(Condensed from the " Peking and Tientsin Times.")
A largely attended_merting of the China shareholders of this Comoany was hel? in the General Office, tsin, on the 28th ult, There were over eighty present, among them being Their Excellencies Chang Yen-mao, Shen Tun-ho, Yen Fu, M. T. Liang, Hung Han-ug. Y.'T. Woo, Kwang Jung-kwang, L-fu, Tsai Shao-chi, Yao Chien-tsai, Suen Ting-yang. J. S. Chung; Messrs. Bielfeld, Buchheister, Botsch, Binks, Cordes, Cockell, Chaw, Detring, Denby, Dennis, Dugan, de Vos, Droste, Doney. Ele, Fisher, Gilmour, Heinemaan, Heyl, Hughes, Howell, Hutchinson, von Hanneken, J-ques, James, Kingsley, Kent, Mackay, Mumet, McKay, W. A. Morling. ©. R. Morling, Mordhorst, McNeil, Morrison, Oswald, Poulsen. Paoquet, Perier, Reynolds, Robert: son, Southcott, Sommer, Traman, Thorne, A. H. Watts, and Wilkins.
On the motion of Messrs. Denby and Poulsen Mr. Detring was asked to take the chair; and on the resolution of Messrs. von Hanneken and Droste, Mr. W. H. Smith was appointed Secretary to the Meeting.
Mr. Detring briefly stated the purpose of the meeting and asked His Excellency Chang Yen-mao to address the shareholders. By means of Director Yen Fu, Mr. Chang Yen-mao's remarks were vigorously rendered in excellent English.
His Excellency briefly referred to the events of 1900, when in view of political and ili possibilities and an uncertain it was thought advisable to register the Company under Britis laws in order to protect the prop-rty of its shareholders and at the same time ts open the Company's doors for the influx of foreign capital, which was considered desirable and necessary for the development of the natural resources of the Empire. Unfortunately the agreements drawn up in connexion with this transaction of far-reaching consequence had in only too many instances beea disrezwrded and violate ed by one of the contracting parties, so much 50, 28 to joo] the validity of those agreements. He wished it understood that There was at that time a Mr. Hoover in Tientsin_as representative and adviser of Messrs. Bowick, Moreing and Ca. Ho was consulted and undertook a mission to London to accomplish the purpose in view. This was to form a Company of £1,000,000, out of which the Chinese scrip should rank as £375,000; of the balance of £625,000, £100,000 was to be called up at once and the balance as development made it necessary. Mr. Eames, the only lawyer in those parts at the time, drew up the legal document required and Mr. Hoover left for London. He returned in January to report that the Company had been duly formed and that, Wouters, highly recommended as the representative of Belgian financiers, had been associated with him. A telegram from the Bank d'Outre-mor of Brussels stated that the first instalment, of capital, viz.£100,000, had been paid in. The main conditions being thus apparently complied with, the transfer of the old company to the new was duly signed on 19th February, 1901. With it was signed a deed setting forth the rationale and terms and conditions of the transfer. It was verbally understood that Mr. Hoover would retire after the transfer, but he remained as assistant to Mr. de Wouters, who undertook the functions of Acting Manager. He (Mr. Detring) noticed a disposition on their part to act on their own initiative, disregarding the terms of transfer; he remonstrated and was frequently promised a financial statement showing how matters stood in London, but it did not appear. About June 1901, Mr. Francqui, appointed apparently from Brussels, appeared, and promised a statement from Europe. In August and September came a largo consignment of men; two of them were accountants from England; the remainder were engineers and nine employees from Belgium. These men were all sent out without any requisition from this end. There have been since that time far more men than vacancies, and as a result of the influx consequent expense to the company. Barly in September came Mr. Dugan, on-gaged from America to be General Manager of the Company.
Up to that time the management had been nominally conducted under the superintendence of the China Board, but now a crowd of employees came from Europe without the. slightest knowledge on the part of the China Board that they were coming. Messrs. Hoover and de Wouters left for Europe and he (Mr. Detring) summoned a meeting of the heads of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.