LEAGUE OF OPERA

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 109, 11 May 1931, Page 8

LEAGUE OF OPERA

SIR T. BEECHAM'S SCHEME

TO BE WOUND UP

(From "The Post's"' Representative.) V LONDON, 6th March. It is announced that the Trustees of the Imperial League are to apply to the Court at once for the winding-up of the trust. ; ~ ■ .; The trustees—Lord Islington, Sir line Hambro, and Sir Victor : Warrender— have reached this decision because, in their view, "there appears to be no reasonable prospects of the objects of the league being accomplished." They deelino to consent to hand over tho £55,800 in their custody to Sir Thomas Beecham's proposed "Company limited by guarantee," the formation of which, they believe, will make no improvement on the present "unsatisfactory position." It may be-recalled that the moneys held by the trustees were to be applied to the original-objects of the league. There were, briefly, the production of opera in English, with seasons in London and the,provinces, and advantages to league members in booking and in lower prices of admission. The present membership of the league is about 40,----000, and the funds in the care of the trustees amount to £55,800. "About the middle of September," the secretary to the trustees explained in an interview to the '.'Daily Telegraph," "the trustees were informed that negotiations between Sir Thomas Beecham and the Covent Garden Opera Syndicate, had materialised, and that members of the leaguo were- to be circularised and asked to vote on the question of the amalgamation of interests.

"The result of this ballot, as given to tho trustees was 23,000 votes in favour, 1500 votes against, and silence in respect of the balance. Sir Thomas Beecham then proposed, and an application was actually prepared, to obtain the sanction of the Court to the new alliance of interests, and, further, to decide in what manner subscribers represented by the votes not cast should be dealt with. ■

"Shortly after this, when the scheme whereby the Government declared its intention to subsidise'the production of opera became known, Sir Thomas Beecham took independent action, and, without consulting the trustees, called meetings in various centres in the provinces. At these meetings certain resolutions were passed and forwarded to the trustees, reversing the aforementioned vote and purporting to convert the league into a company limited by guarantee. "Tho trustees take the view that proper notices of these meetings was not given to each member of the league, and that, in consequence, the trustees cannot consent to the handing over of the funds in their trust to such a. company without the direct instructions oi: t he Court."