336 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

Another group associated with the combine centers upon the
jistributing firm of Lysberg, Ltd., of which Lord Rhondda is
;hairman and majority stockholder. This firm, which is now one
of the six most important coal export companies at Cardiff, is sole
sales agent for the Glamorgan Coal Co. and the Imperial Navigation
 Coal Co. In addition to an increasing middleman business, it
has the local agencies of a large number of French coal exporting
firms, as well as that of G. F. Norton &amp; Co. of Lisbon. In 1914 Lysberg,
 Ltd., opened out a new trade with Spain through the Anglo-Spanish
 Coaling Co., Ltd., with depots at Barcelona, Valencia, Cadiz,
and Oran. Lord Rhondda is chairman of this latter company also.
Through the several interests of its managing director, Earnest
Plisson, Lysberg, Ltd:, is linked even more closely to the -combine
and to several shipping lines. The Compagnie des Chargeurs Francais,
 of Paris and Bayonne, which was formed in 1908 by Mr. Plisson,
now owns between 15 and 20 steamers, with a dead-weight capacity
of over 60,000 tons. The Plisson Steam Navigation Co., Ltd.,
formed in 1914, owns three steamers also, and in addition there are
at least three other steamers, bringing the total tonnage under Mr.
Plisson’s control to something between 80,000 and 90,000 tons.
Through its immediate command over this considerable tonnage,
Lysberg, Ltd., is acquiring an ever-increasing share of the French
and Mediterranean coal trade. Mr. Plisson is also associated as
director with the Imperial Navigation Coal Co. and Elder’s Collieries.
Lord Rhondda is chairman of both of these companies. Lord Rhondda’s
 immediate predecessor as chairman of Elder’s Collieries was Sir
Owen Philipps, well known for his interests in leading steamship
companies. The Globe Shipping Co. is joined to the combine through
the directorate of Lord Rhondda, and through the fact that H. S.
Berry, another of its directors, is also a director of the Britannic
Merthyr Coal Co. and the Imperial Navigation Coal Co.
Other directorates of Lord Rhondda, unrelated to the combine ex-~ept
 through himself, are the Taff Vale Railway Co., important coal
sarriers in South Wales; Port Talbot Railway &amp; Docks Co., a small
but important railway operating docks at Port Talbot and conpesting
 there with a number of South Wales collieries; Plisson &amp;
Lysberg Insurance; the Status Investment Trust, a concern of wide
powers which can engage in practically any business, including
banking: and R. Martens &amp; Co., Ltd., a distributing agency with

L' With this statement from the Western Mail, Trade Supplement, Jan. 1, 19186, p. 2,
rompare the report of a Cardiff correspondent in The Black Diamond, Aug. 26, 1916,
5. 183, as follows: “ Lysberg, Ltd, * * * {is closely associated through its managing
 director, Mr. Ernest Plisson, with the Cie. des Chargeurs Francais (Plisson &amp; Co.)
ind the Plisson Steam Navigation Co., owning a fleet of steamers aggregating a dead
weight tonnage capacity of over 150,000 tons, and is also at the present moment the
principal pitwood importing merchant firm in the Bristol channel.”