CO129-520-7 Public Utility companies- acquisition by foreign groups 4-12-1929 - 26-1-1930 — Page 2

t

r

1. Gov. Decret

2

4-12.

29

of

Shares american synd: is considering purchase the 2 electric power suns & requests guidance t information

as to beer means of ensuring thar public utility cous shav remain in British hands.

Hilvarz

Can you trace any bentation in Other barts of the Empire (of para 3), the?

1.2. Martin 8.1.30

I cannot trace any legislation in the

Dominions or Colonies definitely designed to prevent

the controlling interest in public utility under-

takings passing into non-British hands. It is

common knowledge that the controlling interest in

certain British electricity supply companies has

recently passed into American hands e.g. I understand

from the electricity commissioners that the Greater

London and Counties Trust Ltd. have acquired with the

aid of American capital the major part of the share

capital of the Shropshire, Worcestershire and

Staffordshire Electric Power Co. and of the

Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire

Electricity Co. The Trust also holds 99% of the

ordinary capital of Edmundsons Electricity Corpora-

tion Ltd. The Electricity Commissioners in their

9th Annual Report issued recently comment in paras-

6, 7 and 8 on this invasion of American capital and

point out that the matter has been the subject of

numerous parliamentary questions. A specimen of

such a question will be found in column 51 of the

accompanying copy of Parliamentary Debates for 16th

July