SHARE SPECULATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 March 1929, Page 7

SHARE SPECULATION

NEW MOVE CRITICISED. (Australian Press Association.) (By Cable—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, March 14. Epithets like “Plunder,” “Not Playing the Game,” “Robbery,” “An Infernal Proposal,” “Dishonesty,” were employed when the shareholders of the General Electric Company, met to consider a proposal to issue new capital restricted to the British holders, but the restriction was approved by a large majority. Sir Hugo Hirst said that the directors had been dismayed at finding the kerb market at New York dealing with the company’s shares, and raising the price abnormally. Steps were immediately taken to prevent any attempt to secure foreign control. He had returned from Australia to find that over half of the ordinary capital had wandered across the Atlantic. It had always been his ideal that the Company should mean the same thing in Britain as the General Electric Companies in America, and Germany meant in those countries. • LATER.

There are indications of a sharp controversy arising out of the General Electric Company’s exclusive British issue of shares.

The “Daily Telegraph’s” City editor expresses the opinion that considerable damage will be done if, by force of example, there is “an indiscriminate rush to' deprive the foreign shareholders of their rights.” The “Daily Chronicle” says: The decision of the General Electric Companies strikes a blow at the position of the City of London as the world’s financial centre. This is the unanimous opinion among responsible authorities in the city. The consequences if foreign companies retaliate would be most serious. The Board of Trade estimates that the net income from overseas investment is £285,000,000 per year. If the British shareholders were deprived of their voting rights and subscription rights in foreign countries, it would cause a heavy loss to the national income and wealth. Sir H. Hirst may succeed in making the share list of a General Electric Company British, but not Without offending the British sense of fair dealing and damaging the prestige of the City of London.