Vickers' scale made it useful to government and difficult to control. Concern about further concentration of industrial power is offered as the reason for resistance to purchases of Palmers and William Beardmore. An existing Beardmore shareholding differed from ownership of the whole business. A participant also recalls an attempted purchase of Colt and Remington during the Great Depression and attributes its failure to American antitrust rules. That final account remains a recollection without supporting transaction details.
Notable Point · 2:56:02-2:57:44
Government resistance to further Vickers expansion
Recalled resistance to further Vickers purchases centres on government concern about concentrated industrial power.