The following communication from Mr. G. H. Nelson, secretary of the B.C.C. was issued to the Press on January 8:—
For reasons which seemed to them sufficient, the Council of the Billiards Control Club have hitherto abstained from replying to the many and repeated references in the public Press to their position in the matter of the proposed amalgamation with the Billiard Association.
This reserve they would prefer, on general grounds, to maintain; but the terms in which the more recent allusions to the subject have been couched notably the article by "Hazard" in the "Sporting Life" of December 31st last have suggested to the Council that their powers of usefulness may conceivably be impaired by the attitude of simple negation which they are incorrectly assumed to have taken up.
Since frequent mention has been publicly made of the point which led to the failure of the recent negotiations, there can, it is submitted, be no advantage in treating it as other than a known fact. I refer, of course, to the chairmanship of the two bodies subsequent to amalgamation.
The Billiards Control Club Council were originally given to understand that the proposals for amalgamation could not be entertained unless a certain member of the Billiard Association was accepted as a permanent chairman of the future joint council. This condition was plainly an impossible one, and upon the occasion of the meeting between the sub-committee of the B.A. and the B.C.C., a modification of this proposal was put forward, and our representatives were informed that the member in question must be the chairman for the first year, with a council under him of equal numbers of B.A. and B.C.C. members, in which he, as such chairman, would have casting-vote.
At this point it became necessary to say that the members of the Council of the Billiards Control Club were not willing to serve under the chairmanship of the member of the B.A. referred to, that the fact of the unwillingness was known to and admitted by the sub-committee of the B.A. before they attended the meeting of the representatives on November 7th, 1912, and that it was openly referred to at the meeting itself. Notwithstanding this knowledge, the chairmanship of the gentleman in question was over and over again insisted upon as an absolute sine qua non. There was no question of the "plums of office"; no reference to any other shares in those refreshing fruits (except the secretary of the B.A., as to whom it was quite agreed that he should be provided for); and no indication or suggestion whatever that the "B.C.C. object to any of the plums going in the direction of the B.A."
The point upon which the negotiations broke down was the insistence upon the chairmanship, and casting-vote being conferred upon the B.A. nominee. This proposition duly reported to a subsequent meeting of the B.C.C Council as one from which no departure could be considered the members of the latter body were reluctantly obliged to regard as barring the way to any further pour-parlers.
This result is to be regretted. At the same time it is the opinion of the Council of the Billiards Control Club that the formulation by arrangement between the two bodies of one set of rules for billiards is in the highest degree advisable in the interests of the game.