Evening star., 1923-08-19

importing house at the munificent
salary of $500 year. At twenty,
Hudson Kearley-for that was his
name-determined to begin business
his firm, now known as kearley &
Tong. began as one-man concern,
he acting as his own buyer. blender,
traveller and bookkeeper. Today
branch establishments of his firm.
known as the International Stores.
but also a grocery trade, are to be
found all over the United Kingdom.
There are some 500 of his stores in
Great Britain. others in Ireland, and
many more in the colonies. and. of
course, he has become enormously
rich.
Elected rs Liberal.
Entering parliament for Davenport
in 1892. as a liberal. Ikudson kearley
showed such knowledge, acquired d
I'm his boyhood. of everything relat-
ing to life and work along the water
front of London that the late Sir
Henry Campbell Bannerman, then
premier, ended by inviting him to
join his administration as parlia-
mentary secretary to the government
podTu Oh tTdue-tHdt Is 10 say " lhe
department of commerce-and in
trusted him with the chairmanship
of the port of London royal COM
mission. and, subsequently,. with the
task of piloting the various bills
relating thereto through parliament.
For his services in this connection he
received in turn, a baronetcy, seat
in the privy council of the king. and.
finally. elevation to the house of lords
as Baron and Viscount Davenport.
being the first member of grocery
firm to receive peerage OF the realm
No sketch, however brief, of Lord
Devenport's career, would be COM
plete without a mention of the mas
terly way in which he handled the
great dock strikes of 1912. that. for a
time, paralyzed the entire port of
London, almost reducing the metrop-
oils to a condition of famine. owing
to the impossibility of unloading the
shipping bringing fOodstuffs to the
capital. Every possible pressure was
brought to bear upon him to give
way to the strikers-pressure by the
press, by parliament, by the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, by the Leading
members of the Anglican and Roman
Catholic hierarchy, by the leaders of
the parliamentary opposition, by the
great banking interests, by the lord
mayor and aldermen of London, and
even by the government. first and
foremost Dy tne lHeH pIehici, AiCi :
bert Asquith.
Declined to Surrender.
But Lord Davenport declined to
surrender, although Ben Tillet and
the other labor leaders publicly urged
the strikers to shoot him. In the long
run. he won the day hands down,
gained the profound respect. If not
the affection, of the labor element
and established once and for all time
the principle that the administration
of the Port of London, the greatest
port in the world, is of too vital i'm
portance to the British empire to
admit for one moment of it's being at
the mercy of irresponsible and pro-
fessional agitators Of labor.
Today Lord Davenport, by means of
agreements with the great railroad
systems running into London-agree-
ments officially approved by the gov
ernment-and by virtue of carefully
worked out gigantic scheme of motor
lorry transportation, has placed the
vast metropolis beyond the danger Of
any such lack of food as that to
which it was subject by the labor
troubles of 1912. How important this
Is will be appreciated when 1t is born
in mind that all the provisions needed
for the sustenance Of the 100000
population have to be brought from
the provinces and from foreign
countries, into London.