Secondly, I would refer to the disgraceful scenes that have taken place at so many company meetings in the recent past.
It must be borne in mind that the directors are appointed by the shareholders and are there to safeguard their interests. At an annual meeting of a company a shareholder is entitled to ask questions directly relating Yo the resolution before the meeting and any such questions, if asked in a proper manner, will no doubt be answered to the best of his ability by the chairman, provided that they do not refer to the internal affairs of the company about which no individual shareholder bes any right to enquire.
T can assure you that in no case have the directors anything to hide but there are some questions that might be asked to reply to which would possibly react to the detriment of the company.
I think that I can safely say that during my 30 years of experience with rubber companies I do not remember a single case where a shareholder who was in a genuine difficulty to understand a given item in the accounts and who took the trouble to visit the secretaries and to make the necessary enquiries, did not meet with a courteous reception and go away with a satisfactory explanation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.