CO882-(6-8) — Page 470

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TLC.O. 882

8 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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This same

themselves, I not only assert that it has become a necessity that that body be abolished, but I go even further and say that the Directorate itself of this Company, if iter business doings and affairs are to be conducted with less difficulty to the administration and management than is the case to-day, and with impartiality to all interests, will have to undergo a radical change in its constitution. Not only should there be no person a Director of this Company who in the conduct of its policy and affairs can be coerced by "seniors" in London,--whether there is or is not a Consulting Committee there, but no man,should be in the position of directing the affairs of this Company whose own business interests and those of the Company must frequently rome into direct conflict and opposition. Most assuredly a Director so situated cannot, no matter how high his principles, serve two masters. And, to show you that on this point I am not speaking from imagination, I will give you one of various instances that in practice has been found to be not only awkward but incongruous. I mentioned to you that London had coerced us into raising the Company's tariff. For this in deference to London pressure there voted a Director here whoge firm representa important steamship interests. One of these steamship companies lodged a vigorous protest against the increase in tariff. Director who had put his hand to the decree that raised rates, immediately took up at our Board the case of his steamship principals, and fought and voted on their behalf. blame him in his peculiar position; but the position being one where interests distinctly conflict, it is manifest that the one man cannot serve in two capacities within which there are divergent interests. But this is exactly the kind of Directors that London wants, and wants in even more solid force than we have to-day. It has been decided that Government is to have two seats on this Board; when that happens there.will be eleven persons comprising the Directorate. London has decreed that number will be too many, decided that three of the present seats are to be abolished, and they have already among themselves settled which of those seats must go. It will interest some of the gentlemen here to whom I was lately a colleague, to know that the London intention is to extinguish Messrs. Haffter and D. K. Somerville, and to keep out myself. These have been selected because they are the men on this Board who, in their independence, have given evidence that they cannot be commanded by London. (Hear, hear.)

DIRECTORS COERCED BY SENIORS.

ACTING IN Two CapacittES.

One cannot

Now I want to point out to you, that whether this Board be of eleven or eight persons, can make no difference to the Company, the cost is exactly the same, because the Directors, irre- pective of number, are paid a stated and limited sum divided among them, and not per capita. So it cannot be on the score of economy that this move is being arranged by London. It is in order that even any independence now on the Board may be still further reduced, that representation of Eastern Shareholders may be purely nominal while the voice of London on the Board will be more solid and controlling than ever. It is a pretty move in diplomacy, and it remains to be seen if there will be the attempt to carry it out later on. What they want are Directors, and a Chairman too, who will do just as they are told when commanded by back door letters and telegrams from London, and who, when in doubt, will sit on the fence, and do nothing until they have, referred to and obtained definite instructions from London. If the Directorate is to be reduced, these latter assuredly are the kind of men, and not the free agents, who should be weeded out, if the administration and executive officers are not to be hampered and checked by conflicting interests in what they would do to get on with the daily work and advancement of this Company. And, judging by what I have been told and assured from time to time by some of my colleagues on this Board-I mean those who can be coerced by London-I believe that even some of them would look on it as a happy and comfortable release to be allowed to vacate their seats. They would be relieved of the unpleasantness of getting quites of so-called "private" letters from their seniors in London on the affairs of this Company. There is nothing private about these in reality, except that those written from London would not, if exposed to the light of day, reflect creditably an the writers.

INDEPENDENT MEMBERS TO GO.

HOW DIRECTORS ARE "BULLIED." SELF-RESPECT IMPOSSIBLE.

BLIGED TO "RIDE ON THE FENCE."

But we know of some of these letters. One member of this Board described one of them written by a senior partner in London bullying his junior partner on the Board, on affairs of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, as "positively brutal.' I know of one former nominee

of London on this Board who expressed gratitude to Providence when he was released from sitting on this Directorate. Another recent member of the Board presenting a senior on the Committee in London told me that if it were not that he had his bread and butter to consider he would not continue on the Directorate for a day. Another assured me that in his feeling no man with any sense of self-respect would sit on the Directorate and act for the London Committee and accept the bullyings in private letters that were his portion, were it not that his position and prospects in life would be prejudiced if he kicked too decidedly, I had occasion to refer to one gentleman on the Board, a nominee of London, of whom 1 desired his opinion on some weighty matter affecting the Company. His answer was, "What is the use of your asking for my opinion? You well know that in London my opinion or judgment is of no account.' Another member of the Board said that he individually possessed no share or interest in the Compaay, that the shares by which he is qualified are on the register nominally as his but are not really his own; and that as things are worked nowadays he was sick of the connectión, and wished that he was out of it. Less than two months ago I had occasion to call the Directors here together on a matter of urgency. It was a question

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of serious,importance requiring immediate action and decision. One gentleman representing London declined to vote at the meeting in any direction, and frankly explained his reason for thus "riding on the fence" by saying that he had been rated quite enough already by his senior in London for acting without first consulting London and that he did not propose for auy man or for this Company to put himself in that position again. Most admirable and suitable quality of Director for London's purposes!

