NOBEL’S EXPLOSIVES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 14, 18 January 1915, Page 7

NOBEL’S EXPLOSIVES.

AN ALL-BRITISH UNDERTAKING. Not unreasonably the war has caused a stigma to attach to aii German g ooas, to all German firms, and even to all British concerns in which German capitalists are interested. It is to he tea red, however, that m the keen competition for business, the suspicion with which German Ur ms and German business men arc regart - cd, has been seized upon by unscrupulous traders and manufacturers in a smaller way to injure their rivals by a covert hint and suggestion to then customers or clients that if their huger competitors are not actually German, they are working in German interests, or under German influence, directly or indirectly.

British people the world over, m their present and not unnatural temper, may thus be misled by interested persons into inflicting grave injustice upon absolutely British enterprises. I’iii’ortun ttely, at the inomem, any friendly foreigner or foreign firm—-or, for the matter of that, any British firm with a foreign name, or a name suggestive of hon-British nationality —is liable to be wilfully prejudiced m the eyes of its trade connection, although a little consideration and. firsthand inquiry would elicit the truth of the matter and reveal the motive for such suggestions.

In these circumstances it is highly important to remind all concerned that Nobel’s Explosives Co., Ltd., Glasgow, is an essentially British firm, founded by Alfred Nobel in 1871 at Glaspnv. with the factory at Ardcer, Ayrshire, Scotland, and that the principal < and employees are, and always have been, British, although the late Alf.ed Nobel, the philanthropic founder of the Nobel Prize, was Swedish hv birth.

Noh°l’s Explosives Co., Ltd., Glasgow, is a registered British company. The Nohel’s-Dyuamite Trust, Ltd., which is the parent company of Nobel’s various activities in many foreign cbimtrie-, is also a Registered British Cmipany with a large preponderance of British Directors. Nobel’s Explosives Co., Ltd., is directed solely by British Directors, and managed entirely In British executive officers. Their explosives factories are under the constant supervision of the British Government. The workers are all British, and preference is given to timeexpired British soldiers, for the reason that they are found to be loyal, steady, trustworthy and highly-disci-plined men. The head office is in Glasgow, i the only branch offices are in London and Birmingham, the agents throughout the British Dominions all bear British names, and almost all of them in countries other than British, in Asia, Africa, and America are Britishers. The factories and works of the company are all within the United Kingdom—in Scotland, England, and Wales. In fine, Nobel’s Explosives Co., Ltd., Glasgow, is as British an institution as the Bank of England. Above all, conclusive evidence of the company’s purely British status is the fact that its factories are now working at the highest 'vessnro possible to fill the orders of the British Government for war mat "rials for the Army and Navy. 1 32i