RoyaI Interocean Lines - Varen Is Fijner

O n ,he grey day of lnd July, Straat Mala kka slipped out of H ong Kong harbour, on [he last leg of
her li nal voyage for RIL. Built by Van der Giessen in 1939, she had sailed for al m ost lhe whole of her
twcnty-eight ycars lO anel Erom the Far East. As announcccl last month , she has been sold for continueel
trading, anel no cloubt \V iII be secn in Far Eastern waters fo r some years to come yet.
In June, we reported on parties 9iven in Durban for
M r J .F. Egberink when he retired from his position as
RI L's G eoeral Manager lor Alrica.
Now we hear that he visited Holland during July, to say
goodbye 10 lamily and Iriends there belore settling down
in South Afriea. Managing Diredors taak advantage
of the situation +0 offer him a farewell dinner, at which
not only Mr van der Schalk and Mr Reyneker (who
happened to be there at the same time) we re present,
bul also Mr E.W. Röell , Chairman ol the Boa rd ol
Directors.
The Amsterdam "Onderdirecteuren" and olso M r van
Kretschmar ioined the party, which was held at a
resta urant situated on the borde r of a pictu resque lake
neor Amsterdam. The weather wos unusually good fo r
Dutch standards and Mr Egberink compared the tem­
pe ratu re with that of 0 Du rban summe r which, as most
readers know, is quite wa rm.
FAREWELL DINNER
pllofo: K.D . Lie (H K H O N D)
Mr Röell, in a short speech, gave a b rief summa ry of
Mr Egberink's career which slarted in 19 30 with K.P.M.
in Amste rdam and of which most of the t ime was spent
in South Africa. Mr Egberink was not only witness bu t
was also instrumental in the tremendous growth of th e
company's interests in South A frica. Mr Röe ll thanked
Mr Egberink for the excellent services rendered by him
to the company ond wi shed him many more happy years
in Sou th Africa. M r Röell furthermore mentioned M r
Egberink's special interest in t raining young staff, many
ol whom we re guided on Ihe thorn y pa th ol shi pping
by his able hand·
Mr Egberink in return thanked Mr Röe ll lor his ki nd
words and said that du ring his ca reer he had learned a
great deal from the company, not only in the ways of
sh ipping b ut also in the lield ol the exce llent re lolionshi p
wh ich has always exi sted between all sections of the staff,
both on board and ashore. Long after t he sun had se I,
Ihe parly enioyed the beoutilul weathe r Irom the terra ce
ove rlooking the calm waters of t he Vin keveense Pla s.
169 -