(Bowditch's speech appears on page 9.)

Questions and Answers:

Q. It strikes me that the real issue here is whether General Motors and its shareholders might be better served by a board of directors which is more broadly representative of the various segments of our society representing GM's interests. As I look at the list of directors, it is almost exclusively an industrial and financial organization.

No attention has been paid in the pronouncements of GM or today with respect to the proposed nominees and the concept of a somewhat broader board to reflect a more diversified list of representatives. Can you comment on this suggestion as a way of measuring up the board with the long term interests of society and the corporation's public?

Smith

SMITH: We believe that the corporation in this society is not working against the interests of the public. We believe that General Motors has met the public interest.

We believe that it has sold a product at a price people can afford and committed ourselves very well in an area where we have laid out a record of responsibility to our general public.

You are talking in a matter of degree. How much do you want the shareholders to be represented by representatives of the public? I would say this to you: these men who are on our board now-while their principal occupation in many cases is an industrial one-if you look at each one carefully and individually, you will see that all of them have been engaged in many public endeavors. Connors has been secretary of commerce... an other director was president of Duke University and he has done an outstanding job there as an educator. I think he brings a good background to the board. Geographically, we have a gentleman from Canada and a gentleman from Chicago.

As I said, I think it becomes more and more a question of degree and I feel that, on our board, you can find men who bring this broad background to General Motors and who do so in the interests of General Motors and its stockholders equally. And I think those are the people who can best serve our stockholders and the company. The fact that they have done so is demonstrated by where we are today.

Q. What guarantee are we going to have that someone is going to be sitting on the Board of Directors making top-level policy decisions saying that we're going to have to invest 10 per cent of our capital in, say, pollution control?

SMITH: I'd like you to judge us on the basis of our past performance. You can carry words in a bucket but its the deeds that will come to account.

All you have to do is look at the cars that are out on the road right now and see that the energy-absorbing steering column was developed by General Motors prior to the government's conception of any such standards. We developed this; submitted this to the government; they took a look at it, liked it and felt it was a very good attempt. It has been credited as being one of the finest things for saving lives on the highway today, and that was adopted by the government as a standard.

We have many more of these things where General Motors has not waited for the standards to come....

Q. Development is one thing, but actually putting it into the car is another. I don't think the collapsible steering column went into the car before the government made it a standard.

SMITH: Oh yes it did. It went in well before.

Non-White Dealerships

Q. In response to your statements that by your deeds you should be judged, I would like to ask whether it is true that there are only seven non-white dealerships out of 13,000 General Motors franchises? If that is true, what do you intend to do about it?

SMITH: Well, I don't know whether the figure seven is what the accurate figure is, but this gets down to seeking qualified candidates for a qualified job. There are no restrictions as to who may become a General Motors dealer. Anybody can become a GM dealer that can meet the qualifications-and these qualifications are not based on race, religion, creed, or anything else like that.