LORD MELCHETT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20758, 29 December 1930, Page 8

LORD MELCHETT.

The late Lord Melchett was better known, by the family name Mond, famous for its connection with the British chemical industry. His father, the great industrial chemist, Ludwig Mond, was a pioneer of its establishment, especially in relation to utilising the salt deposits of Cheshire. The son, by virtue of his education, was more concerned with business organisation and finance than with tKe technical side of the various enterprises which, springing from the alkali processes his father perfected, reached such enormous proportions. Imperial Chemical Industries, the mighty amalgamation which includes so many branches of activity dependent on the application of science to industrial production, is in a sense a monument to Lord Melchett's organising and financing powers. He was a many-sided man. Trained as a barrister, he became one of the great figures in the British industrial world. Politics claimed part of his time and energy for a period of years. He gained Cabinet rank without attaining in public affairs the prominence he enjoyed in industry and finance. Among his recent activities the most notable were his plan for industrial reorganisation in which increased co-operation of labour and, capital was emphasised and his sclieme for the industrial development of the Empire. Lord Melchett's plan for the Empire was not given the political cast of other schemes, such as that of Lord Beaverbrook. It was not concerned so much with commerce as with the more thorough exploitation cf the Empire's resources in raw material, and their development to make industry so far as possible independent of foreign sources of supply. His was a career of remarkable diversity. The outstanding characteristic of the man was his faculty for handling great enterprises, and for viewing great questions in the broadest imaginable way.