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James Burness & Sons
138, Leadenhall Street

London, 10th June 1918
Messrs Worms & Co. - Paris

Dear Sirs,
We have to acknowledge receipt of your special communication of the 5th inst. in this connection, the contents of which have had our very careful attention and after giving the matter due consideration, we addressed a letter to Mr. Newton Dunn asking for the permission of your neighbours for you to handle coal for account of the French Government, as per copy herewith, and the contents of which will speak for themselves. We hope it may go through without difficulty but in case of need a Meeting of all concerned will have to be called to discuss the question when the majority will decide the point raised but we think our grounds in the clause of the agreement which we have cited should be sufficient to enable you to carry your point.
In regard to chartering matters we informed you on the telephone this afternoon we had heard from our French friend that he has received instructions to apply to the Inter-Allied for all your tonnage, but that he did not want to do anything of that kind before he knew if you had agreed to it; he also said he did not wish you to use this information as it could only reach you from him.
We added that we should not be surprised if the request came from your French competitor up at the West end, and we believe we are not far wrong in our conclusion, but our friend asked us to be very circumspect in the matter & not to mention names.
We are, dear Sirs,
Yours truly,

James Burness & Sons