PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference :-
C.O. 882
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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AN IMPROVEMENT SCOUTED.
There is at present sitting as a member of the London Consulting Committee a gentleman who will remember making, just about fifteen years ago (he was Chairman for the time being) a proposal that a commencement should then be made in constructing the wharves of this His Company of some more permanent material than wood that was of such passing service. suggestion was that concrete columns in iron casings should replace wooden piles as these decayed. This suggestion, which was about as sound a one as ever was made, was scouted because it happened to be initially expensive; and now the Company will have to pay the penalty for exacting greater dividends in those days instead of facing in good and early time what ought to have been commenced years ago, and what will cost now many times as much as it would then have cost.
THE LATE MR. THOMAS SCOTT.
HIS SERVICES REJECTED.
Well, the late Chairman never could bring himself into sympathy with some of the views of certain London Shareholders, and that being so, a bold line of action was determined on by some of these gentlemen. It was decreed-and private instructions were written out to one of London's representatives on the Board here, that the late Mr. Thomas Scott was not again to be allowed the Chairmanship of the Tanjong-Pagar Dock Company, which meant, of course, that he would not be on the Board. At this very same time, Mr. Scott, who was then in Scotland, but shortly to return here, was receiving and sent me out for my information letters written to him up in Scotland in a consulting and conferring way by one of the Consulting Committee in London; and at the same time that these letters were reaching me from him, the partner here of the London writer to Mr. Scott, waited here on me as Chairman of the Company, with London's private decree of Mr. Scott's dismissal. Needless to say, Mr. Scott on his return to Singapore was made aware of the position; he declined again to join the Board. and he declined when at home to join the London Committee. It was only on his death that the London Committee placed on record the true value-even in their own opinion-to the Company, of its long-time Chairman. (Hear, hear.)
AN OUT-OF-DATE COMMITTEE,
These gentlemen of the London Committee are they who conceive that it is for them to manage and direct for all time these affairs of Singapore, all retired from active life in this place many years ago-anything up to a quarter of a century back or even more--out of touch with the place, its changed conditions and advanced and advancing requirements--and yet they command what this Board shall or shall not do, countermand and veto decisions or acts that the Board has taken, and instruct a Managing Director-who arrives here absolutely new to the place, its people, language, conditions, and requirements-to "politely steer clear of local experience and knowledge." If it were not that the position as to management, control, and direction hus, by this governing power exercised from London, become absolutely dangerous, the position would at least be ludicrous.
A "SINGAPORE" COMPANY.
These people may be large holders of shares on the Company's register, but there is one thing that is unquestionable, and that will have to be recognised, whether they like or dislike it, namely, that the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company is a Singapore Company in the sense that it is a Company that must and can only be and most certainly will be worked for Singapore, and not for London; and this is the case if it is, in the truest sense, to be worked for the best interests, in the long run, of its Shareholders.
They will have to realize and know that the day is past when they can hope to run, direct, al command any of the internal affairs of Singapore. However different may have been the position or the condition of affairs thirty years ago, if these London gentlemen will only now go carefully over a modern directory of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States, they will surely realise that the combined interests of all of them put together, in the overturn of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States, may fairly be compared as a teacupful to a gallon. And it will surely follow and must come about that those local affairs of the Settlement which carry with them grave responsibilities to the Colony, must be worked, controlled, and directed from within the Colony, and from nowhere else.
MR. ANDERSON'S FIRST PROTEST.
JULY 24, 1902.
"MUST BE QUIETENED Dows."
Well, gentlemen, when I found how matters were going, how some members of the London Committee were representing this Board and myself to the officials of the Company sent out from London, and how they were working to lower the status and dignity of this Board, I wrote an official letter to the London Chairman. It was a letter couched in unmistakable
language, and was written on 24th July, 1902. Necessarily it was a letter that was extremely unpalatable to the London Chairman and to some of his colleagues. It was a letter that called for replies to many paragraphs, but I have never yet had these really answered. Instead of attempting any complete and thorough answers to my representations, they wrote me an acknowledgment in a general or overall tenor; evaded or ignored the real points, and took up the attitude of instructing what I was to do. It never occurred to them for a moment to look on anyone, who had the audacity to run counter to their views, except as one to be commanded.
