Stockholders' Meeting

Stockholders' Meeting

British air liners roar up daily from Croydon, air port of London, carry passengers to Paris, Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam for but little more than the price of a first class ticket by rail and water. Many a tourist, surprised at the cheapness of these fares asks: "Do the planes pay?"

At London last week the stockholders of Imperial Airways, Ltd. were informed by the Chairman of their board that they had lost -L-20,414 ($99,200) last year in transporting passengers by air. "We lost fifteen thousand pounds in 1924!" cried an irate stockholder. "Where will this end, Sir Eric?"

Sir Eric Campbell Geddes, chairman of Imperial Airways, chairman of the potent Dunlop Rubber Co. (TIME, March 1), onetime (1917-18) First Lord of the Admiralty, and onetime (1919-21) Minister of Transport, was not unprepared to soothe his stockholders with words of cheer.

"The Company suffered," said Sir Eric, "from a lack of sufficient planes to cope with the peak load of traffic during the summer. . . . Our loss was in great measure due to the writing off of obsolete equipment. . . . The real test of the soundness of this company's policy will be shown by the report for our third year ."

Concluding with the official hauteur of his potent brother (Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes, one-time [1920-24] Ambassador to the U. S.,) Sir Eric Geddes said: "You are aware, gentlemen, that our new air service from England via Egypt to India will be inaugurated on Jan. 1. I have the honor to announce that Sir Samuel Hoare (British Secretary of State for Air) and Lady Maude (Sir Samuel's wife) will travel as passengers on the first of our regularly scheduled flights from Great Britain to India."

Overawed, the stockholders voted support to Chairman Geddes and his policies.