As already briefly reported in our telegrams an iu.portant statement concerning the dispute between shipping elficers of tae China Coast and the Indo-Chiao Steam Navigation Ca. was made by the chairman (Mr. John Johnstone) at the annual meeting held at Hongkong on the 2nd instant. At the conclusion of the ordinary business of the mecting, the Chairman (as reported by the "Hongkong Daily Press'') said:
Gentlemen, take it that most shareholders' present to-day are aware that the Company is again faced with the prospect of trouble in the ranks of our Floating Staff caused by demands put forward by the Guilds for a further increase of pay. The whole question is—in the opinion of - the Board of Directors—not only of vital interest to our shareholders themselves, but also of considerable importance to the general public as it affects, and seriously so, the future of a local Company of much value to British trade in the Ea:
In May, 1916, an Adjustment Board was formed in Shanghai to settle a dispute between the China Navigation Ca. and ourselves, on the one part, and our respective floating staffs on the other, and as a result of that award—which expired on December 31, 1919—certain increases of pay' and other concessions were given to our employees. In 1917, in conformity with the decision arrived: at thi previous year, the payment of!
sions was inaugurated. You ill, I am sure, appreciate the advisability of establishing a fund to provide for such outlay, and as normal conditions following the! close of the war, were resumed] during the year under review. the present occasion was considered opportune by your Directors to ask! your sanction to the passing of the, resolution setting aside out of the! earnings of the Company a sum of; 100,000 for the purpose mention-From Janvary 1, 1919, the 29 per} cent. Wor Rerns was consolidated in_the nay of the Floating Staff.
Ju the early part of 1929—the} Arbitrators Award having expired on December 31, 1919. the China Navigation and this Company set) about considering what farther. concessions could be made to our; respective staffs.
Dewanp For 50 PER cent. INcnEssr.
Bearing in mind the fact that any concessions so granted would in all probability romain a standing charge on the earnings of the Company, however badly it might be doing. and remembering the; @ifficulty we had in paying any! dividend at all in some pre-war' years no dividend on the deferred years 1910-1911 and 1912 and only 5 per cent. in 1913 and 3 per cent. in 1914—you will perhaps realize that much consideration had to be given to ways and means. Eventually, however, we decided on certain concessions, which, while they were of material assistance to the staff—especially the married men with families in the East—could, we hoped, with ordinary luck, be paid annually without unduly crippling the Company. In the meantime we had received a demand from the Guilds for, amongst other things, an all-round increase of 50 per cent. in salaries. No figures were produced to show that this demand was a reasonable one, and certainly half the number of captains whom I myself interviewed in Hongkong did not know that this devond had been put forward by their own Guild. That was the position in June of this year. gentlemen, we had by t! taken out figures which proved to us that not only were our men being extremely well paid at the time, but that as a Company we had, in the matter of salaries and concessions, just about reached the end of our tether. It is true that, were we assured of earnings continuing indefinitely on the basis of the last three years, which in our opinion is quite impossible, we could probably pay still higher wages and still give a satisfactory return to shareholders; but bearing in mind the fact that we hope to keep the flag flying in the lean years which are bound to follow, and being of opinion that, with the concessions we were about to grant, our staff had little or nothing to complain of, your Directors agree that, come what may, a halt must be called to the rising cost of fixed charges, otherwise there would be a really orions prospect of our being forced out of business altogether.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.