CO882-(6-8) — Page 492

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

سانس

6

Reference :-

C.O. 882

8

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE |BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

32039

70

No. 15.

GOVERNOR SIR J. ANDERSON to MR. LYTTELTON.:

(Paraphrase.)

(Received 9.47 a.m., September 13, 1904.) TELEGRAM.

[Answered by No. 19.]

I understand that negotiations are now proceeding with the Tanjong Pagar Com- pany. I think that you should know that, in consequence of failure of the opium farmers here, it will be necessary to raise a loan for the harbour improvements, for the Singapore River Works, and possibly for some part of the railway extension, as well as for the Municipal Waterworks at Penang and Singapore. The total sum required will be from 2 to 3 millions sterling, spread over 10 years by the issue of consolidated stock. Probably it would facilitate market operations, if instead of a guarantee to the Tanjong Pagar Company, the sum required were added to the Colonial loan and then advanced to the Company in exchange for their debentures. Our stock would then be sufficient to ensure considerable dealings and regular quota- tion.

The late chairman of the Company says in a private letter that he is urging the abolition of the London Committee and management by four Government and three other Directors. Such an arrangement would mean direct Government respon- sibility for management, which I most strongly deprecate.

1

35728

SIR,

No. 16.

THE TANJONG PAGAR DOCK COMPANY, LIMITED, to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received October 15, 1904.)

[Answered by Nos. 20 and 28.]

Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, Limited,

120, Fenchurch Street, London, E.C., October 14, 1904. I Now beg to reply to your letter of 2nd September last.*

2. I greatly regret the delay which has taken place, but, as already explained to you, it was scarcely possible to reply satisfactorily till we had before us some idea of the outcome of the engineering consultation which has been proceeding for the past two months and has only quite recently been concluded.

3. It seemed highly advisable also to avail of your kind offer enabling us first to confer with you on the points to be dealt with, and I take this opportunity of thanking you for the interview with yourself, Mr. Fiddes, and Sir Frank Swettenhamı accorded to three of our members on 1st instant.

4. It is possible, however, that one effect of that interview may be to lead me in this reply to travel beyond the precise scope of your letter, and should I appear to be doing so, I trust I am right in assuming that it is quite agreeable to you that the whole subject be now treated in the ampler sense afforded by the discussion which then took place.

5. The Committee do not demur to the reminder conveyed in your letter of the responsibilities to the port devolving upon a Company in the position occupied in Singapore by the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company. On the contrary they welcome the opportunity it gives them to assure the Government that they recognize in the widest possible sense that the Company must utilize its unique position with the fullest regard to the public interest and with an eye as much to the prosperity of the port as to that of the Company itself. They would venture to submit, however, that so far the Company has not inadequately fulfilled that duty, and they hope it may not be considered inconsistent even to claim that the Company's enterprise has contributed in no small degree to the expansion of the Colony's trade.

• No. 12.

71

6. Some years after its formation we find the Company-recording, with apparent pride, that it had berthed, in six months,

110 vessels, totalling ...

that it had received in that period

Coal to the extent of ...

+...

And had in stores for the use of the port ...

But the figures for the six months lately closed are, respectively :-

1,258 vessels, totalling

Coal received in six months

Coal in store at end of six months

57,569 tons

16,071 tons 15,738

""

2,332,623 tons

347,944 205,565

"

in the face of which comparison it surely can no longer be suggested that a Company continuously providing for an increase of such importance has been neglectful of the interests of the port.

7. Realizing the advisability in the interests of increased traffic of a reasonable tariff, the Company has studiously maintained rates at the lowest possible level. and it was only when the serious depreciation of the currency and the greatly advanced cost of labour compelled the change that rates were ever raised. But even now, although the Committee are not able to assert positively that Singapore is the cheapest port in the world, they believe it to be pretty nearly the case and, anyhow, their in- vestigations have not disclosed to them any port where the consolidated charges upon ship and cargo are lower. Moreover in this Company's case the public has a peculiar protection in the circumstance that the two controlling bodies being all but wholly composed of the Company's principal customers, have strong individual interests opposed to high wharf charges.

8.

Another impression prevailing is that the shareholders derive exceptional returns from their investment in the Company, but that is equally erroneous and can only have been formed upon an exceedingly superficial survey of the Company's affairs. To the few remaining, if any, original shareholders the fruition of an enter- prise embarked upon some 40 years ago is possibly satisfactory enough, but, even as regards those, the returns for many years were meagre in the extreme and the currency meanwhile has depreciated some 60

per cent. To investors in recent years, who could only become so at a high premium, the 12 per cent. dividend on the nominal capital is certainly no more than a normal return as some proof of which it may be mentioned that a similar business in a neighbouring colony has just divided 16 per cent.

9. Few Companies have withheld a larger proportion of their earnings and, as a consequence, distributed more sparingly in dividend, and every penny of such retention, together with all premium ever received from the issue of new capital, has been, or shortly will be, expended in rendering the Company more efficient for the service of the port.

10. The new interest taken by Europe in the Farthest East is, however, pro- ducing so marked a change in the carrying trade in that direction, chiefly as regards the greater tonnage of the vessels engaged in it, that it is evident greater provision for its inevitable expansion has become imperative at Singapore. The Company has. consequently, for a long time back been devoting its utmost attention to a more com- prehensive development of its wharfage than the demands upon that till compara- tively recently have required it to contemplate.

11. After most exhaustive consideration by the ablest engineers a scheme has at last been evolved, which it is confidently believed will most effectively meet all demands likely to be made upon the port for very many years to come. This scheme the Committee have practically decided to recommend the Board to adopt and to begin to carry out without loss of time.

12. Briefly it contemplates the construction in the most permanent manner of inshore and foreshore quays involving altogether an expenditure of £1,500,000 over a period of 10 to 15 years.

13. This expenditure, however, is on a scale so much in excess of the Company's customary outlay upon development that, exceptional financial measures will be neces- sary, and it is at the very juncture of the Company's consideration of those that your letter reaches the Committee's hands.