EVOLUTION OF THE A.O.S. 115 



By the death of Mr. Hanbury, in 1903, the Society lost a 

 good friend ; but the late Earl of Onslow, who succeeded 

 him as President of the Board of Agriculture, attended the 

 public meeting of the A. O. S. held at Grosvenor House on 

 May 26th, 1903, and declared that he most heartily endorsed 

 the sentiments expressed by his predecessor, adding, " I have 

 the deepest interest in this Association and I intend to do all 

 I can to assist the good work it has in hand." 



Lord Onslow's successor at the Board of Agriculture, the 

 Right Hon. Ailwyn Fellowes, was among the speakers at 

 the annual meeting in 1905, and said he considered that 

 the work which had been done by the Society deserved 

 the sympathy and support of everyone. To his mind there 

 was no better form of co-operative organisation than that 

 which the Society advocated, and the Board over which he 

 presided wished them " all luck and all success." They 

 would find in that Board a body which was absolutely with 

 them in almost all their wishes as regarded agriculture in 

 this country, and they would certainly do all they could to 

 assist them. 



When Earl Carrington, now the Marquis of Lincolnshire, 

 succeeded to the office of President of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, he was no less sympathetic towards the A. O. S. than 

 his predecessors had been. In a speech he delivered at 

 the annual meeting in 1906 he said that — 



When the taxation of the country and the income tax were 

 reduced, and they had a little money in the till, then with the 

 greatest pleasure he would tackle the Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 and put it before him in the most forcible language that of all the 

 demands which were being made upon him there was not one that 

 deserved more sympathetic and more practical, hearty support 

 than that of the Society of which Mr. Yerburgh was the head. 

 He was glad to have had an opportunity of showing his entire 

 sympathy with, and his practical support of, the co-operative 

 movement, and he could assure them that every member of His 

 Majesty's Cabinet hoped to see a great development of the work 

 of the Society in the future. 



Mention should be made, also, of the cordiality shown 

 towards the Society, and the practical help given in many 



1 2 



