LORD KYLSANT DEAD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 159, 7 June 1937, Page 7

LORD KYLSANT DEAD.

BRITISH SHIPPING MAGNATENOTED TRIAL RECALLED. LONDON, June G. The death has occurred of Baron Kylsant of Carmarthen, who, after joining the bpard of directors of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. in 1903, made the Royal Mail group easily the greatest shipping combination in the world. It was in connection with the expansion of this great concern that lie allowed a prospectus to be issued which resulted in his being charged in 1931 with having misrepresented one of liis company’s positions by the manipulation pf secret reserves. The judge took four hours to sum up at the trial. Lord Kylsant was acquitted on two charges, but on a third he was convicted and sentenced to a year’s imprisonment. The case stood out as showing to the world that neither influence nor riches could disturb the course of English justice. Everywhere there was pitv for the man but admiration for the" impartiality of the court. Lord Kylsant, who was Gft. 7im in height, was the tallest peer in England. . , . He had led a retired life since his release from prison in 1932.

ROYAL MAIL GROUP. GREATEST IN THE WORLD. Owen Phillips, later Lord Kylsant, had become a shipowner in a small way, having bought his lirst ship in 1889, when die International Mercantile Marine of New Jersey, then known as the Morgan combination, gave the British nation a shock by adding the White Star Line to its other properties and operating it thereafter 'in the position of a line of British registry but American ownership, ilie London papers howled for leeks. The White Star became “the lost British fleet.” Its salo became “a disaster.” A year later, in 1903, Owen Phillips joined the board of tiio Royal AI ail Steam Packet Company, which then operated 190,000 tons ot shipping over the South American and West Indies routes. One of his first acts was to apply tor a supplementary charter providing that its ownership and direction were to remain torever British. At the beginning of 1927 Lord Kylsant brought the White Star Line back to British ownership and added it to the now numerous family of the Royal Mail, the International Mercantile Marine retaining its American agency, the White Star brought the . total tonnage under his control up to the colossal figure of 2,500,000, and made the Royal Mail group easily the greatest shipping combination in the world.

OOMPJIIITOR ABSORBED. “Lord Kylsant’s is to-day the most powerful single brain behind the inlinite daily worn of the Red Ensign, “ said one writer of him in 11)30. “ILs first ten years with the Royal Mail cover only part of the story ot his rise, but that tiro most exciting part. Alter the war lie entered the North Atlantic trade with a direct service to New Tork, and during 1927. in a deal which involved something liae ±17,000,000, he absorbed one of his biggest North Atlantic competitors and one of the most lamous ot all British inns, the White Star. “ihe services he controls now thread the Seven Seas. The ships he operates vary from the great Majestic and Olympic down to lutlo cargo boats that lie rolling their masts out as they sling Birmingham hardware and Manchester cotton over the side into surfboats puddled by tne cheery, brawny black men of the \Vest African ports. His freights vary from the mails down to what is known as ‘general cargo.’ Frozen meat from the , Aigentine, Units from Calitornia. tin and rubber from the Straits Settlements, wheat from Australia, wool from New Zealand, are all grist to his mill. There are tew commodities wlios-e supply and demand in the world’s markets do not have their bearing on some aspect of a worldwide cartage business such as his. There are tew British dependencies in whose prosperity he has no stake.

“Lord Kylsant is a giant in more ways than one. Seen walking across Leadenhail Street nearly seven feet tall in his top hat, he is the complete picture of the more silvery and easy-going type of city man. It' is difficult to believe, however, that easy-going men come wandering out of country cathedrals to scoop up 500 steamers into a single combination. If lie is at heart a dynamo of energy, as most giants of business are said to be, be is a soundless and effortless dynamo. He sat as a Liberal in the Douse of Commons fof* lour years; m fact, with two of his brothers there was a time when his father had nineteen feet of son in the House. But he is no orator, and the greatest stir he ever occasioned in the House was his first appearance there with the 61t. 3in. of his brother Jack.”