Arabian Adventure by Rossi

Author:Rossi [Rossi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138963740
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2016-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

9

JANUARY – APRIL 1972

It was now January 1972. 1971 had, in many ways, seemed like a diplomatic mission. There was always a formality in dealing with Sheikh Yamani, a Minister of his King, who was addressed as ‘Your Excellency’, as were the OAPEC Ministers, but KHI and Vickers required by far the most delicate handling. Perhaps it was because they were both such old companies that the etiquette of yesteryear still clung.

On 4 January 1972, I had a meeting with Peter Matthews at his request. He informed me that Sir Leonard Redshaw and Mr. Richardson were flying to Tokyo on 15 February to meet with KHI and then proceed together to the Arabian Gulf. I said I would advise Dr. Taher.

I flew to Switzerland to meet Dr. Taher, who was in Geneva working with an OPEC Committee. He thought that the dry dock matter should be presented to OAPEC for their consideration at the March meeting, and asked me to keep pushing everyone forward, as it would be the end of the project if anyone were to drop out at that point. On arriving back in London there was a meeting with Len Redshaw, at which he gave me a bound study which had resulted from the combined work of KHI and Vickers. There were two copies – one for Dr. Taher.

On 22 January I flew again to Geneva, this time to meet Sheikh Yamani, who was attending an OPEC meeting there. Sheikh Yamani said he had heard from Dr. Taher that there seemed progress, and he was pleased such first-class companies as Vickers and KHI were interested in the management of the dry dock. I gave him my copy of the Vickers/KHI preliminary feasibility study. He said Dr. Taher would probably be in London in February and could possibly meet with Vickers before their departure to Japan.

When I arrived back in London, the evening news reported that the OPEC meeting had broken up in disarray, and Sheikh Yamani had walked out. OPEC contained Iranian, Venezuelan, Nigerian and Indonesian members, whereas OAPEC was solidly Arab. I felt pleased it was not before OPEC that the dry dock project would be heard. In the world of the Gulf Arabs, King Faisal was the most exalted person, being protector of the Holy Shrines of Mecca and Medina. In temporal matters, no man on the Arabian Peninsular was more respected than Sheikh Yamani. His counsel and opinion carried great weight, and all the Gulf States were aligned with his policy.

At the end of January there was a further meeting with Len Redshaw, who had obtained the wage scales of the required Pakistani skilled and unskilled workers, and Vickers had now been able to arrive at an accurate wage bill for AGRY. I told him I had learned Dr. Taher would be in London in February and would like a meeting with Vickers. Len said that he had to be in Washington, but Bill Richardson would be happy to come down from Barrow to meet Dr.

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