CABLE-RADIO MERGER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 559, 11 January 1929, Page 9

CABLE-RADIO MERGER

CHAIRMAN APPOINTED SIR BASIL BLACKETT (Australian and N.Z. Press Association l Reed. 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Thurs. It is officially announced that Sir Basil Blackett is to become chairman, and the Earl of Clarendon a director, of the Communications Company, which is taking over the cable and wireless services. Sir Basil Blackett retired last y r from the office of the finance member of the Executive Council of the Gov-ernor-General of India, which he had held since 1922. Lord Clarendon has been chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation since 1927. He was formerly Under-Secretary for Dominion Affairs. The “Daily News” says that Sir Basil will receive £15,000 salary from the Radio Board. Lord Clarendon already receives £3,000 for his chairmanship of the Broadcasting Corporation. Sir Basil Blackett retired in April last from his position as Finance Member of the Government of India, where lie left a great record of useful work. He is 47 years of age. He was at Marlborough College and Oxford. He entered the Treasury in 1904 and went to India in 1913 as secretary of the Indian Finance and Currency Commission. In October. 1914, he went to America on a special mission regarding exchanges. He again represented the Treasury in America, and in 1919 was appointed Controller of Finance and knighted. He returned to India in 1922. The Earl of Clarendon is chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation. He was born in 1877, and succeeded his father in 1914. He was for some time Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Dominions, and also chairman of the Overseas Settlement Committee of the Imperial Conference. CHEAPER AND BETTER VIEWS OF THE CHAIRMAN (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. noon. LONDON, Thursday. Sir Basil Blackett, chairman of the Communications Company, considers that it will increase the cheapness and efficiency of Empire communications. Its dividends will be six per ccn;., and any excess in profits will be divisible equally between the company and %s. reduction of rates, or for other purposes approved of by the Advisory Committee. “This is a big new advance on the lines«»of inter-imperial public utility service, substituting co-operative development of telegraphic communications for uneconomic competition, and securing all the attendant advantages at cheaper rates for the public,” lnsaid. “The sale to the Communications Company of the assets of the Cable and Marconi Companies, in exchange for the company’s shares, provides a capital of £30,000,000.”