The growth of export business brought an increasing number of overseas apprentices to Trafford Park, and in August 1925 the 'M-V overseas association' was formed. An Australasian association had been in existence for some months, but it was felt that a more comprehensive body would enable apprentices from all overseas countries to mix and come to know each other better. This idea, backed by McKinstry, won strong support from the management, and a cosmopolitan committee was elected from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Argentina.

Today membership is open to all M-V men who have spent two years abroad in the service of the Company or have lived abroad for five years, and the original sixty-three have grown to over seven hundred. Though something like two-thirds of the present members have left M-V, perhaps it is they who place the highest value on the link provided by the association. Its original function of promoting good fellowship amongst members at Trafford Park is maintained by the annual dinner, the handbook of names and addresses, and the formal welcome given to new overseas apprentices; further, through the A.E.I.News, it disseminates news of members abroad, who themselves arrange local gatherings from time to time.

A NEW DEAL

NEW name, new control, new directors were far more than a changing facade. They were symptomatic of a fresh outlook that was to affect almost every aspect of the organization—technical, commercial, and social.

One of the first signs of the new regime at Trafford Park was a call by the works committee for a mass meeting of management and workers. About 4000 people gathered in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, on May 18, 1919, and with Hilton presiding the chairmen of the Company, the works committee, and the staff committee appealed for mutual cooperation.

The general outline of a new framework for the works organization appeared early in 1921. This, the present 'group system', brought an increased sense of responsibility and the end of watertight compartments, and it was perhaps the most lasting result of Hilton's term of office. The change was simple and fundamental, The three-legged engineering, manufacturing, and selling structure—united only at the apex—was stabilized and strengthened by adding cross-ties in the form of 'group committees', consisting of a chief engineer, shop superintendent, and sales manager. The mechanical and the large electrical plant groups were first set up, and as separate motor, control, switchgear, transformer, instrument and meter, traction, and other departments achieved independent status so the group system spread, until today it embraces the whole of the Company's products.