3 
1916-17.] Opening Address by the President. 
of the highest order ? The cause of the decline of our supremacy in this 
colour industry is no mystery — it is transparently and painfully obvious.” 
In his last address to the Institute of Chemistry in March 1915, he said, 
“ I repeat it is not a business question, but a chemical question, and it is 
by chemical research alone that our colour industry can be saved in the 
long run. Consider the leeway that we have to make up. The German 
colour industry has been built up by the utilisation of the results of 
research carried on in the factories, universities, and technical schools for 
a period of over forty years. To suppose that we can retrieve our position 
after forty years of neglect by starting a company, the directorate of which 
is to consist solely of business people, is simply ludicrous.” ... “ The group 
of industries which have arisen from the products of the tar still are not 
going to remain stagnant after the war, and it is scientific guidance and not 
mere assistance that will keep them alive. It is the expert, and the expert 
only, who can foresee the course of development, who can keep in touch 
with the progress of research, and who can direct with intelligence the 
campaign against our competitors. If such scientific direction is withheld, 
all schemes are sooner or later bound to end in failure. I deliver my second 
warning to a new generation after an interval of about thirty years ; if it 
is again unheeded, so much the worse for the country.” 
The war has fortunately brought about a complete change from this 
state of apathy. On the initiation of the Chemical Society, an Association 
of British Chemical Manufacturers has been formed to promote closer 
co-operation between individual firms, to improve technical organisation, 
to promote industrial research, and to further co-operation between 
chemical manufacturers and our universities and technical schools. The 
Government has been instrumental in establishing a British Dyes Company 
with a capital of three million pounds to encourage the home industry 
and to render the nation more or less independent of foreign supplies. 
But our chief enemy is evidently determined, when the war is over, to 
make a great effort to retain his former position in foreign markets 
as regards this industry. A grant of one hundred thousand pounds for 
research was promised to this company by the Government. It is 
announced that several German firms producing dyes, fine chemicals, 
and drugs have combined with a capital of eleven million pounds to 
strengthen their position. It would seem that the competitive struggle 
in international trade after the war will be keener than ever. 
Other industries which need not be enumerated have come to realise 
the importance of scientific research in relation to their future develop- 
ment. Of course there are great practical difficulties in carrying out this 
