CO882-(6-8) — Page 468

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TLC.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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in being debarred from entering into expenditure exceeding $50,000 unless and until they can first get approval from London thereto. Everything as to this suggested "Port Trust' was mere talk, nothing came of it, and I believe the talk had died out by the time I returned to Singapore in April, 1901. At any rate, I never heard of it until some time after my return, when I was waited on by one of my co-directors who read me an extract from a letter that he had received from his senior partner, a gentleman of the London Consulting Committee. It took me aback somewhat, for in substance it said that another complaint they, the London Committee, had against Anderson (myself) was that they had learned that I had stood in the way of Sir Alexander Swettenham's Port Trust" scheme being taken up by Government, that they in London felt much dissatisfied at this, as it meant that for the time being they had probably lost their opportunity, for it would have suited them excellently to have been bought out by Government at the rate of somewhere about $750 per share!

This, gentlemen, was in substance if not in exact words what was read to me as a complaint against myself. Of course, it mattered little that I had never heard of the matter and that whatever had taken place happened when I was in Europe. But you know now from this what some members of the London Consulting Committee are working for; and you will also know and please note that these gentlemen are in favour of, while I certainly am not, a Govern- ment or official "Port Trust" for Singapore.

And the reason I say that they are mistaken when they say that they have the interests of this port at heart, is because there is not a man in this Colony who knows the subject but who must admit that when the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company has to exact from its customers such charges as will represent a reasonable dividend on a value for each of its shares of $700 or $750 dollars, that part of Singapore's trade must go down and be driven elsewhere, and the Company's position must relatively decline.

WHO RAISED THE TARIFF?

I will give you another instance of how they direct. In 1902, when exchange tumbled, they wanted more sterling for their dividends. We couldn't give it to them without raising our tariff. They said we must raise the tariff. We told them it would be dangerous to raise rates, being likely to drive business away. There is on record here in our proceedings very strong report and minute to this effect on the danger that the Directors here gravely feared of curtailing and driving away business that was already remunerative by raising our tariff. That didn't matter; their view was pressed, and rates were raised on 1st January, 1903. Then our returns showed them a falling off, and of course they minuted desiring explanation! (Laughter.)

Now, apart from the effect that coercion of this kind may have on the results of this Company's working, I would ask any one of you, is it a right or reasonable thing that the rates that this port is to charge to those vessels which have come to require the facilities of the Tanjong Pagar Dock shall be raised from time to time at the command of a body of retired gentlemen in London? And is it anything of a wonder in these circumstances that the Company's constituents have cried out, and that we are faced with the danger of losing some of what we term our "transhipment overturn "? And further is it any wonder that Govern- ment should in anxiety for the welfare and interests of the port aim at getting some control in what is done at this Board table?

This, again, is one of the ways in which gentlemen of the London Committee have promoted our welfare. But then, "local knowledge and experience is, of course, to be politely steered clear of," even when in opposition to London it warns that there is very grave danger in Taising our tariff.

THE NEW HARBOUR AMALGAMATION.

ENDING IN MONOPOLY,

You know that as from 1st July, 1899, there was effected what has been called the amalga- mation of the Tanjong-Pagar Dock Company and the New Harbour Dock Company, in other words the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company bought out and absorbed the premises of the other company. Whether this amalgamation was a good thing for the then Tanjong-Pagar Dock Company or not is an open question. I have come to think that it certainly was not a good thing. It put the whole concern in the position of monopolists of the wharf berthage, coal storage facilities, and dry docks of the port, and my belief is that this, for one thing, led Government, to look on the exercise of that monopoly as a possible danger to the port, with the result that Government is now to have representation on the Board of this Company. I believe had it not been for the amalgamation, and for Artiale 124 of this Company's Articles of Association, and for interference and control and hampering direction that the London Committee has unconstitutionally forced upon the Board and Management here, a condition of matters which apart from what is to be read in our Articles of Asociation has for long been a matter of common notoriety here, that the Board of Direction of this Company would have continued and remained a strictly commercial one.

But when a group of gentlemen in London whose aims and views certainly cannot on this side appear to be for the good of the port-which is the same thing as the welfare of the Company has worked and brought this Board into a condition so eramped, so dependent on, and so much in subjection to these people in London that it has actually been found necessary on this side first to submit to London, for approval of the Committee there, drafts of letters which the Directors desired to address to Government here before these could be written in. well, is it then to be wondered at that Government has come to feel it is high time it had representation on this Board? That, gentlemen, as a matter of recorded fact, is what, under the hampering effect that the London Committee has on this Board, it has been deemed necessary in the working of this Company to do.

