Tuesday, April 25, 1967 Honourable George J. Ferguson : I never knew about it until now, the first time I heard about it. J. Cyril Sinnott : Didn't see it in the paper, eh? Honourable George J. Ferguson : I read it, and I can read as good as anyone over there. J. Cyril Sinnott : I will finish the quotation, you can deny it later in detail. Honourable George J. Ferguson : Read it, go ahead. I didn't say it. J. Cyril Sinnott : And tell the Guardian reporter that he is not correct. Honourable George J. Ferguson : I didnt say it, I want the records of this House to know this. J. Cyril Sinnott : The quotation continues: "It was felt by all concerned that a company financed by public money should be in a position to make its purchases where it chose and not operate on a restricted list. As a result of this meeting it is hoped that the captains will now be free to buy their supplies where they wish. They were free to a certain extent to buy their supplies where they wished and they continued to buy their supplies at the MacConnell Shopping Centre because it was most convenient for them, and they continued to do so until the ships were remov¬ ed from Georgetown and sent to Nova Scotia by this Government. During the fall there were rumours that the finances of Foods were not in a good shape. This was to be expected as I told you before and the operating deficit for 1966 was expected to be half a million dollars, and for 1967 about $100,000.00. Several meet¬ ings, held in the Cabinet room, the Norwegians were treated to a diet of insinuations, innuendoes and threats by members of the Government. It was suggested by the Government members, to the Norwegians by the Premier and his advisors that they, the Norwegians, were the victims of a giant swindle. They were told that the prov¬ incial government would not co-operate in financing the Georgetown Industry, and un¬ less outside financing could be obtained, the Norwegians could certainly expect to lose their 1.2 million dollars bankruptcy proceedings. The Government backed this up with the argument, backed up this argument with the observation that the PJS. I. Government was a preferred creditor and as such would be able to seise all of the assets at Georgetown . This meeting broke up in confusion and the astonished Nor¬ wegians could not understand the attitude of the Government. Their consternation is certainly understandable; here they had invested well over a million dollars in a fish¬ ing industry in this Island, and now they were being told the Government of this prov¬ ince would not support the industry, and more than this, they were told that their investment would almost certainly be lost. The Norwegians met among themselves outside the Government chambers and decided on another appeal to the Government. This was granted with all the usual business-like background, but with the cynical knowledge that the Government would have its way in the end. Several more meet¬ ings were held and at each the Government edged, misled and threatened the Norweg¬ ian investors. One of the observers at the meeting, who was an Islander , but not a participant, told me personally that you could not imagine the treatment, the torrent of invective abuse, insult and threats hurled at the Norwegian investors by Govern¬ ment spokesmen. These meetings were followed up by the usual press releases by the Premier, and in all of them he stressed it was '*a very involved affair." You are familiar with those press releases and I needn't repeat them but I have them here if you want them repeated. Those who were at the meeting know that he was not telling the whole story, and he has carefully refrained from telling the whole story ever since in regard to the Georgetown Industries. You may ask why should the Government embark on such a course? Now that is a difficult question to answer, but I can sketch a rough outline for you, and you can fill in the details for yourself from the various announcements made by the Premier . The Liberals having used destructive tactics against the Georgetown Industries for two years, more or less, had to try to justify their stand. The financial position of Foods coupled with the so called legalistic legerdemain of Mr. Sigsworth were all that were needed to pull off a great political truce. The Premier, being naive in the ways of business men, and unable to think like a businessman, as well as probabryquite innocent of any chicanery, was taken in by this suggestion of Mr. Sigsworth . The Government embarked upon an attempt to try to strangle the industry. They did not stop to think that it would