Sirs Paul and Peter

In the eight years he spent as chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., Sir Paul Chambers, 63, shook up Britain's largest private company from the front office to the production line. He turned a stodgy, Commonwealth-oriented company into a lean operation with new muscle to flex on world markets. Now Chambers wants out. For all his efforts, I.C.I.'s actual performance remains sluggish. And he puts part of the blame on Labor government policies; he complains that "any fool can save the pound by damming the economy." Opting for a far less demanding job, Chambers will leave I.C.I. next spring to become head of London's Royal Insurance Co.

After protracted, secrecy-shrouded deliberations, the company chose as Chambers' successor Sir Peter Allen, 62, one of four I.C.I. deputy chairmen. Allen promptly promised that he will bring "no abrupt--or even, for that matter, gentle--changes of policy."

Into Europe. None seem called for. Profits may not be as high as management might like, but I.C.I., the world's second largest chemical manufacturer (after Du Pont), has revitalized itself in the face of increasing competition and falling world prices in key chemicals. Under Chambers, an economist, the company brought in a U.S. management-consultant firm to streamline its organization, moved more vigorously into plastics and synthetic fibers, expanded research in such products as weed killers, antimalarial drugs and fertilizers. Chambers also prodded I.C.I.'s eight product divisions and 257 subsidiaries into becoming more aggressive in staking out new markets.

Though he agrees with Harold Wilson on little else, Chambers shares the belief that Britain needs the Common Market, and he has moved to assure I.C.I.'s place in Europe no matter what happens politically. I.C.I, has bought into smaller European chemical firms, constructed plants in The Netherlands and West Germany. To gear itself to foreign competition, it is now in the final phase of a four-year, $1.7 billion capitalization program. It was partly because of that outlay that pre-tax profits dropped steadily over the past three years, to $242 million in 1966. Whatever happens, I.C.I, now does more business abroad than at home, and Chambers thinks that it is in an ideal position "to get in at the top of the next boom."

Chairman-Designate Allen will be primed to greet that boom when it arrives. A stout, genial chemist with old-school ties (Harrow, Oxford's Trinity College), Allen is a steam-railway buff who has written six books (Narrow Gauge Railways of Europe, Steam on the Sierra) on the subject. A former head of I.C.I.'s plastics division and Canadian operations, he is also a cost-conscious businessman who is quick to criticize corporations for "gathering information that is not needed, collecting useless statistics and disseminating unimportant knowledge."

Only a year younger than his predecessor, Allen plans to serve exactly three years as chairman. After all, says he, "anything less would be absurd, and any longer will see me an old-age pensioner." I.C.I.'s profit picture is expected to brighten during those three years. If it does not, Sir Paul's actions may be to blame, but Sir Peter will wind up paying for them.

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