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Worms & Cie

Port-Saïd (Égypte)
18th July 1917
MM. Worms & C° - Paris

Dear Sirs,
We wrote you last on the 12th instant, since which we have received your favour of the 30th June.
Freights and Coal. We asked Mr. Broatch when we saw him the other day whether his firm was getting special facilities in colliers for the coaling of some of its ships, such as the P & O mails which might be regarded as of national importance, but he evaded the question. We dare say they do, though, "sub rosa". Lambert Bros. also can probably look after themselves as they handle so much Admiralty coal. The position must be more difficult for you. We are still anxiously awaiting the arrival of the "Egges-Ford" which left Cardiff nearly a month ago.
Mails. From what we can see by observation the mails are slow and irregular but we have noticed no definite establishment of a fortnightly service, and intermediate boats have continued to carry and bring small supplementary mails.
Usance of drafts. We entirely agree with your views in this matter, but Mr. Skeggs of Savon's here has probably nothing else to think about than to raise these small points.
Chantier depots. The subscriber has recently been to Ismailia again to see about the conversion of the "Tibre" to a tank steamer and met Sir Skeggs in the train coming back. Mr. Skeggs told us he had been to Alexandria as he was thinking of transferring their briquettes factory to that port, only he had not been able to find any site. He said the Canal Company had notified them they must move from their present site, which you will remember is right over against us on the main land. It appears that the Canal C° are going to extend, themselves, right down to the water's edge and that only those firms like ourselves, Cory's and the Port-Saïd £ Suez Coal C°, who are on the "ilots" will be left undisturbed. Alternative sites will be offered to those dispossessed, but Mr. Skeggs was very sore at having to shift his briquette factory without compensation of any kind except the offer of a plot somewhere else - he does not yet know where. Mr. Skeggs told us also that he had been unable to buy any coal in Alexandria or Cairo for risking briquettes, no matter what price he named. It was all mortgaged up to the hilt.
Asiatic and Anglo-Saxon. The Asiatic have sent us no reply whatever to our telegram of the 11th, of which we sent you a copy in our last. They are keeping us on tenter hooks. It may interest you to learn that last month they supplied a Dutch steamer which had brought parcels of wax and candles for than to Suez from Calcutta, with Egyptian (thick) liquid fuel at 100/-.
She is coming to Suez again with similar parcels, but this time they are charging 160/-, in other words a jump of 60/- per ton in the price in about three weeks. This is because we have been so successful in disposing of this thick fuel in Egypt that now there is no embarrassing surplus. We have been reckoning out what the Asiatic C° will lose if they quarrel with the Government, i.e. in actual hard cash now during the war. It will come to about £ 300,000 per annum, at least. Of course we do not know, per contra, what they lose by keeping on good terms with the Egyptian government and continuing to import kerosene into this country. N. Garangliotis. Mr. Roussel is replying separately about this matter which touches him personally. We can only say that to our knowledge he is a most loathsome creature and it will be decidedly to our advantage if through his action the Firm has nothing more to do with him. To show you the sort of person he is, we may mention that Mr. Williams, the Director of Customs here, told the subscriber confidentially that Mr. Garangiotis had tipped one of the cargo clerks of a Firm here 1/- a bag to make sure to secure space to Marseilles for some 2.000 bag of onions he wished to get away first as there was a very big premium on the first shipments of the season. But another shipper more wily than Mr. G. went one better at the last moment and tipped the said clerk 2/- a bag - and secured the space! The best of all is, perhaps, that Mr. Williams actually seemed to sympathise with Mr. G. We leave you to appreciate the corrupting influence such people exert and what close supervision is necessary from the top if one wishes to prevent every junior clerk in the office being debauched.
We are, dear Sirs,
Yours faithfully,

Worms & C°