Whitaker Wright's Wrongs

Southland Times, Issue 19167, 3 October 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

Whitaker Wright's Wrongs

Tin- following statement given by Mi- Whitakcr Wright t o a Daily Mail representative just prior ii? his* landing in England last month will be n-ad with interest at this time when newK of Wright's trial may bo expected at any time : —

Armed with a letter of introduction from Mr Samuel L'ntormyer, the representative of the Daily Mail approached Mr Wright on the Oceanic and sought an interview with him for publication. This he at first refused point blank, but after consideration he decided to take sulvantage of the opportunity afforded him.

Mr Wripht mad" tho following statement : —

" It is nearly three years since the Collnpso of the (ilc.'he Company, which tuok [ilnce in Peceruber. 1900. The company wns forced into ollicial liquidation hy John Flower and his u.Nsi-tiates, to the detriment oi' both creditors and shareholders. It is a mutter of public notoriety that when a company £oos into official liouirlation the assets aro usually enormously sacrificed. It is comparable to a ship at sea under full wail which is suddenly cast upon the recks. In the one case you have un asset of potential value, in the other a mass of old iron which scarcely pays the cost of clearing uwav the debris.

" The Olliciul Receiver next made the report in which ho passed some severe strict ures upon the diri'ctors. of course being known us ati official receiver, tho public, which has little knowledge or' such matters, imagined that -his utterances were, of a judicial character, whero:t,s, in fuel, they were purely ex pai'te, and in tho nature, of things they were ha.sed upon a purely cursory examination, of the archives of the company. But all the same it constituted a prima t'neie case of mismanagement against tho directors, and against mo in particular a.s the mnn;ij, r ing director. Owinff to this prima facie chjjo it was decided to hold a public inquiry in regard to tho collapse of the company and this was done. The directors were, subjected to a public examination and cross-examination, which extended over many days, as well as to a private examination b.v the Oflieial Receiver's Department of the Board of Trade, which extended over many months. During this period every transaction of the company was thoroughly ventilated. Tho whole of the proceedings were then submitted to tho law officers of the Crown, when they were fully reviewed. The upshot of this investigation Was the conclusion arrived at by the duly constituted authorities of the department of justice that there was no grounds warranting a prosecution of the directors. nnd this decision was publicly announced on several j occasions. ■ ' Of course 1 admit that the directors made some mistakes which in the light of subsequent events they should not have made- But you quite well know, as Abraham Lincoln once said in regard to one- of his generals in the Civil War, ' The man who never makes a mistake never makes anything.' The great mistake that J made was in having too childlike a confidence in others, in being too (rustful, especially in regard to the two big operations which brought down the company. In our exploration and mining operations we were obliged to carry on large operations in various parts of the world, and had in many cases to put absolute trust in others. It \va,<i impossible for me to be at both ends of the line. Therefore, when we were advised to purchase control of a given undertaking on representations in regard to its condition and did so. al'd subsequently found that the representations were not correct, the. company suffered a loss o f nearly half its capit-aJ BKTRAYKD ACAIX ' And in Irving to recover this; loss in the following \ear. notwithstanding all the precautions we took to be suru we were right, we were again misled. In the second operation hi: took into our confidence certain operators in the City <>J London, by whom we were also betrayed. We could even have recovered from this heavy blow but for the financial and political conditions prevailing at the time. From the outbreak of the Boer war onward a depreciation in the. value of all securities, not only of r speculative but ol && Tuv»9tm»ut chAi'act»r, set la, Sretidu could Bttfaa tU» Ud« of

prosperity which lead to inflated values, and there are cycles of adverse conditions which lts;ui to depreciated values You might as well attempt to dam a river with a rope of sand as to stop the tide of depreciation when tho cycle of declining values !nts set in. 1 WICKED PERSECUTION." " Out of excess of zeal and loyalty' to our shareholders 1 tried to save them from an undue depreciation of their securities, and in tho result, mainly owing to the facts to which I have referred, we failed. How a man can possibly bo charged with an intention tr.t deceive his shore-holders

