AND now this story of the first fifty years is finished. It is a story of steady technical and commercial progress, achieved despite a too optimistic start, despite periods of acute financial embarrassment, and despite numerous changes in capital control. In large measure this success must be attributed to those early managers who set the standards which still prevail—the insistence upon a first-class product, the encouragement of all to accept responsibility, if necessary without instructions, and the just award of credit or blame to those who earn it.

The executive direction of the Company has always been in the hands of men who entered its service in the most junior positions and, without influence, worked their way up. Knowing the duties and problems of their departments by first-hand experience, and holding themselves always accessible to their subordinates, such men have proved themselves helpful and wise in counsel and have built up that loyalty to the Company which is one of its greatest assets.

Metrovick is not merely a group of large factories in which 23,000 men and women find employment. It is an institution of national, even international, importance, towards which every employee makes some contribution and in which each may find happiness and take a personal interest and pride. It is an association of men and women who have common interests and who together have accomplished much. May the next half-century prove a fitting sequel to the first.