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James Burness & Sons
London and 3, Bute Crescent - Cardiff
138, Leadenhall Street

London, 31st August 1917
Messrs Worms & Co - Paris

Dear Sirs,
We beg to acknowledge receipt of your private letter of the 28th inst. and whilst we are very distressed at the position we confess we are not altogether surprised at the attitude taken up by the Naval Transport Officer at Port Said when asked if he could lend 1.500/2.000 tons of Coal to your firm there in case of need.
It seems to be the policy of our Government more & more as time goes on to take over or rather to reduce the coal importing firms at the different ports abroad to a position more or less of handling the Coal there, i.e. they are not to be allowed to make the usual commercial profit. At Gibraltar, for instance, a scheme has been formulated, and we believe will shortly be brought into force, by which all coaling facilities at the port are to be pooled and the stocks there are to be common property so that whilst any steamer going into the port will go to the Owners' regular coal suppliers, if they have not sufficient coal in hand they will be able to indent on their neighbours. At Malta the Government has called for a return of the quantity of coal in stock with the cost & selling prices, as you will doubtless have assumed from our recent advices.
Since writing the foregoing we have in accordance with your authority by telephone this morning shown your letter to Mr. Newton Dunn, not in his capacity as Chairman of the Inter-Allied Chartering Executive but as Chairman of the Port Said H/U. Mr. Dunn told us that he most unhesitatingly thought you had adopted the right attitude in instructing your Port Said House not to agree to the Naval Transport Officer's suggestion that they should address him in writing a request to purchase coal form the Admiralty stock. Mr. Dunn went on to say that he did not think however the Admiralty wished to sell their coal because, if for no other reason, directly a transaction of this nature had to be carried through it involved the consent of so many Departments of the Government, including the Treasury, before it could be done and he felt sure the Admiralty would not wish to adopt it. The powers of the Naval Transport Officers were to grant loans from Admiralty stock in cases of urgent necessity and Mr. Dunn thought that if, for instance, such a loan were made and the collier out of which it was intended to repay the loan were sunk then the Government would probably entertain a request that the coal should be paid for; such a transaction of course would take some weeks to get the consent of the necessary Departments but there would be no immediate hurry in settling, the matter.
We were glad to hear from Mr. Dunn that the position as regards the demand for Coal for Italy was now less acute and that the facilities at the port of Blaye, at which he understood large quantities of coal were landed and sent by rail to Italy, had increased stocks very much.
We are pleased to say Mr. Dunn made no further enquiry as to your stock of coal at Port Said and on the way inasmuch as he explained he wanted the figures in connection with a request which he was making to the Admiralty to give the Port Said firms tonnage so that we did not find it necessary to give him the information which you mentioned to us this morning as to the total quantity in round figures which you have in stock, on passage, loading, and chartered.
We are, dear Sirs, Yours truly,

James Burness & Sons