Page 186 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Story of the C.W.S.
a branch store will be established by you in Cardiff or Bristol in the
course of a few months." How the C.W.S. received this stipulation
is unknown. The minutes of the Society simply record without
comment the acceptance, three or four days later, of this new member
by the Committee. And it was not the C.W.S. but the Congress
Board which sent out a circular, soon afterwards, to eighty societies
in South Wales and the West of England, asking what custom would
be given to a C.W.S. branch. Tabulated replies from more than
forty societies were printed in the Co-operative News of May 17th,
1873. Nearly all the returns testified to the value of the Wholesale,
and twenty-five societies promised unconditional support. Some,
however, were unheroically content with "probably," or "most
likely," or they would buy " if found advantageous," or "if
cheapest and best," which hardly needed the telling. However,
forty delegates assembled at Aberdare on May 1st, 1873, under the
chairmanship of " a member of the Mountain Ash Society ;" and
William Nuttall came down to represent the Central Board of the
Co-operative Congress. The English reporter did his best to record
the names of all the societies represented, and got as far as
" Ystalyfera," " Pontrhydyfen," and " Tuedyrhyed " when he
broke down. Equally he failed to reproduce all the speeches. Yet,
not all the delegates were Welsh. The loyal Gloucester Society
sent one of its leaders, who " earnestly recommended every
society represented to join the Wholesale at once," for " their
society could trust the Wholesale, and had found it could treat
tliem well ;" and Newport gave strong testimony in support of
Gloucester. Failing a C.W.S. branch, a separate Wholesale Society
was talked of; but this idea faded under discussion. WiUiam
Nuttall took a non-committal attitude; nevertheless at Manchester,
a fortnight later, he declared " it would pay the Wholesale to send
a man to Bristol now, to receive orders and keep samples."
The reply made by Mr. Crabtree to Nuttall's suggestion was
that the C.W.S. had sufficient to do in founding the London Branch,
then under discussion. But a report upon the latter, of August 19th,
1873, acknowledged the Western need by proposing to leave " the
South-West counties for a branch at Bristol, and the Midlands
to have one at Birmingham." Meanwhile the demand continued.
At a Western Conference, held at Gloucester on August 1st, 1874, a
resolution was carried by a large majority " impressing upon the
C.W.S. Board the desirability of a Bristol Branch." Bristol was
named continuously because of its position as the manufacturing
144