FINANCIAL TIMES: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: AGMs provide a platform for all
By Alexander Trotter
Published: July 5 2005
From Mr Alexander Trotter.
Sir, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart’s letter (June 30), questioning the independence of people offered trips to attend annual meetings, is pertinent and highlights his concerns about the corporate governance aspects of shareholders organising into “membership organisations”, with questioning being dominated by one such organisation. Obviously no comparison should be made between Friends of the Earth and those larger institutional investors that join together in order better to promote their interest as shareholders.
Equally, I am sure Sir Mark would not wish to imply that the apparent provision of trips to ask questions at the Shell AGM is comparable to practices of corporate investor relation departments in organising company visits or tours, or that the entertaining sometimes involved with such visits or tours is in any way intended to have an impact on the objectivity of those invited.
AGMs provide a platform for all shareholders, subject of course to the majority at the time of a vote. If special interest groups adopt the practices that have been used for decades by institutional investors and companies themselves, then provided they do so with dignity and transparency, as I think has been the case, what can be the issue?
Alexander Trotter, London SW1A 1LP, UK
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
