February 1, 2007
Mr. Gersh Kuntzman
Ms. Ariella Cohen
Ms. Dana Rubinstein
The Brooklyn Paper
55 Washington Street, Suite 624
Brooklyn, NY 11021
Re: Barclays Center
Dear Sir and Madams:
We refer to your recent articles on Forest City Ratner’s partnership with Barclays Bank, including, “Black Leaders to Bruce: Pay Us Back!” issued on January 27, 2007 and “Blood Money: Nets arena to be named after bank founded on slave money” issued on January 20, 2007 pursuant to which you made certain allegations regarding the history of Barclays. We take these allegations very seriously. As a good neighbor and corporate citizen, we pay close attention to the concerns of any community in which we have a presence; however we also defend our reputation vigorously against allegations that are simply untrue or that are misleading.
We have looked into your allegation that Barclays was founded on the proceeds of the slave trade by Quaker slave traders in the West Indies. This is simply not true.
A handful of internet sites and newspaper articles have mistakenly claimed that Barclays Bank was founded by “Quaker slave traders” Alexander and David Barclay. These allegations appear to have originated in a book published in 1944 entitled “Capitalism and Slavery.” The book makes serious, unsupported and mistaken allegations about Barclays. As a preliminary point, our research shows that Alexander Barclay was never a partner, employee or agent of the bank and the “David Barclay” referred to in this book also had no connection with our Bank.
Barclays was actually founded by John Freame and Thomas Gould in 1690 and later took its name from Freame’s son-in-law, James Barclay. The David Barclay who was a partner in our Bank (and different to the David Barclay mentioned above) was not “engaged in the slave trade.” To the contrary, “our” David Barclay formed a committee of London Quakers to oppose the slave trade, and later became involved with the committee in taking the Quaker anti-slave trade message nationwide within the United Kingdom. David Barclay’s position on slavery is shown in the instance, when, after calling in a debt in Jamaica, he became owner of a farm which had, included in its operations, 32 slaves. After trying unsuccessfully to free the slaves in Jamaica, David Barclay made arrangements for them to travel to Philadelphia where they were free.
Slavery was a heinous period in the history of both the United States and the United Kingdom, and indeed the whole world. We condemn it and are firm in our belief that the partnership bank on which we were founded did not profit from the slave trade or slavery.
We have also investigated your claims that Barclays was a principal funder and ally of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Perhaps the best response is to note that Barclays conduct within South Africa has been endorsed by the current President Thabo Mbeki and our commitment to Africa has been recognised by former President Nelson Mandela. While it is true that Barclays was among many firms engaged in business with the South African government throughout the twentieth century, we divested from the country in 1986 (eight years before the end of apartheid) and our divestiture sparked further withdrawals from the country. Barclays re-entered the South African economy in 1995 and in 2004, Barclays became the lead corporate sponsor of the Mandela Trust and Legacy Organizations. In 2005, when Barclays acquired a majority stake in ABSA, South Africa’s largest customer bank, former African National Congress (ANC) leaders, including current President Thabo Mbeki, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel and Tito Mboweni, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, all supported the purchase.
Barclays is a respondent in a class action for reparations arising from our time in South Africa pre 1986. The claims against us and the other defendants are presently dismissed. This decision has been appealed and the appeal was heard by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on 24 January 2006. A decision on the appeal is imminent. Barclays (and the other defendants) defence of the claim is supported by the Governments of the South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Finally, we have examined your statement that we seized millions of dollars of savings of Holocaust survivors during World War II, and paid $3.6 million to settle with these survivors decades later. This issue arose in the context of a class action lawsuit brought against Barclays and other banks operating in France at the time with plaintiffs seeking to claim money deposited in those banks by European Jews before and after World War II. During the Second World War, Barclays in France was classified as an “Enemy Bank” by the occupying forces and was administered, without assistance from us, by German Army Controllers. On the basis of our investigation of our operations in France during the war, we found no examples of Barclays doing anything other than what was required under then applicable laws, and in fact, we found numerous instances in which Barclays assisted Jewish depositors after the occupation in obtaining full restitution. Nonetheless, we were the first bank to settle the lawsuit.
• • •
I hope this clarifies the issues you’ve raised. If you would like further historical background regarding Barclays, I recommend the text written by Margaret Ackrill and Leslie Hannah entitled “Barclays: The Business of Banking 1690-1996” published in 2001 by Cambridge University Press.
As an institution which takes its reputation very seriously and which prides itself on its tradition of involvement in local communities, the statements you have made are very troubling. Now that you have factually correct information, we ask that you immediately retract and cease making any further misrepresentations of this sort, including as appropriate, by removing the same from any websites under your control. We look forward to working with you to improve the Brooklyn community in which we all will live and work together.
Very truly yours,
Peter Truell,
Head of Corporate Communications for the Americas, Barclays Capital
cc: Jonathan Hughes, Global General Counsel, Barclays Capital
Ed Weintrob, Publisher, The Brooklyn Paper
