1963年11月6日致合伙人信

To My Partners for 1964:

致1964年的合伙人：

Enclosed is the usual assortment of Thanksgiving reading material:

随信附上感恩节阅读材料，一如往常：

1. Two copies of an amended partnership agreement for 1964. The one with the General Provisions attached is to be kept by you (exactly the same as last year) and the other single page agreement is to be signed, notarized and returned to us. Partners in Omaha may come in and obtain the notarization at our office.
2. A copy of that priceless treatise, "The Ground Rules," I would like every partner to read this at least once a year, and it is going to be a regular item in my November package. Don't sign the partnership agreement unless you fully understand the concepts set forth and are in accord with them -- mentally and viscerally.
3. Two copies of the commitment letter for 1964, one to be kept by you and one returned to us. You may amend this commitment letter right up to midnight, December 31st, so get it back to us early, and if it needs to be changed, just let us know by letter or phone.

1. 两份修订后的1964年合伙协议。其中附有《一般条款》的那份由你保留（与去年完全相同），另一份单页协议请签署、公证后寄回。奥马哈的合伙人可来我们办公室办理公证。
2. 一份珍贵的《基本原则》手册。我希望每位合伙人每年至少阅读一次，它将是我11月信函中的固定内容。除非你完全理解并认同其中阐述的理念——无论从理智上还是情感上——否则不要签署合伙协议。
3. 两份1964年认缴函，一份由你留存，一份寄回。你可以在12月31日午夜前修改这份认缴函，因此请尽早寄回，如需更改，只需来信或来电告知。

Any withdrawals will be paid immediately after January 1st. You may withdraw any amount you desire from $100 up to your entire equity. Similarly, additions can be for any amount and should reach us by January 10th. In the event you are disposing of anything, this will give you a chance to have the transaction in 1964 if that appears to be advantageous for tax reasons. If additions reach us in November, they take on the status of advance payments and draw interest at the rate of 6% until yearend. This is not true of additions reaching us in December.

任何提款将在1月1日后立即支付。你可以提取任意金额，从100美元到全部权益。同样，追加投资可为任意金额，并应在1月10日前寄达。如果你正在处置资产，这将使你有机会在1964年完成交易，若出于税务考虑有利。若追加资金在11月寄达，将视为预付款，并按6%的年利率计息至年底。12月寄达的追加资金则不享受此利息。

Complete tax information for your 1963 return will be in your hands by January 25th. If you should need an estimate of your tax position before that time, let me know and I will give you a rough idea. We will also send out a short letter on taxes in late December.

关于1963年纳税申报的完整税务信息，最迟于1月25日送达。若你在此之前需要估算自己的税务状况，请告知我，我会提供大致参考。我们还将在12月底发出一封简短的税务说明信。

At the end of October, the overall result from the Dow for 1963 was plus 18.8%. We have had a good year in all three categories, generals, work-outs and controls. A satisfactory sale on a going concern basis of Dempster Mill Manufacturing operating assets was made about a month ago. I will give the full treatment to the Dempster story in the annual letter, perhaps climaxed by some lyrical burst such as “Ode to Harry Bottle.” While we always had a built-in profit in Dempster because of our bargain purchase price, Harry accounted for several extra servings of dessert by his extraordinary job. Harry, incidentally, has made an advance payment toward becoming a limited partner in 1964-- we consider this the beginning, not the end.

截至10月底，1963年道琼斯工业平均指数总体上涨18.8%。我们在三类投资——普通股、套利类和控制类——上均表现良好。大约一个月前，我们以持续经营的方式满意地出售了邓普斯特磨坊制造公司的经营性资产。我将在年度信中详细讲述邓普斯特的故事，或许还会配上如“哈里·博特尔颂”之类的抒情章节。尽管由于当初低廉的买入价，我们在邓普斯特上始终有账面利润，但哈里凭借出色的工作，又为我们额外端上了几道甜点。顺便一提，哈里已预付部分款项，有望在1964年成为有限合伙人——我们认为这只是开始，而非结束。

However, 1963 has not been all Dempster. While a great deal can happen the last two months and therefore interim results should not be taken too seriously, at the end of October the overall gain for the partnership was about 32%. Based on the allocation embodied in our agreement, this works out to plus 25 1/2% for the limited partners before monthly payments to those who take them. Of our approximate $3 million gain, something over $2 million came from marketable securities and a little less than $1 million from Dempster operating assets. The combined gain from our single best general and best work-out situation approximated the gain on the Dempster operating assets.

然而，1963年的成绩并非全来自邓普斯特。尽管最后两个月可能发生许多变化，因此中期业绩不应被过度解读，但截至10月底，合伙基金整体收益约为32%。根据我们协议中的分配方案，有限合伙人在扣除月度支取前的收益约为25.5%。在我们约300万美元的总收益中，超过200万美元来自有价证券，略低于100万美元来自邓普斯特经营性资产。我们表现最佳的一笔普通股和一笔套利类投资的合计收益，与邓普斯特经营性资产的收益相当。

You should be aware that if our final results relative to the Dow for 1963 are as favorable as on October 31st, I will regard it as an abnormal year. I do not consider a 13.2 percentage point margin to be in the cards on a long term basis. A considerably more moderate annual edge over the Dow will be quite satisfactory.

你们应当明白，如果我们1963年相对于道指的最终结果与10月31日时一样出色，我将视其为非正常年份。我不认为长期来看，领先13.2个百分点是可以预期的。只要能持续以温和的优势跑赢道指，我就很满意了。

Cordially,

诚挚的，

Warren E. Buffett

沃伦·E·巴菲特

P/S. Last year we announced there would be no prizes for the last ones to get the material back to us. This continues to be our policy. Save us some last minute scurrying by getting your agreement and commitment letter back pronto. Give Bill or me a call if we can be of any help. Thanks!

又及：去年我们宣布，不会给最后寄回材料的人颁奖。这一政策继续执行。请尽快将协议和认缴函寄回，以免我们最后一刻手忙脚乱。如有任何需要帮助之处，请致电比尔或我。谢谢！