MARCONI COMPANY AND GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2975, 12 January 1917, Page 8

MARCONI COMPANY AND GERMANY

MR. GODFREY ISAACS GIVES THE FACTS. I Mr. Godfrey Isaacs, managing director of the Marconi Wireless Company, i has issued a reply to certain criticisms ■ in respect to the relationship which has ' existed between liis firm and the &er- j man Telefunken Company. "The Bel- , ■ gian Company to which reference- has , been madej" Mr. Isaacs says, "was formed in the year 11901, and secured . from the Marconi Company, the mer-. cantile marine rights of certain countries in Europe, including those of Germany and Austria. The-company was purely Belgian, and the shares were , held in Belgium and England. The Belgian Company proceeded to instal ; and operate apparatus on all the principal ships of the mercantile marines of Germany and -Austria.' "In tho year 1910 the German Government mado it known that they would no longer sanction the installation or operation of any wireless sys- : tern on board any German ships other than the Gorman system under German control. - In these ■ circumstances tho Belgian Company were threatened with a considerable loss from the ap- ' paratus it would be obliged to remove from the German ships, and also with the loss of the whole of its German [ business. v lt, therefore, came to an : agreement with the German Telefunken Company for the formation of a company in Germany which should tako over the business of the German mercantile marine. ..." "At tho outbreak of war," Mr. Isaacs goes on, "thero were two Germans in tho employ of the Belgian Company. They were immediately dismissed. The business of tfie Belgian Company was promptly taken in hand by the English directors, Captain. H. Riall Sankey and myself; transferred to Marconi House, and has been under the complete control of the English., directors ever since. There lias not been since the outbreak of war a single German operator employed on any ship of the Belgian Company in any part of the trorld." "I would point out," he adds, "that whilst it is true that the-Marconi Company were interested in tho German Company, and had directors on tho Germany Company's board, the English Marconi Company has never had any German director upon its board, nor have the German Company at any time held any interest in the EnglishCompany." The British wireless stations, it is pointed out. now preponderate throughout the world.