For a budding screenwriter.

[John Little]

I came across something the other day which I have a use for - it's a story.

But I do not want to use it as a story, just as a piece of evidence. It has a Caithness connection and has elements of a ripping yarn which might work up into a good book.

And it's all true. So if anyone wants to use it, the document reference in the Parliamentary Archives is this; BL64/D1

and the story starts like this...

"As war broke out in August 1914 a ship called the Themis was crossing the Atlantic with a cargo of 15,000 tons of iron ore bound for Rotterdam. It had been sold by the Nova Scotia Iron Co to three German firms, Phoenix, Krupps and Rheinische Stahlwerke. The deal had been set up by the steel trading company William Jacks and Co of Glasgow and was to be handled in Rotterdam by their agent Mr Van Uden who liaised with a German steel agent called Lothar (Carl) Peters.

The ore was to be loaded onto lighters at Rotterdam then transported down the Rhine to its various destinations.

As war was declared Parliament passed an act forbidding trade with the enemy so Jacks and Co attempted to halt the ship’s journey and have the cargo diverted to Greenock. They wired the lighthouse at Dunnet Head who signaled the ship to alter course. For some reason they did not manage to do so; how they missed the signal from Dunnet, a magnificent vantage point, is not clear.

The ship was stopped by a Royal Naval vessel in the North Sea and allowed to proceed as she was going to a neutral country....

[John Little]

Jacks and Co were very worried indeed by all this, but not because they were putatively trading with the enemy. As several letters between the company and their Rotterdam agent attest, they were concerned that they would not be paid upon delivery because the war would make it impossible for the German companies to pay what was owed. On 14 August they wrote to Van Uden;

"We have no objection whatever to delivering ore to our friends if it is possible to get payment for same over here during the war but we cannot allow another ton to go to a German customer unless we get cash for it…’ BL64/D/1

In a final attempt to divert the ship they telegraphed the Hook of Holland to have a message taken out to the Captain, which he received, but for reasons that are not clear, ignored; the ship then docked in Rotterdam.

Lack of space to store all the ore meant that 4500 tons was offloaded almost immediately into lighters and Van Uden saw no reason not to ship them off to the Phoenix steelworks in Germany. This caused worry to Jacks and Co because they were not sure that they would get their money. They do not seem to have given any thought to the idea that they were trading with the enemy. Carl Peters was very active in persuading Van Uden that the contract to deliver the ore should be honoured and that payments would be received.

One of the directors of William Jacks and co was the 58 year old brother of the Conservative Party leader Andrew Bonar Law…....

[John Little]

There is more - Bonar Law was arrested and released on very high bail. There was a very big trial going on against the background of a coalition government being formed... if anyone is interested in following this up I shall post the rest of it.

[John Little]

By request;


John Law was arrested along with Robert Hetherington and Henry Arnold Wilson, but was released on very heavy bail.

Andrew Bonar Law was in deep trouble and his political career was in great danger. He was facing a serious challenge to his leadership of the Conservative Party by Walter Long, who had wanted the leadership back in 1911 when Bonar Law became leader. Law had been resisting calls for conscription because he thought it might spark off a revolution in some cities like Glasgow and Sheffield where anti-war sentiment was high. Long had been gathering support and on 14 May had succeeded in winning the majority of Conservative grandees to his side; Law was in trouble, for he who makes policy is more qualified to lead.

In addition to this Bonar Law had been taking an income from Jacks and Co for several years, and the scandal over trading with the enemy could destroy him.

On 15 May 1915 Bonar Law went to see David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer at 11 Downing Street. After talking for half an hour Lloyd George took Bonar Law through to 10 Downing Street and into a room where they conversed with Mr Asquith, the Prime Minister, for 15 minutes and no record of the meeting was kept.

The next day Bonar Law sent a strong note to Asquith stating that he wished to see a re-structuring of the government (a coalition) and unless his demands were seen to, then he would have to ‘ask for a day’. In other words he wanted a discussion in the House over various matters which on the face of it, threatened Asquith.

Asquith appeared to give way and called his minister to resign.

Bonar Law suddenly looked very strong and virile because he had brought down the government and his career and position as leader of the Tories was saved….

Why should Asquith wish to save Law?

Well perhaps because he preferred to have the rather inactive Bonar Law as leader of the Tories than the extremely active and very hot-headed Walter Long.

At any rate the goverment now became a coalition; and Bonar Law was given one of the most junior posts in it.

Bonar Law made a statement to the House saying that he had derived no profits from being a director of Jack and Co. He had in fact been using them as his bankers and had derived interest from his money in the company.

And anyway he had not put his money into William Jacks of Glasgow but a separate company, William Jacks… of London.

This was accepted and the Tory leader’s career was saved….




You couldn't make it up.

I'll post the end of it later.

[John Little]

In June 1915 John Law's plea that he had nothing to do with the division of William Jacks that had dealt with the Themis affair was accepted and he became a witness for the prosecution of Hetherington and Wilson.

The trial was in Glasgow and went on for some days, being reported in very great detail in the Glasgow papers; the reports were verbatim.

In a dramatic scene a torpedoman from the destroyer which had halted the Themis was brought injured into court to testify; his ship had been sunk, but he said that his officer had seen no reason to detain the ship as it was bound for a neutral country. He did not know that Holland had no iron works.

The New York Times reported that Jacks and Co had received $86,000 for the cargo of iron ore, including $39,000 paid through Switzerland on 3 September 1914, acknowledged by a cable from Jacks and Co referring to Krupps of Essen as ‘our friends’.

Hetherington and Wilson were found guilty and sent to prison for 6 months – which the New York Times called ‘amazingly light sentences’.

Jacks and Co were fined £6000 – so still made a profit on the deal.

The Law brothers sprang free without a stain on their character.

It could be the next Downton Abbey – but it has the added spice of being all true.

[John Little]

The SS Themis left Newcastle bound for Amsterdam in December 1916.

She was never seen again...

http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?132146

John Law died at the age of 62 in 1919.

Bonar Law became Prime Minister in 1922.

Krupps of Essen supplied many of the artillery pieces and shells which caused over 70% of British casualties on the Western Front..

[Torvaig]

So the leaders of the British Isles were as corrupt then as now. Shouldn't really surprise me but it does....is there nothing/no-one left who we can believe in?

For years I didn't vote as I didn't think that there was one party better than another. Then someone persuaded me that I must do the democratic thing so I did take part in the elections.

I have given up yet again as they are all as devious as the other. When listening to their speeches (not only at election time) I try to guess what they really mean but have come to the conclusion that they don't really know themselves. They bend with whatever is the big story of the day and tell us what they think we want to hear.