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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O. 882

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

8 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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99. Not only do the interests of those giving the service, and of those requiring and receiving it, really depend, in the long run, one on the other, but the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company has grown, and put itself into a relationship and position of onerous responsibility to the port so unique and so undeniable that the shareholders were, at one of the Company's General Meetings about two years ago, openly told and warned that if conditions arose creating the question of whether the pockets of shareholders on one side, or the interests and progress of Singapore as a port on the other side, must suffer, the pinch would, undoubtedly, have to fall upon share- holders. And this is exactly what now is about to happen; but, naturally, it is the reverse of being agreeable to the majority of shareholders.

100. If Government decides to finance the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, then side issues that I view as of very great moment to the general community of Singapore will hang upon whether the conditions that Government attaches to its lending of money will be such as to have the effect of abolishing the control and vetoing powers of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company's Committee in London, or will maintain and perpetuate these.

101. The extent and effect of it may not be fully known, except to persons who have had inner knowledge and experience; but all the same it is a fact that upon many members of the Singapore Community, who ought to be men free to think, judge, and act for themselves in matters concerning and furthering the internal working and well-being of the Colony, there has grown and is imposed a system of repression that has the effect of seriously crippling, and, in some instances, of paralys- ing independence of thought and action and initiatory faculties.

102. This has arisen from a practice (long in vogue, and now much grown) of dictation and command in regard to local or home affairs of the Colony imposed by the senior partners retired to Europe of the larger and more important commercial firms in the Straits, upon their junior partners or managers resident in the Colony.

103. The effect of this is not solely upon the junior partners and managers of these important firms, but has extended to many members of the community who have, with these business relationships that might be prejudicial if they ran counter to the views or policy known to be held or advocated by these "seniors."

104. The Board of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company and the Directors of that Company's affairs furnish a striking example of how this has worked. Numerous instances of bare fact were given of this at the General Meeting of that Company held in Singapore on 22nd March last.

105. But this pernicious practice of interference and dictation in the local affairs of the Colony by out-of-date men in London (bordering, as it sometimes has done, on impertinent_interference) is by no means confined to the affairs of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company,

106. These London "seniors" are the same group of Singapore merchants now retired to, and establislied in, London, who pull wires to manage the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company in their own way.

107. Most of them, too, are men who pose in London as voicing the views of, or being entitled to represent opinions held by, the communities of the Straits Settlements on any or all local matters.

108. They are not now so entitled, nor do they now thus represent. There certainly was a time, years ago, when this was more accurately the case; but that day has passed, and rightly so. The general community of the Straits Settlements, and the trade of the Colony, have grown far beyond this small group of London interferers and dictators, whose total number of leading men is only about half a dlozen, if, indeed, as many.

109. But, small though their number be, they happen to represent most of the more important commercial firms of the Colony, whose managers on the spot are more or less looked on out there as among the leaders of the community, or as those who should be: so the pernicious effect of the domination from London is felt all the same.

110. There is hardly a subject or matter of local effect on which these London gentlemen do not, behind the scenes, send out commands and directions, and pull

wires.

111. Among these "London Seniors" are some who for years past have depre- cated, or even forbidden that their junior partners and managers in the Straits shall lend aid by service on such bodies as the Legislative or Municipal Councils. (There has, I believe, lately been an exception to this, but it is now said in the circle of

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Straits people in London to have leaked out here that special permission was in this instance accorded from London, "so that the interests of shareholders in England of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company might be watched on Legislative Council.")

112. In this small group of Straits merchants retired to London are those who some time ago commanded that their representatives in Singapore should move and agitate against Messrs. Coode, Son, and Matthews' scheme for enclosing the Singapore Roadstead.

113. They claimed that their moving thus was inspired by their having at heart only interests of the Colony; but it is an open secret in Singapore that they moved in the fear that these harbour works will depreciate the future value of some water-side properties in which their individual interests are concerned.

114. Some of these "London Seniors" are the same gentlemen who are largely responsible for, and have fought for, the maintenance of the "Straits Shipping Con- ference," a combination that not only has the effect of debarring an outside British -teamer from loading in the Straits for Europe, but that works in combination and co-operation with powerful foreign companies, who (the latter) have fattened on a system forced upon and exacted from the Colony of abnormally high freights to Europe (absurdly so as compared with freights current in other ports of the world where there is free competition). (See Report, dated 23rd August, 1902, of Commis- sion of Inquiry held in Singapore, particularly page 7 "g," and paragraph 26, Legis- lative Council paper No. 40, of 1902, of the Straits Settlements.)

115. To this fattening of foreign steamship companies by their participation in abnormally high artificial rates of freight imposed (by a ring that includes very large and purely German interests) upon the trade of the Straits Settlements and Malay Peninsula, may, I believe, be indirectly attributed, to considerable extent, the fact that the German flag over steamers frequenting Singapore Harbour has very largely displaced the British one, if not in actual volume, then most certainly in proportion.

116. To any one who in this respect has seen in Singapore Harbour, twenty years ago, little other than tonnage of British ownership, but who to-day sees there chiefly vessels flying the flag of the German participators in the "Straits Shipping Conference, the change that is there now must, at the least, irritate his Imperialistic instincts, if he possess any worthy the name.

117. Among the men in London upholding and promoting the condition of things towards which the "Straits Shipping Conference" has helped, and is helping, are gentlemen who pull the directing wires of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, with their representatives on the Singapore Board of that Company, of whom (5) fire of these latter are agents for steamship companies constituting that Shipping "Conference” or “ Ring.”

118. An opportunity seems to me now to offer by which Government can greatly help to dissipate the undue interference of London intermeddlers in the home or internal affairs of the Colony. This, I believe, can be attained to consider- able degree and advantage if Government will now take the stand of declining to admit or recognize the right of immediate control and direction over the internal local affairs of the Colony by a group of gentlemen retired to London.

119. In the case of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, an institution in direct relationship and onerous responsibility to the trade of Singapore, relationship that has been growing in its responsibility from year to year, it has unquestionably been detrimental to the best interests of Singapore that in the conduct of that Company's affairs there has been compulsory need of taking counsel with men retired to London. and of obtaining the concurrence and approval of these, before the Company could nove in policy or in any transaction of local material moment.

120. My view, which I tender with every respect, is, that it will amount almost to a calamity if, in the circumstances now apparently constituting a reasonable oppor- tunity, Government does not make a strong attempt and stand, to remove the dis- abilities and disadvantages that I have endeavoured to explain the existence of.

121. From time to time over the past few years it has been urged by members of the Singapore community, and by the Singapore "Press," that the time has

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