BRITISH ACCOUNTANTS

Northern Advocate, 20 July 1935, Page 12

BRITISH ACCOUNTANTS

TRIBUTES FROM U.S.A. Generous tribute to the high standard achieved and consistently maintained by the accountancy profession in Great Britain was paid by Mr I. Graham Pattinson (as representative of the American Institute of Accountants) at the Golden Jubilee banquet of the British Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors. He remarked that the accountants of America generally looked to Great Britain as the cradle of their profession, and, whilst they might have struck out on some lines of their own, nevertheless their roots went down into the society’s fertile soil, and from it they had drawn not only training, but inspiration to maintain the traditions and attempt to improve the standards established here in order that business men the world oyer might have faith in a profession which could be of such service to them.

No profession could be of genuine and universal service without a central organised body to establish standards and maintain discipline, and in that body must be the men of public spirit who were willing to devote their time freely without financial reward —men who would command the respect not only of the business world, but also of their own professional brethren, particularly the younger element. Taking such a creed as a measure, he felt that the business world owed a debt of gratitude to the Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors. They had wrought well in the cause and as they contemplated what they had accomplished, and considered their sons who were carrying the responsibility throughout the world —and in this he spoke from experience—they had just cause for the pride which he knew they must feel, and which members of the. profession throughout the world all shared with them.

Mr C. Hewetson Nelson (vice-presi-dent of the society) mentioned that the beginnings of the accountancy profession in England were prompted by a desire to provide a class of reliable and skilled people to carry out duties in connection with insolvency matters. The prosperity of the nineties, the expansion of overseas trade, commerce and finance, and the quickening of municipal life in England called for a professional service for the audit of accounts and for dealing with questions of business organisation and finance. Parliament inci’eased these responsibilities by legislation which provided for the appointment of auditors to public and private companies. building societies, industrial 1 and provident societies controlling hundreds of millions of capital.