessary in 191 7 for this 

 and other purposes. 



Moreover the demand is itself largely responsible for 

 the absence of stock ; hundreds of orders were received 

 at the beginning of the season when, as mentioned 

 above, there was no stock in hand, and so many orders 

 are habitually received, literally from Kashmir to Ceylon, 

 that it has been necessary to refuse all except Presidency 

 orders. The public have learnt even in three years, 

 mainly of experiment, that our cannery goods are both 

 cheap and good and that it is highly profitable to deal 

 direct with the factory and not with a middleman or 

 retailer. A commercial cannery is constituted to turn 

 out cans by the million and not by the ten thousand ; 

 moreover factories when old-established and not new, 

 usually keep an enormous reserve, partly to allow of 

 goods maturing, partly as the surplus of abundant years ; 

 hence some of the difficulties of a small and new factory 

 which moreover is primarily constituted to make goods 

 as experimental and demonstrational essays, and sells 

 them partly to get rid of them, partly to advertise the 

 facts and cost of canned goods in view to the develop- 

 ment by others of commercial work. But for the war it 

 is almost certain that one and possibly two firms from 



9 



