-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.smh.com.au/news/9807/28/text/world11.html Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.smh.com.au/news/9807/28/text/world11.html">SMH Text-only - Ruthless tycoon who hated the E�</A> ----- "TINY" ROWLAND Ruthless tycoon who hated the Establishment Date: 28/07/98 London: R.W. "Tiny" Rowland, who has died aged 80, transformed Lonrho from a small mining company in Africa into a huge international conglomerate, but his ambition to own the London store Harrods eluded him. However, he effectively destroyed the Australian businessman Alan Bond when they were locked in corporate battle in the 1980s. Secretive, ruthless and contemptuous of anything that smacked of "Establishment hypocrisy", Rowland made few concessions to accepted principles of corporate governance, and none at all to public relations. In 1973 his methods were condemned by the then British prime minister, Edward Heath, as "an unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism". His later career was marked by a series of vendettas - notably against Bond and the Fayed brothers - which he pursued with cold, obsessive fury. Rowland was born Roland Walter Fuhrop on November 27 1917, in a detention camp in India, where his father, a German merchant, and his Anglo-Dutch mother, were held as aliens during the Great War. After the war, the family sought to settle in Britain, but were refused entry. They moved to Hamburg, but his father lost his business through his anti-Nazi sentiments, and the family was eventually allowed into England. Rowland's first job was with a firm of shipping agents, for which he travelled widely. In Berlin in 1939 he was jailed for eight weeks for associating with anti-Nazis, and that year he changed his surname to Rowland. The origin of the nickname "Tiny" - with which he signed all official correspondence - doubtless lay in the fact that he was tall and well-built. His two elder brothers fought in the German Army during World War II, but Rowland was enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps. However, when his parents were again interned, this time on the Isle of Man, Rowland refused to continue in the RAMC. He was discharged, and detained with his parents. His mother died in detention, and her treatment by the authorities was often cited as a cause of Rowland's hostility to British officialdom. His association with Lonrho began in 1961 when he was appointed joint managing director. Lonrho was then a modest and almost moribund enterprise. The business expanded aggressively, particularly in mining. However, by 1970 the speed of expansion had begun to overstretch the company's finances, while in South Africa Lonrho executives were accused of fraud. Heath's celebrated condemnation of Rowland was prompted by the findings of a Department of Trade inquiry which censured Lonrho for flouting Rhodesian sanctions. >From drab and anonymous headquarters not far from London's City financial district, Rowland presided as an autocrat over a conglomerate which grew to encompass 800 businesses: newspapers, vehicle distribution, textiles, mines, hotels and many others. The core of the company's success remained in Africa. He courted heads of state and, when he saw advantage, rebel leaders. Presidents Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Hastings Banda of Malawi and later Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe were clai med as friends. The rebel group Unita in Angola received his backing, and Oliver Tambo of the African National Congress had the use of Rowland's aircraft. Rowland relished backroom influence in high politics and enjoyed close contacts with the British and United States intelligence services. His access to Egypt's President Anwar Sadat is thought to have helped to open the way to the Camp David agreement in 1978. His touch elsewhere was less sure. His long battle with the Fayed brothers for Harrods was felt by many to have been a damaging distraction. Rowland embarked on a campaign to discredit the Fayeds and their alleged backer, the Sultan of Brunei. This was conducted through the pages of The Observer, which Lonrho had acquired in 1981. In 1989 a secret Department of Trade report, highly critical of the Fayed takeover, was leaked by The Observer in a special mid-week issue headlined "The phoney pharaoh". Rowland's most merciless victory was over Bond, whom he at first befriended as a potential white knight when Lonrho was being stalked by another predator, Asher Edelman. Bond bought out Edelman's stake, boasted of himself as Rowland's natural successor and continued buying up shares. Rowland turned on him with savage intensity, publishing a 93-page document claiming that Bond was technically insolvent. Bond's bankers demanded their money back, and he found himself facing bankruptcy and jail. In 1991 serious cracks began to appear in Lonrho's impenetrable facade. The dividend was cut and the share price tumbled. Debts of nearly $3 billion forced a shedding of assets. Most controversially, a stake in the Metropole Hotels group was sold to the Libyan Government just when the United Nations was considering sanctions against Libya over the Lockerbie bombing in which a Pan-Am jumbo jet crashed, killing 270. "To me, Gaddafi is a super friend," Rowland said. "Don't talk to me about morality and proper behaviour. I pay my taxes here. Gaddafi and Lonrho are a perfect fit." Rowland is survived by his wife and four children. Colossus on an African stage Johannesburg: "Tiny" Rowland will leave a long, if warped, shadow over Africa, the continent which gave him his first real opening as a wheeler-dealer and sustained his relentless and ruthless ascent to multi-national tycoonship. It was opportunism that first brought him to Africa in 1948. He was attracted to the easy-going, affluent way of life of whites in the then Southern Rhodesia. He was soon caught up in the mining fever which had swept mineral-rich Rhodesia in the 1950s and he acquired interests in various chrome and gold mines. His early ventures were assisted by local politicians such as Mr Ian Smith and Sir Roy Welensky, whose acquaintance he had cultivated. He saw the opportunities for acquiring the Mercedes franchise in a country where the car was de rigueur for wealthy farmers. He unashamedly reverted to his German background to impress the Mercedes people in Stuttgart. The deals he cut in Rhodesia raised many questions about his probity, but he was acknowledged in the upper echelons of the big mining companies as a supreme negotiator. This reputation, coupled with a series of flotations, takeovers and financial manipulation on a breathtaking scale, soon found him where he had always boasted he would one day be - at the top of an international conglomerate named Lonrho. He was condemned at Organisation of African Unity conferences as "the ugly face of neo-colonialism", and accused of gun-running, financing mercenary operations, fraud and deceit. Nonetheless, he bestrode Africa like a capitalist Colossus for two of its most turbulent decades. The Telegraph, London This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
