Fifty Years of Progress 1880-1930

A.A.A. JUBILEE SOUVENIR said they had been very much better than his own ever were, because the path of his successors to the position had been made very much easier, and by their endeavours and by the work of the A.A.A., the organisation now occupied a very distinguished position. We have the confidence, the President continued, of the athletes in this country and in every other country, and what we say carries weight. But that is not done by our legislation; not by all our rules which we have for repressing offenders. It is done because of the mutual confidence existing between athletes, and as long as the North, Midlands and the South remain friends, as long as the new County Associations are friends, and not enemies of the A.A.A., and as long as harmony and good feeling prevail, we shall go on and prosper. There are present three gentlemen who attended the original meeting of the A.A.A., now forty-seven years ago--Mr. T. M. Abraham, Mr. J. E. Fowler-Dixon and myself-and those who have worked for many years in the Association ought, I think, to feel proud of the position which it now occupies. I am proud to be thanked by you this evening for presiding, and I hope to preside again. (Applause.)