Within a year of this appointment Bailey took full control of the works, in succession to Mensforth, who had been appointed Director-General of Factories at the War Office. Mensforth had been general manager of works since 1917 and, perhaps because of his Yorkshire pertinacity, he had been particularly successful m handling wartime labour difficulties and in increasing the output of munitions in the district. For this he was awarded the C.B.E, and he was knighted in 1923.

On the passing of the B.W. era many of those who had served felt that an association should be formed with the object of keeping in touch with old friends, for instance by annual reunions. The first committee meeting of the 'ex-British Westinghouse association' was held in London on November 13 1918 under the chair manship of C. Dalley, others present being L. R. Morshead, H. S. Aspinall, C. W. Crosbie, A. F. Dick, and L. S. Richardson. Richardson, who had been an apprentice at Trafford Park during 1904-8, agreed to act as secretary, and for more than thirty years he has brought enthusiasm, imagination and energy to a live association still mustering some 350 members.

CHANGES AND CHANCES
The ten years that opened with the change of control began also with business hampered by post-war conditions: political uncertainties, Government restrictions raw material and shipment difficulties, and labour unrest. Even so the tonnage output for 1920 was up by 30 per cent, and the total number employed rose to nearly 10,000. But a trade depression was beginning: orders started to fall off, and in 1922 hopes of improvement were clouded by a dispute with the engineering unions. This resulted in a three months' lock-out, during which the works committee kept in touch with the management right up to the final settlement providing that in any future dispute work should go on while the trouble was argued out.

In 1922 the chairman of the Board, J. Annan Bryce, resigned owing to failing health and died a few months later. Bryce was a brother of the famous ambassador and writer and was for many years M.P. for Inverness Burghs. An original director. he had been chairman for fourteen years, during which he conducted general meetings with skill in difficult circumstances. He was succeeded by Sir Philip A. M. Nash, who had been Inspector-General of Transportation for the Western Front and permanent representative on the Inter-allied Transportation Council.

The difficulties of the electrical industry in the following years were reflected in a dividend reduction from 12 1/2 per cent to 8 per cent in 1923 and 6 per cent in 1927. In 1924 output was beginning to increase, but 1926 suffered from the effects both of a coal strike lasting from May to October and of the only general strike in British industrial history. The general strike lasted from May 3 to 12, but for M-V it passed off with the loss of only one day's work, thanks largely to the works committee, who with their chairman, Sam Ratcliffe, had made strenuous and successful efforts to keep the works going; one stalwart, Teddy McGrath, living near Oldham walked 170 miles to and from the works in the absence of his usual train. Later in the same year, Ratcliffe was chosen to visit America with a Daily Mail mission of trade unionists to study conditions in the engineering trades there.