The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-12 00:00:00

RAILWN

.GENCE.

SOIITH-EASTERN.

A special general meeting of this company was
held yesterday at the Bridge House-hotel, London-
bridge ; the Hon. J. Byng, the chairman, presided.
Mr. S. Smiles, the secretary, having read the no-
tice convening the meeting,
The CHAIRMAN said they had been called toge-
ther to consider the course to be pursued by the
company in the approaching Session of Parliament,
having already briefly explained the policy which
they thought the most expedient in the circular
lately issued by the Board. They had been in-
formed at different times of the territorial arrange-
ments and agreements which had been made with
neighbouring companies with a view to peace and
the avoidance of unnecessary capital expenditure.
He could conscientiously say that they had endea-
- voured to the best of their power to pursue that
policy, and at the same time to defend the interests
of the property intrusted to their care. (Hear,
hear.) At a time when shareholders were very
much opposed to extensions, they endeavoured to
carry out a policy of non-extension in compliance
with their views. (Hear, hear.) Hence some 12
years since, when the Bromley Bill for a line from
Lewisham to Bromley and Croydon was before
Parliament, they withdrew the Bill to avoid fur-
ther capital expenditure, but the consequence of
that step was the immediate granting of an exten-
sion of the West-end and Crystal Palace line to
Bromley and Farnborough. Shortly after, in a
subsequent Session of Parliament, an independent
company projected the Mid-Kent line, which they
had since been under the necessity of purchasing ;
and another independent company subsequently
projected the Crays line, which the Chatham Com-
pany had in like manner made part of their system.
During the same time the London, Chatham, and
Dover Company, which had become established be-
tween Chatham and Canterbury, was seeking to push
itself eastward to Dover on the one hand, and west-
ward to London on the other. They endeavoured
to oppose them to the best of their power, and did
so at much cost, but they knew with what result.
(Hear.) Parliament granted the rival company, in
successive sessions, nearly all that they sought to
obtain, until, in short, a second line of railway be-
came established between London, Canterbury, and
Dover, and between, London, Margate, and Rams-
gate. They were thus compelled to recognise the
existence of the competing company's line. They
felt that the competition between London, Canter-
bury, and Dover was affecting the whole traffic of
their railway, and if persisted in would become most
injurious to their interests ; and they did what all
companies similarly situated were under the neces-
sity of doing—made peace on fair and honourable
terms. (Cheers.) While all this was going on,
they had to defend themselves against other attacks
—not so much bynew companies as by their old ally,
the Brighton Company. In 1848 an agreement was
made by which the two companies recognised cer-
tain districts as those of the Brighton and South-
Eastern systems respectively. That was originally a
toll agreement, but in 1854 the Brighton Company
proposed that its meaning should be enlarged, and
that the two companies should " not cuter into any
arrangement with, or give any assistance, direct or
indirect, to any new company" in the districts de-
fined by the agreement of 1848 without the consent
in writing of the other company. This proposalwas
agreed to ; and the company accordingly declined
to entertain applications which were made to them
to work the Portsmouth direct railway, then an in-
dependent line, and to support a scheme for a new
line to Eastbourne. Such was the state of affairs
when a line was projected, in 1858, from Uckfield
to Tunbridge-wells. As Tunbridge-wells was un-
questionably situate within the district defined by
the agreement as South-Eastern, they called upon
the Brighton Company .to declare themselves on
the subject, as the projectors gave out that the
Brighton Company had agreed to work the line,
and to guarantee 4 per cent. on the capital.
The chairman of the Brighton Company, over
and over again, expressly declared that that com-
pany had nothing whatever to do with the scheme,
awl they had no intention of entering into any
arrangement with the promoters. This was also
repeated by the board of directors of the Brighton
Company, speaking through their secretary, and
they also assured the board that they had no inten-
tion of entering into any arrangement with the pro-
moters of the Uckfield line. The bill was, however,
obtained, as well as a subsequent bill, authorising
the construction of a line from East Grinstead to
the Uckfield and Tunbridge-wells line, thereby com-
pleting the connexion between the main line of the
Brighton Company and the line to Tunbridge-wells,
and both lines were now the property of the Brigh-
ton Company. (Hear, hear.) Notwithstanding the
strong and express denials of the Brighton chairman
and board of directors, that they had any connexion
with the Uckfield scheme in its early stages, it was
quite clear that they encouraged it from the begin-
ning, if they were not its actual projectors. In sup-
port of this view it was only necessary for him to
quote the evidence given by Mr. Cary, chairman of
the Uckfield Railway, before Mr. Meadows White,

Master in Chancery, on the 20th of April, 1863, in
the case of " Peto v. the Brighton, Uckfield, and
Tunbridge-wells Railway, and others." Mr. Cary's
statement on oath was as follows :—" Before we
went to Parliament at all we consulted the Brightori
Company about introducing the bill, and therefore
we kept with them. They gave us their assistance
BO far as they could in the face of their territorial
agreement. . . . We were with them from the
very beginning. We have been in treaty with the
Brighton board up to this very time." (Hear,
hear.) The action of the Brighton Company having
been thus in express violation of the spirit as well
as the letter of the existing arrangement, the South
Eastern considered themselves set free from all
obligations under it, and that they were no longer
debarred from admitting over their lines the traffic
of districts from which they had before considered
themselves excluded. (Hear, hear.) They, there-
fore, encouraged a projected line to Eastbourne, and
they brought out an extension of the Mid-Kent line
into Croydon. But in the same Session in which
these schemes were before Parliament the Surrey and
Sussex line was projected, passing through this com-
pany's district from Croydon to Tunbridge-wells,
and giving the Brighton Company, if carried out, a
direct competing line to that place. As they con-

... ~
sidered the line calculated to be most injurious to
the interests of the company, they opposed it in Par-
liament. They had various interviews with the
chairman of the Brighton Company on the subject
of the rival projects, and the result of them was that
in 1864 a new agreement was entered into for the
Purpose of establishing amicable relations between
the companies, each binding themselves not to sup-
port any future application to Parliament by which
an inroad was to be made into the system of the
other company without the consent of that other
company in writing. Under the agreement thus
entered into, the
South-Eastern Company withdrew
their Eastbourne and Croydon schemes, and the
chairman of the Brighton Company undertook to
. obtain the withdrawal
of the Surrey and Sussex
Fclietne, which was done. But in the very next en-
liing• Session the Surrey and Sussex scheme was
,„ was carried, and it was now the
fain introduced,
property of the Brighton Company,
the line.
who were ac-
tively engaged in constructing
and
(Hear.)
The projection and construction of the Surrey
Sussex line could not possibly be regarded by them
as a friendly project,
or calculated to
further those
" amicable relations between the companies',
which
it was the express object of the agreement of 1864
to establish. It ran nearly parallel in the first part
of its course with the Caterham line of this company,
crossed the main line near Godstone and Edenbridge,

and ran in nearly a parrallel line with their own to
Tunbridge-wells. In short, it was a line of a di-
rectly hostile and competing character throughout.
(Hear.) he line in course of construction by the
Brighton Company was from Leatherhead to Dork-
ing, which district had until now been entirely
served by this company, but in a short time they
would have the Brighton competition to encounter in
hat quarter also. lie asked whether they were to
sit still and see their traffic abstracted
at those diffe-
rent points and take no steps to prevent it. (Loud
cries of " o, no !') Some of their proprietors