CO129-430 - Others & Individuals - 1915 — Page 660

:

58241

I made no

plous Reis +(a. A seemn plain prom 5824. Mr. heringtone

Colle on

that

they are all right. 66

See also 57317 and 56768

Practically the Company are asking us to

638

0 Rein

issue an official statement that neither they, nor Rice & Company will be liquidated in HongKong as enemy firm. They will also no doubt like us to confirm the appointment of Cheetham and publish a notice about that, but they do not mention this last point as, of course, they do not know that Cheetham is in danger of losing the agency.

I feel very great difficulty about this case and with Mr. Collins' approval I wrote to Mr. Fountain of the Board of Trade, Mr. Butler of the Home Office, and Mr. Worthington of the Commercial Intelligence Department privately, asking for their views on the case. Their answers will be attached to 57317.

position is as follows.

The

This Company is undoubtedly of part enemy constitution; part of its capital (22% according to Mr. Worthington, 27% according to Mr. Carroll) is held by enemy shareholders. The remainder, as will be seen from the statement enclosed in Mr. Worthington's letter, is, with the exception of Mr. Carroll's own holding of 1150 Preference Shares and Mr. C. Wells' one Ordinary Share, all held by persons with German names.

Mo reover, the half of the shares in the American Company are held by an enemy subject, the other half being held as to 24/50 the by the English Company and as to 1/50th by Mr. Sanders the naturalised Director. On the other hand, the Company evidently does a considerable export trade, and I think it is fairly plain that if they lose this agency it will go to the Japanese. It appears to me, and you will see that Mr. Worthington also takes this view, that we ought to do everything which we

Cau legitimately can to avoid this, especially if it could be said that apart from the presence of enemy elemento in its constitution, there is nothing serious against

the

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