CHEQUE FOR £730,000

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 23, 19 April 1927, Page 11

CHEQUE FOR £730,000

MORRIS OUTBIDS AMERICANS FOR WOLSLEY WORKS After what he described as the most thrilling hour of his life, Mr. W. R. Morris, founder of Morris Motors and its subsidiary companies, bought the assets of Wolseley Motors, Limited, in the Bankruptcy Court, Carey Street, W.C., for £730,000 in face of keen competition from determined rivals. The purchase was a personal one and in no way connected with the Morris companies, and before leaving the court Mr. Morris signed a cheque for the purchase. Such is now the ability of a man who was once a bicycle mender. Seldom in the history of this court, where financial tangles are straightened out with cold, unemotional precision. has there been such a tense scene as that which preceded Mr. Morris’s triumph. Behind the locked doors of No. 2 Court, where the proceedings were conducted in private, Mr. Morris had increased his offer in bids of £IO,OOO from his initial offer of £615,000 to the final figure. THE RIVALS Mr. Morris, a small, slim man of almost boyish appearance, looking even yoLinger than his 43 years, his jet-black hair brushed smoothly back had none of the appearance that popular imagination would picture of Great Britain’s motor-car king. Mis soft collar and black suit might have been worn by any of his employees, but the firm set of his jaw indicated the man of determination and purpose. Mis rivals were Sir Herbert Austin and Mr. E. L. Payton, directors of Austin Motors, Limited, and Mr. Julius Turner, who was acting on behalf of an American syndicate. Mr. Tuirner’s advocate retired early and the final tussle was between Mr. Morris and Sir Herbert Austin.

After Mr. Morris had been declared the purchaser the doors were unlocked and he gave instructions for a telegram to be sent to his wife. Immediately he was surrounded by excited supporters, who patted him on

the shoulder and congratulated him. Meanwhile, the most unconcerned man in the court he gave instructions to his manager to prepare a cheque for the amount above which ho had deposited when he made his original offer. MR. MORRIS’S PLANS While he was waiting to sign the amended agreement he told a ‘ Daily Mail” reporter that the struggle for control of Wolseley Motors had been the most thrilling event in his eventful life. “1 felt it my duty as a British motorcar manufacturer to do all in my power to keep the Wolseley Motors under British direction with British capital,” he said.