My dear CADS,
I hope you are all well despite this rather chilly Spring. I keep a diary and saw that this time last year I was already enjoying the occasional glass of wine on my roof terrace – can’t see that happening any time soon with the current weather forecast!

March’s meeting saw us meet for dinner instead of lunch to give our full-time working members a chance to attend. And I am so glad they did! We had a great attendance and saw several old faces that haven’t been to events for years! Our speaker was Simon Banham, the Netherlands Country Director for the Department of International Trade. Simon gave an interesting talk on trade between the UK and Netherlands at a macro and micro level, and he also covered the work of his department in both the UK and Netherlands.

Last week we heard the sad news that Inder Singh, one of our longest serving members, had died. His funeral was on Friday 22nd at the Zorgvlied on Amsteldijk, Amsterdam. It was a glorious sunny afternoon for Inder’s send off, and several CADS members including myself attended to pay our respects to a wonderful person. Mike Waters gave a very moving eulogy, an excerpt of which follows:
“Inder was a trader and importer of many things, tea, carpets, jewellery and gold. He also financed oil cargoes in transit to Europe and owned various enterprises. He was a lifelong bachelor, having been badly burned in a house fire as a young man, bearing the scars over the lower half of his body for the remainder of his life. He was head of the family estate on the Chinese border with Indian Kashmir, and amongst other administrative duties personally financed anti-poaching expeditions when the Chinese developed a taste for shooting local tigers, and Inder developed a taste for shooting back.

CADS was very important to Inder. He considered us his family and was one of the oldest and longest-serving CADS. He attended the organisation through its most and least popular days, from monthly lunches of just four select members, through to dinner dances of over 100 with ambassadors and consuls present when Mike Carn OBE was chair. He would always insist on buying sufficient bottles of fine wine and champagne to satisfy the thirstiest members fortunate enough to join his table, and was equally generous in supplying our golf trophy, our charitable gifts, raffles, and auctions. He was the most humble, generous, warm, kind and gracious host to all that he met.”

A couple of months ago I asked for suggestions for where CADS might make donations. I got several suggestions, and the Board has approved the following donations.
• €3000 to the Earthquake funds via GIRO555
• €500 to the British Consul Benevelont funds
• €500 to the British School panto fund to give CADS exposure to our target market for new members
• €1000 to the organisation behind our dear member Alistair Cranmer’s assistance dog, Wellington. We have already had the privilege of seeing Wellington at several of our events. The KIGC have even provided a customised dog bowl for his regular visits!

Looking forward to seeing many of you on Friday 21st April for lunch at the K.I.G.C.
Warm regards,

Jennie