OIL MAGNATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 31, 7 February 1939, Page 7

OIL MAGNATE

SIR HENRI DETERDING DEATH IN SWITZERLAND RISE IN INDUSTRY [By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright] Received Feb. 6, 5.5 p.m. THE HAGUE, Feb. 4. The death occurred suddenly at St. Moritz of Sir Henri Deterding, the oil magnate.

Sir Henri Wilhelm August Deterding was born at Amsterdam in 1866. When he was six years old, according 1 to his own narrative, his father, a Dutch sea captain, died. The family was five children, and Henri was the youngest but one. After he finished schooling he entered a bank in Amsterdam. Later he joined the Netherlands Trading Company and l/.ct.me their sub-agent at Medan, in the Netherlands Indies, at the age of 22. These were strenuous days, with work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a tropical climate, and lunch eaten in the office. In 1896 he was engaged by Mr Kessler as assistant in the youthful company for the exploitation of oil springs in the Netherlands Indies, a small concern with a capital of £200,000. When he told the story a few years ago he referred to the fact that Royal Dutch Petroleum Company now had a capital of £170,000,000 and Shell Oil Co. a capital of £100,000,000.

Sent to Head Office. In his new field he began as an inspector and spent his time in travelling. In 1897, however, he was sent to head office at The Hague. At the age of 31, when Mr. Kessler had to go to the Netherlands Indies, Deterding became assistant director of the company. In 1902 he settled in London. Shortly before this the company had opened an office in Paris in conjunction with the Rothschilds and Shell in order to avoid competition. They then expressed the wish that he should become a director of that concern. In 1907 Shell transferred all its interests in the Bataafsche and AngloSaxon oil companies. The latter organisation was divided as follows: The Bataafsche controlled the techwork, Anglo-Saxon the commercial side, and Asiatic Petroleum the selling organisation. The shares in all the corporations were held by the holding companies, of which Royal Dutch controlled 60 per cent, and Shell 40 per cent. In 1936 Sir Henri described the operations of the companies as resulting in a production of roughly 30,000,000 tons a year, with a net profit for shareholders in one recent year of £14,000,000.

Struggle With Rockefeller. In 1903 Deterding embarked on a struggle with John D. Rockefeller and won. When the decision was reached to put the British Navy on an oilburning basis it was Deterding who obtained the contract for the supply of that oil. During the World War he was responsible for the organisation of the oil supplies of the Allies. He became a naturalised Englishman and received a K.B.E. in 1920. His company to-day is declared to embrace 140 different corporations and to have refineries in 25 countries. His room in St. Helen’s Court, London, when he was director-general of the organisation, held a map showing the extent of this industrial empire—it stretched from the United States and the Argentine through Persia, the Netherlands Indies, Egypt, and Rumania, to Curacao and Trinidad. Its own tank fleet was nearly 2,000,000 tons. Its production, he claimed not long ago, was done at a cost of 10s a ton. Living In Germany. Sir Henri Doterding was married three times. His first wife, a Dutch girl, died in 1916. His second wife, whom he married in 1924, was Lydia Pavlovna, daughter of the late General Paul Koudoyaroff, and he was divorced by her in 1935. A month later he married Charlotte Mina Knaak, a German, at The Hague. He gave up active direction of his oil empire at the beginning of 1937 and announced that he would spend most of his time at an estate he had purchased on the outskirts of Berlin. As a gesture of affection for his adopted land he filled 700 railway cars with Netherlands cattle agricultural products as a present for the Reich Government. He purchased vegetables and meat which were unsaleable because of over-production and the Netherlands Government agreed to issue export licences in order that these might be sent to Germany. The gift cost Sir Henri Deterding £1,000,000. The/e were two sons and a daughter of his first marriage and two daughters of the second marriage. His private fortune has been variously reported as from £25,000,000 to £65,000,000.