t
r
1. Gov. Decret
2
4-12.
29
of
Shares american synd: is considering purchase the 2 electric power suns & requests guidance t information
as to beer means of ensuring thar public utility cous shav remain in British hands.
Hilvarz
Can you trace any bentation in Other barts of the Empire (of para 3), the?
1.2. Martin 8.1.30
I cannot trace any legislation in the
Dominions or Colonies definitely designed to prevent
the controlling interest in public utility under-
takings passing into non-British hands. It is
common knowledge that the controlling interest in
certain British electricity supply companies has
recently passed into American hands e.g. I understand
from the electricity commissioners that the Greater
London and Counties Trust Ltd. have acquired with the
aid of American capital the major part of the share
capital of the Shropshire, Worcestershire and
Staffordshire Electric Power Co. and of the
Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire
Electricity Co. The Trust also holds 99% of the
ordinary capital of Edmundsons Electricity Corpora-
tion Ltd. The Electricity Commissioners in their
9th Annual Report issued recently comment in paras-
6, 7 and 8 on this invasion of American capital and
point out that the matter has been the subject of
numerous parliamentary questions. A specimen of
such a question will be found in column 51 of the
accompanying copy of Parliamentary Debates for 16th
July