CO129-627-7 Grants of land- new territories 1-12-1950 - 31-12-1951 — Page 61

COPY

Enclosure No. 2

60.

Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (China) Limited.

P.O. Box No.2018

702/6 Marina House,

Queen's Road Central,

Hong Kong.

March 29th, 1950,

New Kowloon Inland Lot No.3556,

I much regret to advise you that my London Principals have most reluctantly, through circumstances beyond their control, reached a decision that they will be unable to develop the above-mentioned site, This decision is necessitated by a chain of unforeseeable circumstances, which have come about since the Agreement was entered into. The most important I enumerate below

(1) The embargo imposed by H.M.G, on export of materials from

the U.K. has prevented us from complying with our obligations under General Condition 5 (a) of our Agreement.

(2) Our importing Ocean Installation at Hong Kong is now quite

unjustified and pointless since H.M.G's continued embargo on dollar or even sterling expenditure in China has made and will make the provision of any marketing organization impossible.

(3) The new regime renders our entry into China an entirely

unjustifiable risk and likely to remain one in the fore- seeable future even if the above two embargoes placed upon us by H.M.G, were lifted.

(4) Accordingly, as my Principals now find themselves unable to

develop the project they had in mind when they entered into the Agreement, they think it reasonable to ask you :

(a) for permission to assign the lease under Special

Condition 1 (in this connection we note that under Special Condition 3 a change of user requires the consent of the Governor), and

(b) should we fail to find a purchaser, who can reimburse us

to the extent of our expenditure, within a reasonable time, e.g,, six months, for permission to terminate the lease, without forfeiture of our premium, but excluding Government's out-of-pocket expenses.

I need hardly add that it is with the very greatest reluctance that my London Principals have been forced into reaching the above decision and I shall be very pleased to discuss with you the issues in- volved in more detail if you will kindly advise me of a date and time convenient to you.

I have the honour to be

Sir,

>

Your obedient servant,

for ANGLO-IPANIAN OIL COMPANY (CHINA)-LIMITED.

(Sgd.) J.R. Mothersill.