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NOT GOOD EVEN FOR T. P.

CARRIED THROUGH SOLELY BY LONDON,

THE DISADVantages of THE BARGAIN,

But to return to the amalgamation of the two Companies just referred to,-if I were to give you some detaile of how behind the scenes this was planned and brought about I am sure these would be most interesting to you, but I fear not pleasing to some gentlemen on the London side, so I will not go here into any of the primary or inner workings that culminated in the absorption of the one Company by the other, but will tell you that on 11th November, 1899, I, as Chairman of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, got a surprise telegram from the London Committee notifying that amalgamation of the two Companies had all been arranged; all terms had been settled and everything sigued, sealed, and delivered, subject ouly, of course, to the matter being put through at a general meeting. That, however, was quite a detail, because the necessary votes had been commanded, and that was the order.

My point, gentlemen, is this: not one single word or note of warning was communicated to the Board of Directors in Singapore before this arrangement and its details the most important step in the Company's whole history, and necessarily requiring the most searching thought and consideration in every detail and from every aspect were concluded and irre- trievably settled on the home side. Of course, it would never for a moment have suited the plans and fears of some people in London to have first taken any counsel with us, the legally responsible directors of the Company, on a matter so vital as this, or for us to have first scrutinized the terms and conditions thereof.

That was no business of anyone in Singapore. They on the London side knew too well that these terms and conditions would be in danger for a certainty if that course was taken, so that danger must at all cost be steere

clear of.

I have before said that the interests put all together of all these London gentlemen in the whole trade and overturn of the Colony and the Federated Malay States-to which trade the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company has become and always will be a vital and indispensable cog- wheel-might reasonably be compared as a cupful to a gallon. In theory it may not seem to matter much that these gentlemen should consider themselves so infallible and so far above the people and general interests of this place, as to view and treat the Board of Directors of this Company, ite Singapore and Eastern Shareholders, and the community generally of this place, as so many dummies, or as so much dirt that should be brushed aside, as they assuredly did in the circumstances of this amalgamation deal.

But when in practice it transpires that these gentlemen on the London side have made unfavourable terms for the whole body of Shareholders and for the Settlement, then the least and the kindliest that can be said after the milk is spilt is that they should have known very much better. The terms and conditions of the amalgamation were unquestionably not as favourable for the Tanjong-Pagar Dock Company as they should have been.

A USELESS DOCK SITE.

There are disabilities attaching to the property thus acquired that give us promise of much trouble and inconvenience. A proposed new dry dock on that property,--the design

and intended construction of which by the other Company was what brought about the amalgamation,-is on an impossible site for a dock of the dimensions intended, and we don't really need a small one. It is in ao absolutely cramped a situation that you cannot swing the proverbial cat round in it. There is a big white elephant, a very troublesome one that we cannot get rid of, occupying under long lease a large and most inconvenient area on the very centre and frontage of that property, and in this way alien occupation that is a block for many years ahead would stand practically up to the very coping of this proposed dock. The Singapore pilots affirm that it would be positively unsafe to take vessels of any size into a dock there, owing to proximity to a dangerous reef in a channel in which a big steamer could not awing to a strong tide without grave risk of striking on a reef that cannot be removed.

The Board here, after the amalgamation, unanimously condemned that site for a dock; our first Managing Director, a civil engineer, did the same without a moment's hesitation. In our accounts we wrote off what the excavation for this dock had thus far cost, but that, of course, would not look well for the London gentlemen who had made the bargain without consulting us, and out came a command from the London Committee that they could not have this; the dock must be gone on with. Well, I am prepared, if necessary, to take the responsi- bility of that dock not having yet been gone on with; and on the day that it is completed as a dry dock to its proposed dimensions-if that is ever done-the Shareholders may reckon that about $600,000 that had better have been devoted to other purposes has been misplaced.

But I suppose the "faces" of the London gentlemen who made and settled the terme of the amalgamation without any primary reference to this Board will have to be "saved," and the dry dock here made sooner or later. But that it will be a misplacing of money I adhere to. Once again in that case local knowledge and experience had to be steered clear of." though I do not know that this was politely done. If the terms to the New Harbour Dock Company, arranged and given without one single word of initial reference to this Board, hud been first submitted to local knowledge and experience" for opinion and criticism here on the spot the terms paid to that Company never would, I believe, have been given.

A PIECE OF DIPLOMACY.

A BOARD-ROOM PORTRAIT AS A "GRACEFUL RECOGNITION." AND A STOP-MOUTH.

Then, following this amalgamation, came an attempted piece of diplomacy, only so far it has not yet got beyond the stage of attempt. It seemed, of course, highly desirable for those