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Thefr attitude amounted to this,—that in their view it would be absurd for any Chairman to think that he was put there to serve the Company, according to his own lights. They only are the Company, and the Chairman must be their obedient servant. It doesn't matter what his views are, or how he is maligned or libelled; regardless of what they do to or say of him he must be quite obedient. I am afraid that in this respect there is a slight difference of opinion between these people and myself; and I think, too, it is hardly likely that Singapore will quite agree with them. Simultaneously with receiving that letter from the Committee, I was waited on here by two members of the Singapore Board, who had been commanded by their London seniors that they must manage to "quieten down John Anderson," and they were to tell him that "the hatchet was buried." These delegates were made aware that no hatchet of mine could be buried so long as the London Consulting Committee existed; I gave them warning and time to mend and alter their ways; they have made these even worse than they were before, and that is how and why I now speak..
THE HATCHET TO BE BURIED.
ARTICLE 124: LIMITATION OF EXPENDITURE,
I want to-day to draw the particular attention of our Shareholders, and of the general public of Singapore, to the way in which the Articles of Association of this Company seriously hamper it, by what are for these times absurd limitations and restrictions. Possibly even some of our Shareholders are not aware of Article No. 124 of this Company's Articles of Association. If they are not, I would recommend them to study it, because its effect is interesting and will perhaps be startlingly instructive. Here we have a Company with a capital of $3,700,000, the greatest industrial company in one of the most important Crown Colonies of the Empire, a company on whose facilities and operations and on whose ability to satis factorily serve the port in many ways, the welfare of Singapore as a port and centre of attraction to trade hangs, and yet the Directors of that Company cannot enter into operations involving $50,000 without first getting the approval and sanction of people in London to what they would do! It is not only ludicrous and preposterous; it is also ages behind the time. That is what Article 124 lays down, and what the London Consulting Committee insists on being complied with; and they have no intention of altering the position.
There are members on the London Consulting Committee who talk of how much they on the London side have done for this Company, how closely at heart they have the interests and advancement of Singapore as a port and how while they have always striven to push things ahead, it is those incompetent, unwise, and misguided Directors in Singapore, and myself in particular, that they cannot prevail on to improve the position. Well, now, quite on the contrary, I assert that it is the London Consulting Committee who have been the drag on this Company, and the cause of its not being possessed of that up-to-date equipment and those modern facilities that are a necessity to a great shipping port, if it is to advance, or in these days of keen competition if it is even to hold its own.
To prove my case I am going to read you something of what I have represented to London, and urged. It was as Chairman of this Company that I put forward the very strong opinions and appeals that I am about to quote, as to what it was necessary to do for this Company, and to do quickly.
WHO HAS KEPT SINGAPORE BACK?
MR. ANDERSON'S VIEWS OF EXPANSION.
A COMPLETE SCHEME WANTED.
You will, I hope, pardon me for going into this at some length, but it is necessary you should see and know who really has kept matters back, whether I and the Board that I was leading, or the London Committee. We are now in 1904, while on 6th July, 1899, I wrote, inter alia, as follows:-
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That the Consulting Committee and leading home Shareholders should settle the question of the Company's future policy, viz.: whether the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company is going to stand comparatively stationary or if it is to move forward up to the times better able to cope with present requirements and fitted also to comply with heavier requisitions that are certainly growing ahead of us. The normal and chronic condition of the wharfing and warehousing business has now become that of extreme pressure. The Company, because of its capacities for wharfage and storage (more particularly) being inadequate to meet the demand for these facilities, is falling short of, and must continue to fall short of, giving satisfaction to its would-be supporters, and if something is not soon commenced to meet and successfully cope with the expansion of Eastern trade (an expansion which looks as if it had only commenced) the Company, I think, will come to suffer from the unfavourable repute of being unable to afford steamers the accommodation facilities and aid which they would otherwise count upon. It will be worse than useless, it will also be injurious, to go upon the principle of sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,' and to struggle along from month to month doing the best within our unextended means to meet developments that in the East are certain to be rapid.
The time has now come when the proprietors of this Company should decide and say whether they are content to allow the Company's capacities and resources to remain much as these to-day are, or whether the Company's property is to be systematically extended and developed to cope satisfactorily with the increased and growing calls upon its resources. In my view there ought to be only one decision possible on these question, viz., that extension be decided on. And I even think that future requirements will be such as to warrant the Company extending and developing at more sites than one, e.g., the utilisation of the lagoon that borders Keppel Road 20303
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