Apkil 20, 1905] 



NA TURE 



585 



that industry, and of this " alcohol " methyl alcohol 

 is the most important variety. Large classes 

 of the coal-tar colours — alizarin, indigo, and by far 

 the greater number of the azo dyes — require no 

 spirit at all in their manufacture either directly or 

 indirectly, and these represent the larger pro- 

 portion of all the colours produced. It is perfectly 

 certain that for at least 75 per cent, of the whole out- 

 put of coal-tar dves alcohol does not enter into 

 account even now, and therefore whatever causes may 

 have hindered the prosecution of the industry in this 

 country, the question of " alcohol " is not one of 

 them. 



.Vlthough it has destroyed some illusions, corrected 

 many misstatements, and, as in this example of the 

 coal-tar colour industry, set many matters in their 

 true perspective, the report is eminently constructive 

 in character. To what extent the representations of 

 manufacturers have actually aided the committee in 

 formulating their main suggestions remains to be 

 seen, as the evidence has not yet been published. 



These recommendations are as follows : — 



(i) That an allowance be granted to all industrial 

 spirit, whether of British or foreign origin, at the 

 rate from time to time prevailing for the allowance 

 to British plain spirits on exportation. 



{2) That imported methylic alcohol be relieved from 

 the obligation to pav the surtax imposed by the 

 proviso to Section 8 of the Finance .Act, 1902, and 

 that methylic alcohol be accorded favourable treat- 

 ment in the matter of denaturing. 



(3) That " ordinary," i.e. unmineralised, methylated 

 spirit should contain only 5 per cent, of wood-naphtha 

 instead of 10 per cent, as now. 



(4) That no charge should be made on manu- 

 facturers for the regular attendance of Excise officers 

 to supervise denaturing operations or the use of de- 

 natured spirit, in factories taking the benefit of 

 Section 8 of the Finance Act, 1902. 



(.1;) That where spirit is allowed to be denatured 

 with special agents, such agents should be subject to 

 official test and approved, and that accounts should 

 be kept by the user showing receipts of spirit into 

 store, the issues thereof from store in detail, and the 

 quantities of the goods produced. 



(6) That in the manufacture of fine chemicals and 

 pharmaceutical products, spirit specially denatured 

 should be allowed only where the manufacture is kept 

 entirely separate from the manufacture of tinctures 

 and other preparations in which spirit remains as 

 spirit in the finished product 



(7) That the regulations governing the sale bv re- 

 tail of " mineralised " methylated spirit should be 

 made less stringent and more elastic. 



The committee are of opinion that any special cases 

 not touched by the above recommendations can always 

 be met under the powers conferred bv Section 8 of the 

 Act of 1902. This .Act provides adequate and entirely 

 satisfactory machinery for securing that the spirit 

 may be used in a condition that is suitable and 

 appropriate to each particular purpose of manufacture. 

 The machinery is elastic — much more so than is the 

 corresponding machinery in Germanv — and it permits 

 of every reasonable process of denaturing, or even in 

 the last resort of the use of spirit in a pure state. 

 For more than this it would be impossible to ask. 



The committee believe that their recommendations, 

 if adopted, will olace the manufacturers of this coun- 

 try in respect of the use of alcohol in industry on a 

 footing of equality, in .some respects of advantage, 

 as compared with their competitors abroad. .Amongst 

 the witnesses who appeared before them thev found 

 a very general impression that in Germanv, at anv 

 rate — and Germany is always alleged to be our most 

 NO. I 85 I, VOL. 71] 



formidable competitor — spirit could be used in manu- 

 facture duty-free and pure with scarcely any re- 

 straint. This, too, is one of the illusions which the 

 inquiry may serve to dispel. As an actual fact, in 

 practically all cases, with the exception of that of 

 smokeless powder, in Germany duty-paid spirit must 

 be used unless the spirit be subjected to some author- 

 ised process of denaturing prior to use. As regards 

 price, and that is the principal factor, the committee 

 think that the grant of the export allowance would 

 make the average price of industrial spirit in the 

 United Kingdom even lower than the average price 

 in Germany. The price here, exclusive of the cost of 

 anv denaturing, and this denaturing may be what is 

 called ad hoc — that is, dependent upon the use of 

 something which is necessary to the manufacture — 

 would be about yd. the proof gallon, or about iiid. 

 the bulk gallon at 64 over proof — the strength 

 common in industrial spirit. That is as low as the 

 minimum price paid by users in Germany in 1902, 

 when spirit was abnormally cheap, and is much 

 below the figures of ijjd. per proof gallon, or 2^id. 

 per bulk gallon, prevailing in Germany at the pre- 

 sent time." Further, it is important to remember that 

 the price of spirit in this country, where all materials 

 may be freely used, and where none of general use 

 is subject to taxation, is a stable price. In Germany 

 the conditions of production are largely artificial and 

 of very doubtful economic soundness, and they tend 

 to wide and rapid fluctuations in price. 



Tlie main report is supplemented by a valuable re- 

 port by the chairman. Sir Henry Primrose, and Dr. 

 Thorpe, the principal of the Government Laboratories, 

 on the working of the spirit regulations in Germany, 

 based upon personal inquiry and observation in that 

 country. So much stress was laid by certain wit- 

 nesses upon the system and regulations established in 

 Germany in connection with the industrial use of 

 alcohol that it was thought very desirable to procure 

 information at first hand upon that subject. Tliis 

 report may, it is hoped, serve to correct much mis- 

 apprehension which appears to exist upon the benefits 

 of State-aided alcohol in Germany. There is ample 

 proof that the German user of spirit is not greatly 

 benefited by the policy which the agrarian party_ has 

 succeeded in fixing upon him, and is, indeed, at times 

 greatly injured by it. 



In reply to a question asked in the House of 

 Commons' on Tuesday, the Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer announced that he has decided to deal with 

 the subject of the committee's report in an omnibus 

 Bill which he will introduce to the House, and not in 

 the Budget and Finance Bill as originally proposed. 



THE CAPITAL OF TIBET.' 



ALL who have read in the columns of the Times 

 about the mission to Lhasa will welcome in a 

 more concrete form the story as re-told by Mr. Landon 

 in the two handsome volumes now given to the public. 

 In an expedition carried out under such conditions as 

 those which governed Colonel Younghusband's 

 mission, the special correspondent becomes a distinct 

 factor in its success. The working men of the party, 

 even if they have eyes to see and the rare gift of 

 recording their impressions faithfully, can but present 

 such generalisations as may be gathered during the 

 few intervals hastily snatched from the worries and 

 anxieties incidental to the routine of an abnormal 

 state of existence. Usually they see but little, and 

 that little from the restricted standpoint of their own 

 idiosyncrasies. 



I " Lhasa ; an Account of the Country and People of Central Tibet, &c." 

 By Perceval Landon. Vol. i. Pp. xix+414. Vol. ii. Pp. .vi + 426. 

 (I.cndon : Hurst and Blackett, 1Q05.) Price 42.5. net. 



