The True Story of a Welsh Godfather
Episode 5. Blind Eyes, the Blame Game, the Police Investigate
Blind eyes are turned.
Police Superintendent O’Neil had investigated the complaints of the 225 lumbermen over wages and conditions. He declared there were no valid grounds for their grievances. Although that appears to be a biased conclusion, it is understandable given that the government’s concern was to get people into work, whatever the conditions. It was admitted that the preparations for the 500 men were totally inadequate when they arrived, but J.O. was never reprimanded for that.
J.O. knew he was holding all the cards in this game. He was aware that any criticism of him would reflect adversely on those in the UK and Newfoundland who had not carried out any due diligence on his plans, actions, and previous business background.
A Company Town is Born
Large-scale commercial development of the woods around Alexis and Lewis Bays for the export of pit-props to South Wales had begun. By the winter of 1935, building development at Port Hope Simpson only consisted of a community hall and a seven-room medical clinic. A general store, a hall — also used as a church and a school — had also been erected at adjacent Mill Point Cove.
In writing The True Story of a Welsh Godfather, I have come up against secrecy, misinformation, and am aware of the destruction of many documents and photos.
In November 1934, Sir John Hope Simpson, who had agreed to Williams’s suggestion that the settlement be named after himself, returned to England to meet with officials at the Dominions Office. It had become apparent that J. O. Williams had lost his government’s support. When the Dominions Office found out that the 400 houses were not being built at Port House Simpson and money had effectively been borrowed under false pretenses on Simpson’s say-so, it brought about a complete change in their attitude towards Simpson and Williams.
Simpson faced a reprimand for not insisting that Williams repaid his debts. He countered by saying that he feared that Williams would carry out his threat to pull out of Labrador and Newfoundland altogether. Williams was calling the government’s bluff. By using borrowed government funds, J.O. proceeded to make money hand over fist from 1934–1940. At the time, few people saw that he was doing that. When they did realise what was going on, it was already too late.
Efforts to Control J.O.
By 29 January 1935, it was clear that the Labrador Development Company was taking maximum advantage of exploiting the woods in an unregulated way. This state of affairs carried on from 1935 to 1940. It was only after a government director was appointed to its board in 1940 and a Public Enquiry into its affairs ordered in 1944 that Williams’s activities were finally controlled.
On 4 June 1935, in a confidential letter marked “secret and personal”, Sir John Hope Simpson wrote that 200 families were being settled at the Alexis River site. Less than two weeks after Simpson wrote that letter, the government took over complete financial control of all properties in both of Williams’ companies.
In a letter on 5 July 1935 to the Dominions Office, he told senior officials, Bridges and Clutterbuck, that J.O. was planning a permanent settlement. Simpson wrote that the loggers were earning great wages of about $3.00 per day. In fact, they were only earning about $1.30 per day. By September of that year, Simpson revealed he was looking for excuses to leave the scene in Newfoundland altogether. But, he was too entrenched in the family and gaining so much financially. He did not leave.
By the end of 1936, the Company had arranged for the men to build themselves about 60 small houses for rent. But, most Labradoreans chose not to live in company housing due to the high rental costs, living instead about a quarter of a mile away on the opposite side of Black Water Brook.
Thomas Lodge, the Commissioner of Public Utilities who had so emphatically praised William’s abilities after meeting him on board the S.S.Sylvia, was sacked in 1937 and the publication of his book “Dictatorship in Newfoundland in 1939” put him out of favour in London. Nevertheless, he became a government director of the Labrador Development Company in 1940!
The Blame Game Begins
Lodge concluded that it had been the Secretary of State for Canada who had failed to give guidance to the officers of the commission. In his view, they were a collection of individuals running their own departments as an experiment in a dictatorship. He claimed he left his post because he could no longer carry on working with people who completely failed to agree on a positive policy and because he could not convince the Secretary of State to adopt his own point of view. So, was he dismissed by the Dominions Office or did he leave for his own reasons?
Disaffection with the Labrador Development Company representatives on site quickly set in whilst J. O. Williams was 3,000 miles away in Britain living in luxury in Cardiff city centre next door to his son, Eric.
To justify the good works done by Williams, his counsel emphasized, at the public enquiry in 1945, that the company had rendered every possible service at considerable cost to himself to provide work for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. He claimed that J.O. had adhered to the agreement made with the government on 30 April 1934. Williams’ counsel claimed that after years of work; the company had stabilised and had built up an efficient unit of workers who took an interest in their work and respected their employers.
It was also noted that between 1934 and 1939 not less than $800,000 in wages had been paid to Williams’ employees when they might otherwise have been unemployed. Williams’ counsel was putting up a strong case. No-one questioned how much J.O. was making or that he was using government (taxpayers) money. For their part, the governments did not want to admit their failures to control J.O. or their lack of careful scrutiny of his original proposals and plans. He knew he had outmaneuvered them and they would not want to lose face.
The Canadian Mounted Police Investigate
In the early hours of 3 February 1940, J.O.’s son, Eric Arthur Williams, his daughter-in-law (Olga d’Anitoff Williams), and their daughter (Erica d’Anitoff Williams) died in a house fire in Port Hope Simpson. The cause of their deaths was never fully established. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Serious Crimes Unit, which suspected foul play, opened their investigations as late as August 2002, 39 years after J.O.’s death.
An investigating officer said in 2003, “Williams…betrayed the people and no doubt this would have stirred the pot enough for someone to have taken drastic measures by their own hands and started the fire at the house that led to the deaths of Eric, Olga, and Erica, his infant daughter.”
They found out very little. No reports on the deaths in the Port Hope Simpson district for February 1940 have ever been found. No medical report from the doctor who apparently attended Olga at the scene of the three deaths has been found. No death certificates for Arthur Eric Williams, Olga d’Anitoff Williams and Erica D’Anitoff Williams have been found. A consistent effort had been made over the years by Sir John Hope Simpson to keep the Newfoundland Rangers under the jurisdiction of the Natural Resources Department instead of under the Department of Justice.
Claude Fraser, Sir John Hope Simpson’s loyal secretary of Natural Resources, had been appointed to the post of Government Director of the Labrador Development Company Limited on exactly the same day as the deaths in Williams’ family occurred.
