11
China Association to Foreign Office.
China Association,
REGISTRATION OF
LIMITED COMPANIES, SHANGHAI.
DEAR SIR,
ANGLO-FRENCH LAND INVESTMENT COMPANY.
China Association, Shanghai, to General Committee.
China Association,
Shanghai, 30th March, 1914.
I am instructed to enclose for the information of the London Comtaittee a circular issued by the Anglo-French Land Investment Co., Ltd., from which it will be seen that the French Missions are endeavouring to remove the present Agents of the Company, Messrs. A. R. Burkill & Sons.
The fundamental reasons for the formation of this Company in 1905, was the desire of the Roman Catholic Mission of Kiangnan to vest the ownership of its properties in a British Company so as to avoid the risk of confiscation by the French Government.
The attached circular is self explanatory, but the object of this letter is to enquire the present position with regard to the Companies Ordinance, and to ask your Committee to urge upon H.M.'s Government the importance of having this made law with as little delay as possible.
I am also instructed to enquire if any alteration has been made or suggested with regard to the provision that Managers, Secretaries or Agents as well as the majority of Directors, Auditors and Liquidators should be British subjects.
Asking the urgent attention of your Committee to this important question,
I am, &c.,
H. C. Wilcox, Esq.,
Secretary, China Association, London.
(Signed) L. E. CANNING,
Secretary.
SIR,
159, Cannon Street, London,
15th April, 1914.
I am instructed to enclose for the information of His Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, copy of a letter received yesterday from the Shanghai Branch of this Association, together with the Report, for year ended 28th February, 1914, of the Directors of the Anglo-French Land Investment Company (of Shanghai) and of a copy of the Circular which has been issued by then to Shareholders in the Company.
The gist of the matter is, that in the year 1905, the Roman Catholic Mission at Shanghai, being large owners of landed property in the French Settlement and appre hending its possible confiscation by the French Government, promoted a British Company under the Hongkong Ordinances to which the property was transferred, the Mission receiving payment partly in cash but mainly in shares, of which they hold a preponder- ating vote. It would seem that with the passing of the danger the Mission now seek to regain control of the property under the plea that they can manage it more economically than the present Board of Agents. To this the Directors object as being likely to prove prejudicial to those British Shareholders and Debenture holders who subscribed to the concern on the faith that the Company was and should remain a bona fide British Company.
In writing this, however, my Committee do not mean to convey the impression that the question is one in which the Foreign Office can at present intervene, but rather as evidence for the necessity of hastening into law the Regulations for the registration of companies in Shanghai, the draft of which you were good enough to submit for the opinion of this Association last October.
I am therefore to ask if you will be so kind as to afford the Committee sufficient information to reply to the question asked by the Shanghai Brauch regarding the present position of the Companies Order in Council.
Will you please return at your convenience the Report and Circular enclosed herewith.
H. M. Under Secretary of State
I have, &c., (Signed) H. C. WILCOX,
for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Office.
Secretary.
438