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Almost two years later, on 15 March 1911, the Clerk wrote to the
Secretary enclosing a draft byelaw in accordance with his suggestions and
asked for it to be adopted. He also said that it should demonstrate that the
apothecaries had no desire to see all the assistants applying. 149 The draft
was acknowledged by the Secretary who promised to pass it to the
Pharmaceutical Society‘s Council, in the expectation that they would give it
careful and sympathetic consideration. 150 The Secretary wrote again on 4
May 1911 to say that the draft byelaw had been submitted to the
Parliamentary and General Purposes Committee of the Council and its
contents would be borne in mind when the time came for considering such
matters, but that that time had not yet arrived. 151 This was the first
example of an attempt to avoid dealing with the matter on the part of the
Pharmaceutical Society.
The Society of Apothecaries must have been in contact with the Privy
Council because that body wrote to the Pharmaceutical Society on 29
October 1912 asking about the present position. 152 The Pharmaceutical
Society replied on 11 November 1912 that it had had discussions with
representatives of the assistants and army dispensers. As neither the army
dispensers nor the assistants‘ knowledge was sufficient to meet the
necessary standard, the Society had been left with two options: either to
introduce a lower standard of registration or to formulate a byelaw that
149
Society of Apothecaries Archive, Box 9, E/4/4/1/1, Letter, A. Mowbray Upton to the Secretary of the
Pharmaceutical Society, 15 Mar. 1911.
150
Society of Apothecaries Archive, Box 9, E/4/4/1/1, Letter, R. Bremridge to A. Mowbray Upton, 20
Mar. 1911.
151
Society of Apothecaries Archive, Box 9, E/4/4/1/1, Letter, R. Bremridge to A. Mowbray Upton, 4 May
1911.
152
Society of Apothecaries Archive, Box 9, E/4/4/1/1, Letter, Sir Almeric Fitzroy to Clerk to the Society
of Apothecaries, 14 Nov. 1912.
339