Know-How for Export

Long before President Truman called for the export of U.S. know-how and capital to other nations of the world (in his famed Point Four), the same idea had occurred to a small, forward-looking group of U.S., British and Canadian capitalists. The group included ex-Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, onetime OSS Boss William J. Donovan and Britain's Sir William Samuel Stephenson, World War II boss of all British secret operations in the Western Hemisphere. At war's end, they and associates* formed the World Commerce Corp. and raised an initial $1.000.000 to help "bridge over the breakdown in foreign exchange." Their plan: to provide the tools, machinery and know-how to develop untapped resources. Last week, in Jamaica, World Commerce Corp. was in the midst of one of its biggest developments to date.

Badge of Shame. Jamaicans regard it as a badge of their island's industrial shame that cement must be imported from England. Rich in limestone and gypsum, Jamaica has no cement plant. Jamaica's governor, Sir John Huggins, turned for help to World Commerce Corp.'s Sir William Stephenson, who winters in Jamaica.

He could not have picked a better man. A colleague once described Canadian-born Sir William, now 53, as "quiet, unassuming, inconspicuous--perfect for his work as a spy because you never notice him." Sir William's World War II work was so secret that he will still not discuss it, before the war he was just as unobtrusive, and influential, in British high finance. Settling down in England after a World War I stint as an airman, he soon had a finger in radio, gramophones, aviation, steel, real estate and construction (he built London's huge sports arena, Earl's

Court). Also, as a onetime director of Alpha Cement Ltd., he knew that business inside out.

Medal for Merit. Sir William agreed to take on the Jamaica cement project. With the same quiet dexterity that won him a wartime U.S. Medal for Merit, he quickly organized the Caribbean Cement Co. Ltd., with himself as chairman (Ed Stettinius joined in as a director). He got a 19-year monopoly on Jamaican cement, and a scale of guaranteed prices (30% below the delivered cost of British cement, but still enough to make a tidy $221,650 annual profit).

In return, the company agreed to build a $4,800,000 factory capable of producing 600,000 barrels of cement a year. To raise the capital, Sir William got the World Commerce Corp. to underwrite $1.400,000, had no trouble at all in selling $2,000,000 worth of stock to enthusiastic Jamaicans. Last week the new company, awaiting $1,000,000 worth of machinery from England, was already clearing its 72-acre site on Kingston Harbor.

*London's Robert Benson, Lonsdale & Co. Ltd. and Hambros Bank., Pittsburgh's Mellons, ex-Ambassador to Japan Joseph C. Grew, Transamerica Corp., Atlas Corp. (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

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