THE NORTHWARD EXPANSION 425
additional
acreage is ten times as much as N'Changa originally had; for this
R.C.B.C. receives 125,000 N'Changa shares valued, according to the
Smelting Company's terms at .£250,000. Secondly, the Smelting Company
has an option extending over two years, enabling an American company to
acquire absolute control in a country so far wholly dominated by
British interests. Third, they acquire this control on the basis of
less than $30,000,000 for the entire property, with over $21,000,000 in
the treasury for development and equipment. I take my hat off to the
financial genius in the Smelting Company who worked out this
proposition, and who was clever enough to put it through. I am
surprised that the R.C.B.C. shareholders acquiesced in giving up such a
large area, in which they have proved deposits, for such a paltry
consideration, and I am surprised that N'Changa shareholders, whose
stock has been over £4, arc willing to let new interests acquire control through increase in capital stock at slightly under £2 per
share. It seems to me the old shareholders in both companies were dealt
with rather roughly, but if the Smelting Company can get by with it
they certainly cannot be blamed, and I feel that in the management of
the Smelting Company must be a number of people who can give me cards
and spades in transactions of this kind. I feel I am a baby. I do not
think I could have thought out such a brilliant deal, and I certainly
would not have had the nerve to put it up to the owners. I think I am
getting too weak and too old.
The outcome of the outcry against the proposed arrangements was the gradual creation of what the Economist was
to call 'probably the strongest combination which has ever backed a
mining enterprise'; with a new 'all-British' scheme for the financing
of the Rhodesian Congo Border and its subsidiary. When the shareholders
in the N'Changa Mines were called together at an extraordinary general
meeting on 6 February 1929, they were informed by the chairman that:
The
scheme outlined in the circular and notice which you have received
convening this meeting was the result of negotiations which have been
in progress with the American Smelting and Refining Company for some
time.
As
you will have seen from notices in the Press, the publication of the
scheme has produced a counter-offer from another group which will
receive, in due course, the most careful consideration of your board.
As
you may have also seen in the Press, our American friends have, with
the greatest courtesy, withdrawn their offer which we intended to
consider today. . . .
In
these circumstances, therefore, I have no resolution to propose to you
today and I do not consider that at the present juncture it would be in
the interests of our company to enter into any discussion regarding
these new proposals.
