A Tradition of Abstentions

The Corporation this week abstained for the second year in a row on a shareholder resolution, unanimously approved last week by the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR), that would halt a Mobil Corporation subsidiary's sales to the South African military and police.

The Corporation also abstained on several other proposals, involving U.S. corporate expansion in Chile and an investigation of disputed herbicides--including an ingredient of the disputed Agent Orange--which had been approved by the ACSR. The string of abstentions disappointed some ACSR members.

After their approval of the proposals last week, ACSR members expressed hope that their "very strong," persuasively wordes recommendations to the Corporation would be heeded.

This week's abstentions followed the Corporation's approval last week of a resolution at the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) that would have restricted IBM's sales to the South African government.

On the IBM resolution, the Corporation felt that a clause allowing sales to the government for "humanitarian and medical purposes" made the resolution more practicable than completely prohibitive versions of the proposal on which they had abstained in the past.

Corporation members last week expressed faith in IBM management, and the official statement on the vote said the resolution was "consistent...with the activities of (IBM) in South Africa."

The reasons Corporation members gave in an official statement for abstaining at Mobil centered on problems they found with the feasibility of implementing the strictures dictated by the proposal, which calls for a complete ban on sales by Mobil Oil Southern Africa (MOSA) to the military and police there.

Hugh Calkins '45, chairman of the Corporation's Committee on Shareholder Responsibility to which the ACSR reports, said Monday that Corporation members do not disagree with the spirit of the resolution.

"The object is to stop MOSA from making long-term bulk contracts with the military and the police," he said, adding, however, that the policing of sales by "every Mobil filling station" would be impossible and impractical.

Mobil has defended its sales, declaring that the requirements of the resolution would force the company into being "an irresponsible citizen," since "the great bulk of the work of both the police and the military...is for the benefit" of all South Africans.

ACSR members agreed last week that the Corporation's favorable vote on the IBM resolution, like the votes and outcomes with most shareholder proposals, was "symbolic" but showed that the Corporation was receptive to the ACSR's advice.

However, after this week's rash of abstentions, Kenneth Propp, a second-year Law student and the ACSR's Law School representative, said. "It's unlikely that the Corporation will respond positively to further study in these areas by the ACSR--students should draw their own conclusions from that."