N earnest plea that for definite arrangements to be made to segregate Shanghai from the possibilities of any similar catastrophe as the hostilities of last year was made by Mr. H. M. Little, chairman of the Shanghai Waterworks Company, Ltd., at the annual meeting of the company, held yesterday at the head office, 484 Kiangse Road. Mr. Little said that surely, after this second example of all the horrors, devastation and loss of life and property, and the entire disorganization of business that Shanghai had again suffered, it was not too much to hope that such arrangements would be made.*
Mf. Little paid a tribute to the members of the Waterworks staff for their heroic work during the hostilities, referring to the "very excellent Work of the staff in keeping our plant running day and night, under the most trying and at times danger-cus circumstances, I understand," said Mr. Little, "that the people at the Waterworks and at the Power Company earned the sobriquet of the Suicide Club, which was well deserved."
Present at the meeting in addition to Mr. Little were Messrs. A. J. Welch, W. Mellor, W. P. Lambe, and Sing Loh-hsu, (directors), J. J. Martin, T. Wallace, W. P. Rial, engineer-in-chief, and R. Lock, secretary.
The revenue from intro-agreement consumers is $4,13795114 as com. pared with $4,675,740.86 for 1930. Working expenditure after deducting the amount charged to extra-agreement and shipping consumers' account is $2333,113.12 as against $2,- 192,672.09 for the previous year, thus making the balance of working account carried to profit and loss account $2,400,838,02, This figure after taking into account the various profit and loss items results in a net profit for the year of $1,347,779.81 as compared with the corresponding figure for 1936 of $1,579,099.43.
From the net profit there is to be deducted the interim and preference dividends paid on September 30 last, which amounted to $817,723.76, leav. ing available for dividend purposes the sum of $530,056.05. The amount required to pay the full final diviz dands as set out in your directors' report and which we recommend, is $1,054,271. According the shortage of $524,771.26 in made good by a transfer from equalization of dividend reserve. Owing" to circumstances to which I will refer later we have had to finance the dividend partially by an overdraft from our bankers. The accommodation thus obtained will, however, be liquidated in the ordinary course of business during the next few months, Although removed from Shanghai itself, the hostilities are still in progress and are exercising a profound effect on local conditions and although Shanghai will always require water, events such as are now occurring cannot but affect your company. Acres of highly developed property in the area north of the Soochow Creek have been laid waste, and those factories that have escaped material damage are closed down or at best Working short time. Here my remarks regarding the 1932 hostilities may not be inapt. They were as follows:
"I do not propose to enter into a discussion as to the rights and wrongs of the conflict between the Chinese and the Japanese but it is manifestly intolerable that a city of this magnitude with its millions of inhabitants and its importance among the trademarks of the world should be in a position to be subjected to all the horrors of major warfare. In the Interest of all concerned and least those of the Chinese, it is of paramount importance that as an Outcome of any peace negotiations that Thay take place, there be some form of demilitarized zone round the foreign settlements of Shanghai, Surely, Gentlemen, after this second example of all the horrors, devastation and loss of life and property and the entire disorganization of business that Shanghai has again suffered, it is not too much to hope that definite arrangements will be made to segregate Shanghai from the possibilities of any similar catastrophe in the future. It is as yet too early to forecast accurately what revenue we may expect from this area in the future but it is quite certain that with the present tant and rebate your Company cannot hope during 1938 to earn sufficient profits to cover full dividend requirements.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.