§ 47. Mr. CHARLES ROBERTSasked the President of the Board of Trade if his attention has been directed to the affairs of the Stamford, Spalding, and Boston Banking Company, Limited, which in 1911 was taken over by another bank and wound un; whether the consent of the shareholders to the amalgamation was secured without warning to them of any financial difficulties and subsequent to the payment, after providing for all bad and doubtful debts, of a 10 per cent. dividend for the previous year; whether he is aware that in the winding-up heavy losses have been revealed, involving grave distress to many persons in Lincolnshire and surrounding counties, and that the liquidator 1058 has declined a request from a committee of shareholders for the full and public examination of the directors and officials of the bank, so that the shareholders have received no adequate explanation up to date of the way in which the directors came to incur these losses; and whether he can secure that such an examination shall be held?
Mr. ROBERTSONThe Stamford, Spalding, and Boston Banking Company, Limited, is being wound up voluntarily, and the Board of Trade, therefore, have no information as to the company's business or as to the circumstances connected with the winding-up and the sale of the goodwill, except so far as appears from the accounts which the liquidator has filed. These accounts are open to inspection by all creditors and shareholders of the company. A public examination of the directors of a company can only be held in the case of a company being wound up by the Court and on an order being made by the Court for that purpose.