SUPPRESSION OF MISSION TRADE SOCIETY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13908, 8 November 1919, Page 2

SUPPRESSION OF MISSION TRADE SOCIETY.

A £nsel (Switzerland) telegram in the iSew York Sun savs: The Swiss people nre aroused over the plan of the British Government, announced by the Under-becretary for Colonies in Parliament, to ' take over" the property of the Basel Mission Trade Society, a charitable organisation established fifty years ago, and "to manage it in the interests of natives by a board of British trustees." The property is on the Gold Coast, West Africa, and is well worth above forty million francs. Swiss newspapers denounce the plan as a most liis'h handed proceeding in violation ,of international law, easting a sinister reflection on the future- workings of the League oi Nations, now iiAlie making, and said to be. formed in the interest of small and weak countries.

The Mission Society has issued a statement of protest, appealing to. tlie conscience of mankinds The society asserts its stock is held, by Swiss citizens, only 2-J per cent, of it being owned by foreigners, all nationals of Entente States. The .society, before the war, paid its ;stockholders an annual dividend of 5 per cent. The rest of the , profits were turned over to the Evangelical -Mission Society of Basel . Since the beginning of the war the charity work was reorganised and the distribution of funds was assigned to--a board of trustees, composed of eminent Swiss citizens. In compliance with a British demand a branch office was established at London.

However, this did not prevent the British Government from sending home all the Swiss employees of the society from the Gold Coast and ordering the liquidation of the society's ; business. It is said that the staples in the society's stores were sold to' British traders at ridiculously low prices. Now the whole property of the society is to be taken from its | rightful owners. The- British Government is willing to reimburse the stockholders, paving them the face value of their shares, three million francs, but they are to lose the value of their property, accumulated in fifty years of trade. . The societv. in its statement, says that the British plan is merely an i attempt to eliminate foreign coiu- ! petition. In the first year of the war the Swiss import, of cocoa, for instance, was handled to the amount of 75 per cent, bv the Mission Society. British traders are anxious to take , over this profitable business, and for this reason the Mission Society is to be expropriated, according to the Swiss contention. A false story circulated at the time of' the torpedoing of the British steamer A papa bv a German submarine near the Gold Coast is said -by the Swiss to be the sole pretext for the proceeding. According to the '-false story a number of Swiss ~emtuloyees of the society were said to •.-have celebrated the sinking of the £ship by getting drunk on champagne. The "champagne orgy,'' the statesmen t says, was in fact a tea. partv. by three Swiss friends who "had met for the first time for many 'jyears. They knew nothing of the sinking of the ship- at the time, the report being suppressed by the British Government.

About eight months ago, when it became apparent that the- societv. cotild no longer do business, in view of the hostile attitude on the part of the British Government, negotiations for the sale of the stock and the property of the Mission Society were begun with a British corporation formed for that purpose. At that time it was said that the British would pay for the 'whole value of the propertv. This plan, according to tlie British Under-Secretary, has been dropped and the property is tobe "managed in the interest of the natives by British trustees." This means the English will onlv pay 3,000,000 frdnes for the stock and pocket the rest of the. property, worth 40,000,000 francs, the society's statement declares.

Three high British authorities are said to have protested against the action contemplated by the British Government as in violation of international law, according to the society's statement." The British Government is acting, it seems, under Article I'SS of the German Peace Treaty, which disposes of the proymrty of Germ'an mission .societies. The Swiss contend tTiat this article does not and cannot applv to them. "It is pure confiscation," concludes the statement, "a, crime which if perpetrated, will be n< blot on the fair .name of the .British nation. We hope the last word has not yet been spoken in this matter."