HOPES SHATTERED

Evening Star, Issue 23373, 16 September 1939, Page 16

HOPES SHATTERED

COMPANY WOUND UP GOLD MINING IN WALES In less than two minutes Mr Justice Crossman, the Chancery Court judge, , shattered the hopes of many people who believed they were going to make a fortune out of gold in South Wales. The judge had before him a petition to wind up Roman Deep Holdings Ltd., and after listening to a formal statement by the debenture holders’ counsel, said: “If there is no opposition I will make the usual order.” No voice was raised against the judge’s decision, and Mr Justice Crossman wrote on the official document: “ Company wound op by order of the Court ” —and Roman Deep Holdings Ltd., the £500,000 Welsh gold mining company formed in 1935 to exploit a goldmine at Pumpsaint, in Carmarthenshire. was at an end. Behind the cold formality of the brief proceedings in Mr Justice Grossman's Court was a romantic story of modern fortune-seekers trying to do what the Romans did in South Wales 2,000 years ago. The Romans were the first to discover gold at Pumpsaint, and worked a mine there. Gold 1 was again found at the site in Elizabethan times. “A GREAT PITY.” Many well-known people interested themselves as shareholders in the project. Among them were the Duke of Marlborough, Sir James Purves-Stew-art, the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord Ivor Churchill, Lady IKffe, Lord Denham, Earl Fortescue, the Marquess of Sligo, and Mr David Margesson, M.P., the chief Government Whip. They all held 5s shares, along with doctors, solicitors, clergymen, and retired officers. The winding-up petition was presented by Mr William Gosselin Trower, solicitor, of New Square. Lincoln’s Inn, who was the debenture holder. When seen in his_ office, Mr Trower called it “ a great pity ” that the company had to be wound up. He added: “ The reason for the step was that the company was unable to pay the deben-

ture interest, and there was not enough money to carry on with the raining operations.” The company’s affairs are now, in the hands of the Official Receiver.