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PUBLIC
RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
11C.O. 882
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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76. Then, again, the Administrative and Executive Staff, from top to bottom, feels that it would be imprudent if, in the routine of their duties, they risked raising prejudices against themselves by doing or disclosing anything that would affect the personal or business interests of individuals who, as prominent and influential members of the Directorate, can have much to do with their security of office and their advancement in the service.
77. It can (as I have found) be an inconvenient and very disagreeable circum- stance for a well-meaning employé of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company if a group of Directors have conceived a down" upon him, or if he shows undue enthusiasm in trying to introduce what he is convinced would produce improvement, but what they disapprove.
78.. It has also, to my own knowledge, brought upon officers of the Company the wrath and ill-will of their superior officers when it has been discovered or suspected that the former have been lending co-operation or have given away knowledge from behind the scenes bearing on rectification of irregularities that the latter would have preferred to have kept to themselves. (When the present manager of the Company was last in England on leave, the Chairman of the London Committee admonished him for having shown too much co-operation with the Chairman of the Company in Singapore, and warned him that if on his return to Singapore this continued, he would find that he would lose his money by what he—the admonishing Chairman— termed putting it on the wrong horse [ ")"
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79. If what I have set out is, on inquiry, found to approximately represent the case as it exists behind the scenes, then, I would ask, have such people as these on the Singapore Directorate and those of the Committee in London, a claim so sound and so disinterested as to fully justify the maintenance by Government of their present status and constitution?
80. And, bearing in mind that the interests of the port, in whatever Govern- ment now decides upon, must be the consideration that shall weigh before any other, is it at all likely to prove of advantage and safety in future promotion of theso interests, that Government should now acquiesce in any proposal or course that will even help to maintain and perpetuate that status and these constitutions?
81. To me, it appears that these two questions may appropriately be put at a juncture at which Government would seem almost to have had created for it the opportunity of insisting that more healthful conditions shall be introduced into the direction of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company's affairs in the direct relationship of these to the port.
82. And, if the best of health is to be introduced and is always to be promoted and assured, then the surest and most effectual method of attaining this is to eliminate what in the past has been a chief cause in bringing about the present unsatisfactory conditions.
83 Hence it is, that I strongly hold the view (expressed at the Annual General Meeting of the Company in Singapore, on the 22nd March last) that not only will the London Consulting Committee have to be abolished, but I again, as I also did then, affirm it to be a necessity that the constitution of the Singapore Directorate will have to be very radically altered.
84. If Government in Singapore should consider it correct and advisable to seek evidence corroborative of what I have indicated, it is practically certain that in quarters and among men chiefly concerned there will be disinclination to afford, particularly to Government, information on matters of the nature of, and having the effect of, those dealt with in this memorandum.
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85. But, it may help if the Auditors of the Company be called upon to procure for Government (they, the Auditors, being required to certify it as correct from their own personal examination of the Company's books and records) a schedule covering, say, the last five years, such as will exactly show the "Bill-of-Lading" or "shipped" weight of every cargo of coal, of every description, discharged in that time at all the Company's wharves; and, in comparison, the relative "out-turn" weights of these same cargoes for which the Company assumed responsibility on their being landed upon its premises; also the names of the Singapore firms who owned each of these cargoes or had control of the same. (Mr. P. T. Evatt, an Auditor of the Company, was warned by me of what was going on behind the scenes.)
86. It will, 1 think, by this means be found that the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company derives several of its Directors from firms in Singapore in the position of
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that to which I have applied the pseudonym "Smith & Co."--whose interests, and those of leading members of the London Consulting Committee, are in one and the same business.
87. It goes without saying that it will be a matter of difficulty-particularly just now for Government to get all the knowledge and evidence that it may desire on this subject, for it will be evident that only one deeply and closely versed in what occurs behind the scenes can be the most facile investigator.
88. I know that most of the Directors of to-day would not at present wish Government to learn too much of the Company's inner working-(this was frankly and pointedly declared by a present member of the Board while I was still on the Directorate); so neither the Directors of the Company nor the Managing Director are likely to prove the right persons from whom full information and frank and willing disclosure, as to the inside condition of things, can be expected.
89. If it be deemed advisable by Government in Singapore to cause investiga- tion behind the scenes into the conditions I have described; and, if close and searching inquiry reveals reasonable confirmation that the conditions alleged have, even approximately, existed; and further, if it be found that a majority of the Singapore Directorate are the partners or managers of their seniofrtners sitting on the London Committee, whose commands and influence from London they cannot wisely i disregard, then I respect fully submit that, in the future interests of the port, Govern- ment should now lose no time in at least procuring such undoubted control over the Board in Singapore-quite independently of any body of shareholders in London- as will ensure direct responsibility by that Board alone to the Government of the Colony in the interests of which the most efficient possible service of the Company to the trade of the port has grown to be a first and pressing necessity.
90. Indeed, if present conditions are found to be such as I have indicated, it will be impossible that the situation can be allowed to continue. If the irregularities be there, or have been there, the possibility of their continuing or of their recurring must be eliminated, if the Port of Singapore is not to run risk of being seriously prejudiced. Not only can there be but one certain way of thoroughly rectifying the position, viz., by Government intervention, but with every respect I would take the liberty of expressing the feeling that if what I have alleged be found on investigation to be reasonably substantiated, then it will become a duty of Government to intervene and ensure that the port is protected. If irregularities that exist behind the scenes have been represented with fair accuracy, and if these are to continue, they are not likely to remain long hidden. And it will be an unfortunate occurrence for Singapore if knowledge of practices such as I have written of are ever allowed to become widely associated with the name and reputation of the port.
91. A strong Chairman should be able to put things right if he is the leader of a Board or of a majority on that Board-who are absolutely free to think and act solely on their own judgment and opinions. But no chairman, no matter how strong he be, can ever lead a Board whose members-or a majority of whose members-- have to refer to people in London for instructions as to how they are to vote or act: or who, if in doubt, will" sit on the fence" and do nothing.
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MY DEAR SIR,
No. 11.
JOHN ANDERSON
(of Singapore).
MR. J. ANDERSON to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received August 20, 1904.)
c/o Messrs. Guthrie and Company, Limited,
5, Whittington Avenue, Leadenhall Street,
London, E.C., August 17, 1904. The Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, Limited, of Singapore. PLEASE pardon me for again troubling you on this matter; the very serious importance to the civilian community, generally, of Singapore of the issue, must be my excuse.
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