ONE of the largest industries of the post-war years which, it was expected, would be established in the Six Counties - that of producing farm tractors - has gone to England. It was announced yesterday that a Coventry shadow factory, taken over by the Standard Motor Company, is to go into production for these implements which are of the new type. The factory will provide employment for more than 6,000.
Sir John Black, managing director of Standard Motors, announced that he had entered into partnership with Mr Harry Ferguson, the Northern Ireland inventor of the 'Ferguson Tractor' and system of implements which - it is claimed - perform every mechanisable operation on a farm. The Standard Company will make the tractor only with the special implements being produced by a number of firms throughout Britain. "This is one of the greatest blows we have had in the past thirty or forty years," said a Belfast industrialist to an Irish News representative. "It is almost a parallel case to that of the Dunlop Rubber Company which was lost to Belfast because of the lack of foresight on the part of key commercial people."
Mr Harry Ferguson issued a statement setting out the reasons which impelled him to give preference to Coventry over his native Northern Ireland. He said he had investigated very thoroughly the possibilities of a large manufacturing plant in Northern Ireland and the Stormont government had offered him great inducements to have the plant located here. The US experts who carried out the investigation reported very favourably on Northern Ireland, but advised him that it would take a considerable time to erect a complete new manufacturing plant and to train the necessary personnel to get into full production.
They also pointed out that the lack of gear-cutting facilities and experience in the North was a serious matter. As a result, they advised that he should get some existing large manufacturer with experience of mass production and with a suitable manufacturing plant already in existence, to undertake the work for him. As the Standard Motor Company had suitable premises in Coventry it was impossible to persuade them to consider manufacture in Northern Ireland.
Mr Ferguson expressed his thanks for the help he had received in Northern Ireland from the Prime Minister (Sir Basil Brooke), the Cabinet and the permanent officials. He especially thanked the Ministry of Agriculture for its interest in the Ferguson tractor since its earliest days and, particularly, Dr G Scott Robertson, Permanent Secretary to that Ministry for his untiring efforts to make it possible to have the plant located in the North.
The inventor's deepest regret was that production of the Ferguson tractor and implements had not been started in Northern Ireland in 1936. The demand then was small, but the business would have been steadily built up and would now have been a major industry. If the [Stormont] government of that day had only been able to take the view urged upon it by the Ministry of Agriculture, he would have started manufacture in Northern Ireland instead of the United States.
Edited by Eamon Phoenix e.phoenix@irishnews.com