Why Not Stage a "Royal Show" for Commercial Vehicles ?
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THEhuge attendance at the Royal Show, staged huge is not only indicative of the great interest which the agricultural community takes in its own business, but also of how the general public appreciates the return to something like pre-war conditions. It seems that many records have been broken, and this makes us wonder whether the manufacturing side of the commercialvehicle industry was wise in deciding not to hold its Show this year.
We know that quite a large section of the trade was in favour of a comprehensive exhibition, but was over-ruled. Meanwhile, France and Switzerland have staged excellent displays which have attracted attention from potential buyers all over the world, and at which some British makes were to be seen. Such small contingents from our factories are, however, not adequate. A country which is the venue of such a gathering achieves something more than is represented by a mere showing of vehicles. It indicates that its trade is adopting a realistic approach, despite the difficulties of the times and the fact that it may perhaps be many months before those who order its products will receive them. There is also a considerable amount of prestige involved.
Buyers from overseas must be encouraged and not given the impression that we are slackening in our efforts or in any way lacking the courage of our convictions. There are far too many people who, whatever they may really think, glibly say that Britain is finished. We hold no such view. Every difficulty should serve to strengthen the resolution of each of us.
We quite realize that there are difficulties in the way, but if some of our makers can show abroad, what justification was there to stop them doing the same in this country, where, actually, it would be much easier and the individual expense would probably not have been any higher. In addition, at foreign shows the space available to our products is necessarily comparatively small, and this placed all but a few of our exhibitors at a grave disadvantage.
The British people and thousands of operators would, we are sure, have welcomed a brief respite from monotony and an opportunity of seeing some signs of our recovery. The British commercialvehicle industry, in particular, is producing fine chassis and bodywork, and it is a great pity that it should be hiding its light under the proverbial bushel.
We know that there are arguments as to the inadvisability of encouraging orders which, possibly, cannot be met for a considerable time. In the ordinary course, the efforts to fill the order books are no doubt one of the main reasons for holding such an exhibition; but there are others. There is, for example, such an important factor as the personal contact between important visitors from overseas and those who might not be able to meet them in other ways. No doubt a good proportion of them would have appreciated the opportunity of inspecting our commercial-vehicle factories and would have extended their stay for this purpose. Instead of that, we have missed the boat and done our best to persuade them that Britain is, from this angle, not worth visiting. Few foreigners realize that most of our works have been greatly extended in size since 1939, and that they are equipped with remarkably fine machine tools— in fact, people who have seen corresponding factories abroad have told us that, at least so far as equipment is concerned, we are, in many cases, ahead of them. •