and to sacrilico his time, his hoalth, and his fortune in an earnest effort to avert what finally happened i fail to see. I have explained how the prima fecie case against the directors, made out originally by tho Ollifial Receiver and adjudicated upon l>y the Department of Justice, vanished into thin air upon investigation. The directors' hands were, admitted to be personally clean : yet two years and three months after tho failure of the company, and after all these investigations and the resulting conclusions, a private coterie, headed by a defaulting broker, succeeded on this same prima facie ease which on investigation had already vanished into thin air — succeeded, I say, in obtaining an order for new proceed ing's against me. To my mind this looks very much like trying a man twice for the same offence. 1 have already denounced it as neither more nor less than a wicked, malicious persecution.

" Tho lucre fact that in the end a statement ( »f the true facts run only result in my exoneration can never atone for my mental suffering and iiiuuiciul loss, to Hay nothing- of the blight that has temporarily been placed upon my family. MALIGNANT SLANDERS. "1' need iuudly fuy th u t 1 shall use i' very means in juy jiowit to obtain redress for the wrong 1 have suffered from the men who ha.ye been Lho moans of inflicting this indignity upon me. 1 shall nover rest until 1 have accomplished this. The administration of justice in England has always been looked upon as above and beyond all political coh-sidora-auons. Jt is the fust time in tho history of England, at least in modern times, that men should havo been found who are willing to impugn the administration of tho department of justice from political motives, and this I regard as a blot upon tho national conscience which must be removed. J can only conclude that Mr Justice Buckley, in granting the ex partu application of Mr John Flower on a prinia facie case that had already been thrashed out by the duly constituted authorities, felt that it was the best means i l( r putting ftii end for ever to this wicked and malicious persecution and to the slanders persistently circulated by a certain section of the press. In regard to the baseless and malignant slanders of several newspapers I shall huve more to say when tho proper time arrives. As to the Flowers, they would lo'ig ago havo recovered themselves if they had pursued another line of action, but as it is, in their efforts to destroy me, they have simply destroyed themswLves. Other brokers' houses of responsibility and integrity sought and obtained security for their transactions or refused to deal beyond their capital. Thia firm c a rod not what gigantic transactions they entered into (oven without my knowledge or consent) so long as they could fatten on tho commissions of the Globe, and yet this same John Flower for two years past has had the audacity to issue to the public a series of i'ulniinations on tho subject of commercial morality. \ ii-.ws. on fiscal, poijcv. Owing to ttie present liscal policy of the country and tho depreciation thereby occasioned in the prolits of ail business and of private incomes lho people at large during tho boc-m period of the, market tried to increase, their incomes by means of speculation, and for v time succeeded ; but as they endeavoured to do the same thing during the receding tide they suffered the inevitable loss that comes from declining markytsAnd in my opinion to-day, though I should be delighted to think I am wrong, the whole British people, owing to the liscal policy of tho country, are in much poorer circumstances thiin they were a fow years ago- In my opinion nothing but a revision of the liscal policy of the country on the lines laid down by Mr Chamberlain will avert future disaster. Jt is all very well to talk of the loyalty of the colonies. They are and .still remain loyal as long us it does not affect their self-interest. Jtut when this happens loyalty will have to take second place. I know tho colonies well, nnd I say without hesitation, that self-interest is paramount with them. The only way to knit tho British Empire together in bonds of steel is to arrange a fiscal policy that will work to tho advantage of all the component parts of the Empire and I am satisfied that, a policy can be formulated with the aid of specialists and actuaries as will in the near future bring about .such an era of prosperity and contentment art the British Empire, has ni'\r>r known before

" I lki\" lor \c(ii> I'iifct advocated (i polity of iTciprooiiy, will) the woid spch in capital letters, hihl linvc }n-i'<lii-U'«.l that, without Homo sudi policy tin- streets of our large cities would run with blood within a generation. It is, therefore, a groat, gratification to me to find that already a stntt-smnn of commanding insight into the future has arisen able and willing to grapple with this pressing question It is only neccssalT tor tli» country to thoroTJjjhly und.«itiauil til* pollftV la quwtloji fo tnvrV IU trliunphiint ndoptio«."- .

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