24 Report of Schimmel § Co. April/October 1917. 



occupied with other harvest work, so as not to endanger the nation's food 

 supply. 



In order to take advantage of the lavender and spike crops at the right 

 moment, it is desirable that the industry of Lyons, which means to compete with 

 the famous Leipzig fair, would use its capitals to foster the distillation of these 

 flowers in the Alps, which the bodies tried to lay hands upon before the war, 

 in order to beat the Grasse perfumers on the world's market. We called the 

 attention of the Lyons Chamber of Commerce to this matter and to the advantage 

 which it would bring to attract the oil producers of the whole South East of 

 France to the next Lyons fair. 



Although nothing has been done as yet in this direction, it is never too late 

 to mend. It has been reported already that Mr. Herriot, our venerated senator 

 and mayor, intends to stay in the Basses-Alpes on one of his next journeys, in 

 order to canvass, by personal influence, exhibitors for the Lyons fair of 1917. 

 It is to be hoped that, for the sake of competing with Leipzig, he will try the 

 seemingly impossible in order to transfer the trade with perfumes and aromatics 

 to his town". 



The editors add the following postscript: "In French journals of late years, 

 a tremendous number of articles have appeared which, though small, were often 

 cleverly written and had the aim of making a keen and skilful propaganda for the 

 extension of the native chemical industry. We have, so far, published onfy a small 

 selection of these articles, for, in the attempt to collect them all one would have 

 wasted almost entirely the space reserved for better productions. Nevertheless, 

 these newspaper reports, which are collected in other quarters 1 ), show how France 

 has recognized the faults of its chemical industry and now attempts in all possible 

 ways to repair them. Any means will do, from the justified criticism of the some- 

 times really incomprehensible conditions, to lies and deceit. A good example of 

 the contortion and exaggeration of existing conditions is .above article, which we, 

 therefore, do not want to keep from our readers, especially as it has been further 

 criticized hereafter by a well-informed authority. We would mention here on§ 

 subject of the article that has not been taken into consideration in said criticism; 

 viz., the remarks on France's dependence on the Bulgarian rose industry. Every- 

 body acquainted with the conditions knows that this dependence is universal and 

 . by no means limited to France, whose rose fields in the neighbourhood of Grasse 

 scarcely suffice to supply the flowers required for rose pomades and extracts. 

 The distillation of otto of roses in the South of France is quite inconsiderable 

 and will never be able to compete with the vast rose growing regions in Bulgaria. 

 The calculation, made in above article on the basis of a price which has been 

 reached only now under quite exceptional circumstances, likewise shows that any 

 means will be deemed good if it helps to attain the purpose in view". 

 Thereafter, an article is reproduced which appeared in the Deutsche Parfiimerie- 

 Zeitung (2 [1916], 333) under the title of "U essence de Lavande aux Foires de Lyon et 

 de Leipzig". It runs as follows: — 



Under above heading and with the sub-title "la maison Schimmel de Leipzig 

 accaparait notre Lavande, la foire de Lyon la propagera dans le monde entier", 

 M. Galfard, ancien conseiller du commerce exterieur de la France, published on 



1 ) Comp. E. Oberfohren, Franzosische Bestrebungen zu Verdrangungen des deutschen Handels. Kriegs- 

 wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen aus dem Institut fur Seeverkehr und Weltwirtschaft a. d. Univ. Kiel. Jena 1916. 



