CR 30/641/51IV
S1.3.8
CONFIDENTIAL
Dr. D. Cornthwaite, Managing Director, ICI (China) Ltd., Swire House, 16th floor,
Hong Kong.
23rd March 1978
1978.
Thank you for your letter of 21st March
Having reviewed the papers, I recognise that your enquiry derives from Barnes' oversight in not answering Dr. Ogg's letter of 3rd January 1978, which is certainly very unfortunate. I understand also that your anxieties derive from the extraordinarily disparate reports in the newspapers, none of whose estimates of the quantities of product involved was supplied from Government sources.
If I am correct, you believe that the main constraint on exports will be the amount of storage space which will be made available in the Government depot, and that the present proposals of the Commissioner of Mines in this regard would allow a considerable capacity for export purposes and would thus appear to suggest that Government now wishes to encourage exports per se.
There is, however, no provision in the final tender documents for the allocation of any specific storage area to the successful tenderer, although the Commissioner of Mines is bound to provide storage for the stipulated stocks for the local market. For this purpose, he is thinking of allocating a complete cavern for rental by the successful tenderer which would provide a storage capacity of about 120 short tons, of which about 80 would be required to maintain the stipulated level of local supply. would allow for only a very limited amount for export, bearing in mind the intervals between suitable ships for carrying the explosive.
This
/The Commissioner