The Manchester Show.
Page 1
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M.:re than ordinary interest, both from owners' and rnal;.et s' standpoints, attaches • to the forthcoming Manchester Show, by reason of the abandonment of the corninurcial-vehicle section which it had been intended to :nefanise at Olympia next month. The writer's knowledge of the Manchester district enables him fully to appreciate the business value of the display at Belle Vue, and readers of this journal may, in accordance with our several announcements since the 2ist December, confidently look forward to an attractive and well-patronised exhibition. Other pages in this number contain further references to the arrangements, and there is no quest:oil rhat tire Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, acting as we last week anticipated would be the case, ha; done the right thing by its purely commercial-vehicle supporters. These signatories—ten in number—are concerned only with the production and sale of utility motors and their parts or accessories, and they did net teke any part in the last November Exhibition. S0.11W of them, if not all, will be found at Manchester : they have but little to lose by withdrawal from the commercial-show bond, which consequence is involved.
The position of the greater number of manufeeturers, whose iuterests are divided between private and )((s.iness vehicles, is materially different from that of the ten who are particularly identified with the commercial side of the industry only. They, we are officially told, will be held strictly to the terms of the bond, and will, if they stage anything at Manchester, suffer both penalties and loss of advantages thereunder. There \yin probably, in consequence of this decision, be some unwilling abstentions, because such a manufacturer, to-day, cannot well afford
to lose the priority and other rights in exchange for the benefits which may reasonably be expected to accrue from participation in the Manchester Show. That exhibition, itone the less, is already assured of representative backing, and cannot be otherwise than a very great success in the heavy sections, upon which our own interest is centred. Does not the solution, for future years, lie in co-operation between the Society and the Manchester Association ? The latter is justly proud of its ability to run an " unsanctifie.d " show, in spite of the Society, as was done last year, and as, in a sense, is to be done again this year, but a settlement is eminently desirable.