YO INDEPENDENT CHAIRMAN WANTED.

That is some light to you on how effective has become the control from London and of how effectually the existence of and aggression by the London Consulting Committee, has obliterated all possibility under existing conditions of that free and unfettered discretion that is absolutely necessary in conducting the business and affairs of a Company whose working in complete sympathy and harmony with the trade pulse of this port and with its local conditions and needs, has become an essentiality.

It is also evidence, I think, in strong support of my contention that quite irrespective of the London Consulting Committee, the Directorate here calls imperatively for radical change in its constitution,

WHY MR. ANDERSON RESIGNED.

THE POSITION INTOLERABLE.

I have always hold an impression that in the case of a Company like this, there attaches to the Chairman in particular special responsibilities and duties that are insepar. from his office. And yet this London Committee "decreed that they did not want and would not have communications which were the individual views of the Chairman; they said that they only wanted communications that conveyed the views of "the Board" as a whole; in other words they would not have anything written to them by me except what was passed by their own representatives at this table, who would, of course, be careful to see that from all that went home there would be eliminated everything these felt would not suit the views of or not be acceptable to the Committee.

Why, all that I have quoted to you of what I so strongly wrote to London in 1899 and 1901, urging what this Company should then do and provide to equip itself for its own necessities and those of the port, was written not from the Board but from the Chairman. And yet there is on record the decree of the London Committee that they do not want any of the personal views or recommendations or communications of the Company's Chairman. Surely no one can expect that the Chairman of this Company can ever properly exercise the very responsible functions of his office, and benefit the Company by his special knowledge, if his views are to be edited, and all that he writes is to be censored by gentlemen on this side. who have been tutored to exercise repression on the Chairman's proposals and doings, and who are compelled to be dutiful and obedient to the commands of the London Consulting Committee. As one of their own representatives has stated, the position in that respect has become such that no man with self-respect can occupy it.

EXPOSURE THREATENED A YEAR AGO.

It has not been pleasant for me, nor can it be pleasing to others, that revelations exposing internal defects and dissentions should be made in public, such as I have felt myself compelled to make to-day. Personally I would far rather that I never had any relationship or connection whatever with Tanjong-Pagar Dock Company. But as the Shareholders put me

on the Directorate of this Company, to do, I presume, what in my judgment I thought, best for the Company, I was not prepared to stand the attitude and action of this Committee in London,- most assuredly not representing all the Shareholders of the Company, when they say that they and they only are judges, rulers, and dictatore; that we in Singapore must do this and shall not do that and that we must do the other. I was determined and am determined that that shall not be. I represented matters forcibly to London; too forcibly for their taste. That did not suit them, and their plan for at once reducing the degree of usefulness that I hope was in me to this Company, was to close the door, by writing out that they did not want views or communications from the Chairman personally. Anything in future that he wrote home must be the views of the Board' as a Board'; not views of an individual member."

"CARTE BLANCHE."

Not that this latter could happen, nor, indeed, was it ever meant to happen, because, as a matter of fact, the leading gentlemen of the London Committee at once transformed the old order of things into endeavouring to control and direct the affairs and policy of the Company not with the Board as a whole," but by means of private letters, of which there are reams in existence, each to his own individual representative on the Board.

But, in effect, to shut out any direct and individual communication to the London Com- mittee the representations of a Chairman whose views could not accord with their own would, of course, as far as they were concerned, comfortably end that source of trouble. And this would be and has been the effect, because their representatives could not permit to pass here as a communication from "the Board as a whole" anything that would be likely to be distasteful to their seniors in London.

With the door thus closed to me I notified one of their representatives on this Board that unless things were put right, I intended dealing with them in public meeting so as to force reformation. This was just a year ago, He expressed himself in sympathy with me on many points, and besought me to atay my hand, saying he felt convinced that personal communi- cations he was then sending home for the Committee would have the effect of getting matters rertified but he called on me later to admit his having failed absolutely. I have heard since

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