Foreword by the Group Chairman
Captain William George MacDonald

The British East India Company has a core of British and Indian Governors and shareholders on their board. They are all self made businessmen and entrepreneurs who stand on their own two feet. The way forward is to trade with other companies and with other nations particularly within the Commonwealth. The world today is small and globalisation is the spoken word in company board rooms. India has a commercial growth rate which has outpaced those of Europe and The United States. China has become a commercial power house yet the poorer countries within the Commonwealth particularly those in Africa, are lacking behind. Hunger and diseases are rife. It is totally unacceptable, in a modern world, to see starving children, no matter where they are, begging for food. Although financial handouts from the richer nations are indeed welcomed, this is not the answer. If you give a fish to a hungry child, it will stop the hunger for one day but if you teach the child how to fish it might stop the hunger forever. The rich and educated countries must teach the poorer countries how to progress and develop in their own rights.

The continued burning of fossil fuel every day all over the world must be reduced or even ended. Slowly and carefully, renewable energy has to replace the burning of fossil fuels. Oils from vegetable plants, grown in the poorer countries of Africa, can bring employment, wealth and prosperity as can the energy gained from the winds and ocean currents. The SW Monsoons in The Indian Oceans, which blows up the coast of East Africa, from early May to October, is an untapped source of enormous energy which could, if controlled, give enough power to light up the whole of Africa with surplus energy to sell to other parts of the globe. The Agulas Current that flows from East to West around the South African Coast has enough energy in itself, if tapped to supply all of Africa’s needs.

We, at The British East India Company, like to work with forward thinking people from around the world but particularly those who are within The Commonwealth of Nations. We appreciate all the good work that The Commonwealth Development Corporation has made over the years, particularly in Africa. We want to work closely with other companies large or small who are within the Commonwealth. We will listen to your ideas and we will work with you on any project that we believe is commercially sound, particularly if it benefits the people who live in the poorer countries of the world.

To end, I would like to quote from three of the worlds most admirable leaders and statesmen.

Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings Nelson Mandela

Honest disagreements are often a good sign of progress Mahatma Gandhi

All great things are simple and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope Winston Churchill

And finally the words of Henry Morgan Stanley when he found Dr.David Livingstone who went missing whilst fighting the evils of slavery in Africa on November 10th 1871 in Ujiji near Lake Tanganyika in present day Tanzania. He said,

“Dr.Livingstone I presume”

 Captain William G.MacDonald

(Chairman)