Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook 15% across the board, took control of aircraft repairs and RAF storage units, replaced the management of plants that were underperforming, and released German Jewish engineers from internment to work in the factories. He seized materials and equipment destined for other departments and was perpetually at odds with the Air Ministry. His appeal for pots and pans "to make Spitfires" was afterwards revealed by his son Sir Max Aitken to have been nothing more than a propaganda exercise. Still, a "Time Magazine" cover story declared, "Even if Britain goes down this fall, it will not be Lord Beaverbrook's fault. If
Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook and the firm's general manager. Under the tutelage of Stairs, who would be his mentor and friend, Aitken engineered a number of successful business deals and was planning a series of bank mergers. Stairs' unexpected early death in September 1904 led to Aitken acquiring control of the company and moving to Montreal, then the business capital of Canada. There he bought and sold companies, invested in stocks and shares and also developed business interests in both Cuba and Puerto Rico. He started a weekly magazine, the "Canadian Century" in 1910, invested in the "Montreal Herald" and almost acquired the "Montreal