SUEZ CANAL CHARGES. HUGE DIVIDENDS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 118, 20 May 1907, Page 2

SUEZ CANAL CHARGES. HUGE DIVIDENDS.

ATTITUDE OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. Apropos of Sir Joseph Ward's advocacy of reduced charges at the Suez Canal, tho following, which appealed in the Sydney Morning Herald, of 2nd May, is of "interest: — "According to advices to hand from London by yesterday's mail, some interesting official letters between tho Govern-or-General of Australia and the Colonial Secretary, in ' connection with the Suez Canal, together xtith some letters to and from other departments, have been published in a. Parliamentary paper. Th« Australian 'complaint wtfis that the Canal duos were so high a? to curtail ths progress, ofinter-Empiro trade, and it wet» suggestod 'that the Government should uee its influence to secure' ,a reduction in tho Charges imposed', by. the Canal authorities. The Govertior-Geneml wrote to the Colonial Secretary under date of 15th' May. last: 'Seeing tHat-' the Canal dues enable shareh&lders to receiTe a divident of 28 per cenfc t , my Ministers are of opinion that the time has arrived' for tbe reconsideration of the -existing r"ates, «n.d possibly for a substantial reduction, therein, and they 'suggest tha,t, .on he>«lf of Australia, as well as of all other BritUli possessions lying to tlie east of JSjrpt, I the influence of the Britjsh Gcv.(%Bi«it might h~e employed in procuring '^OHeeseions which would havo an anfi tan. terial eEfcit on inter-Empire, tra'tfe, aa well as upon the volume of traffic *feich will pass through the Canal.' .!■ "In a letter from the three British Sues Canal .directors to Sir Edward" Grey, touching on the -representations made, by the Governor-General, and replying generally to other points involved "in ta» discussion/ it was stated that 'while the present dividend of 28 per cent, on tke oOOf shares is an undoubted sign of .the. great prosperity of the enterprise, we oannat regard it as a proof that its profits are exorbitant. TUo arrangement "which ad mits of this result was agreed to between tho shipowners and M. 'Ferdinand do Lesseps in 1882, neither party at tho | time anticipating its realisation.' Tho so-callefl 'arrangements,' Usually"knorrn as tho 'agresmcat,' it is pointed- out by a Lopdon .shipping exchange, did *not contemplate a2B per cent, dividend ; it pm- | viderl that when tho dividend reached 25 per cent, the surplus profits should be allocated to the reduction of; dtws until they wero brought down to flye francs for ton. In his final reply to the Governor Genernl : tho Colonial Secretary wrote:— 'l am informed" that the Lords Commis«oners of the Treasury and the Board of Trade concur in the vieira expressed by- tho directors, and' that although they are in full sympathy with the objecl ot your Ministers, • tney do not think that anything would be gained b* an attempt to pursue tlwit object without dua regard to the interests of thoio who havo a purely financial con, ccrn in the affairs of tho Suez Caaal.'