The Check to the Motorcar Industry: Shall There Be a 1914 Olympia Show?
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Some owners of private cars have, needlessly and thoughtlessly in a not inconsiderable percentage of instances, laid up their vehicles. The effects, it transpires, are largely outbalanced by the use--and preparations for use—of cars for services arising from the war. A temporary spell of activity, for some motorcar factories, resulted from the visit of military officers authorized to make purchases, but that measure of assistance did not reach into every corner of the motorcar industry. There were favoured parties, without any suggestion of • undue preference. Certain military officers, charged with the duty of purchasing, went to the works where they expected to find the largest number of available chassis, and so to facilitate the despatch of the Expedition.ary Force.
We believe that, with custonfary British pluck, the interval of a month which has passed since the declaration of war has been sufficient to bring about, on the oart of all these who have entrusted to them the administration of hOalthy concerns, a practically unanimous decision to develop their businesses. Our own correspondence satisfies us that genuine efforts are being made to adjust private-car output to meet the requirements of commercial buyers, and we have ourselves, apart from articles and incidental references in TER COMMERCIAL MOTOR, been pleased to give personal advice and information to several of the largest and most successful private-car undertakings in the country. We are ready, of course, to continue to help where we can, in like manner.
There is one direction in which we hope that motorcar interests, will not, prove faint-hearted, and that is in respect of the holding of the annual motorcar show, at Olympia, in November next. We cannot persuade ourselves to believe that the forceful men who have brought the British motorcar industry to its present state of development will throw up the sponge by reason of existing difficulties. The present year, it seems to us, no matter what may tranSpire between its course so far and the end of it, is clearly an occasion for the holding of that show at all costs. The markets which are closed to us in European countries are not our best export markets by any means. The markets of the Colonies and the Overseas Dominions remain open to us, and these wealthy purchasing countries can no longer draw upon Belgium. France or Germany. They can, however. draw upon America, and to a lesser extent upon Italy. Do British manufacturers calmly entertain the proposal that they should abandon the taade of the rest of the world to e6
America ? We cannot give credence to the report that such a surrender is sanely contemplated.
One only needs to glance at the Motorcar Press to realize that correspondents -hold divergent views. Were the motorcars used for luxury only, we should side with those who say "No show." They are not ; hence our confidence in the case for the Show.