T H E A S I A T I C P E T R O L E U M C O M P A N Y, L I M I T E D
St HELENS COURT GREAT St HELENS LONDON E.C.3
12th
November, 1925
Mr. P.K.M. Patten, 82 Alexandra Road, South Hampstead, N.W.8.
Dear Sir,
With
further reference to your application for employment with this Company, we are
now prepared to offer you a position on the conditions which are attached
hereto. These we shall be glad if you will read through carefully and ask any
questions on points about which you are not quite clear. We may say that you
have passed the doctor, so that the remarks in this connection do not apply in
your case. If you agree the conditions we shall be glad to know when you can
commence your duties with us.
Yours
truly, For THE
ASIATIC PETROLEUM CO. LTD.
1. You will come into our London Office
for a probationary period, which may be anything from 3 to 6 months, or
possibly longer, during which time you will be paid at the rate of £200 per
annum.
During
this period, we make up our minds whether we are likely to send you abroad,
and, should we decide not to do so, we give no reason for our decision. It is
also understood that during this trial period you are perfectly free to take
your services elsewhere should you wish to do so.
2. Should we decide to send you to the
East, you will have to go wherever we wish to send you, and we at all times
retain the right to transfer you from one area to another.
3. Before you join us on the probationary
period, we shall ask you to pass a medical examination. This medical
examination may be repeated before we send you to the East, and we may require
you to be vaccinated and inoculated against various Oriental diseases.
4. Should we send you to the East, your
salary will be fixed according to the commencing salary in the area to which
you are appointed. The amount may be £400 per annum upwards. We shall require
you to sign an agreement, but this agreement will not specify any fixed ratio
or rate of increase during your service out in the East; such increases being
dependent entirely upon your own efforts.
This contract will be for a period of five
years.
5. After you have signed the contract, we
shall give you a first class passage to the East, provided we can obtain the
same, but if this is not possible we reserve the right to book you, either part
or the whole of the way, by second class, in which case you will not be
entitled to any amount in respect of any saving which may result to the Company
from any such arrangement.
6. If, on the termination of the first
contract, you sign another with us, this is done on the basis that you receive
six months' leave on full pay, the holiday dating from the time you leave the
East until you return there, the fare being paid by the Company.
7. We have vacancies only for unmarried
men on our staff at the moment, and the offer which we are making to you is
made on the understanding that you are single at the present moment and not
engaged to be married nor contemplating marriage in the near future. When you wish
to marry it will be necessary for you to approach the Head of the area in which
you are serving, and get him to forward a recommendation that you should marry.
8. While you are in the East, we allow you
free medical attendance in accordance with certain rules and regulations which
we have drawn up governing this question.
9. When you have signed the Agreement and
are ready to proceed to the area to which we have appointed you, we shall be
prepared to pay you an amount towards your outfit allowance. This amount is
likely to be variable according to the cost of obtaining what you will require,
but we may say that it is intended to represent a contribution on the part of
the Company to the necessary expenses to which we recognise you will have to be
put.
82
Alexandra Road, South
Hampstead, N.W.8.
13th November 1925
Sirs:
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 12th inst, with enclosures, the contents of which are
noted and to the terms of which I agree. With regard to the date on which I
commence my duties with you, the Bank in the usual way may require three
months notice but I feel confident that they will enable me to start with you
on 4th January 1926. If this date is in your opinion too far ahead I
will endeavour to the best of my ability to join you sooner.
I should be grateful if you would kindly
give me answers to the following questions:
1) If you decide not to send anyone
abroad does this mean that one is retained in London or dismissed from the
Company’s service?
2) The six months leave, I presume, comes
subsequent to the five years service. I should like to know what other local
leave is given during the five years.
3) Whether the word ‘East’ signifies
Eastern Asia only.
Yours
faithfully
P.K.M.
Patten
T H E A S I A T I C P E T R O L E U M C O M P A N Y, L I M I T E D
St HELENS COURT GREAT St HELENS LONDON E.C.3
16th
November, 1925
Mr. P.K.M. Patten, 82 Alexandra Road, South Hampstead, N.W.8.
Dear
Sir
We are in receipt of your letter of the
13th November. It will be quite
convenient for us if you do not join until the 4th January, 1925 (sic).
Please report on this day to Mr Hunt at 10
a.m. The usual office hours are from 9
a.m. to 5.30 p.m. or later.
With regard to your various questions, the
answers are as follows :-
(1) If we decide not to send anyone
abroad, it means that his probationary period terminates. We do not regard it as dismissal because
men are not actually engaged, but are only here on probation to ascertain
whether they are suitable.
(3) The word "East" signifies
anywhere.
Yours
truly, For THE
ASIATIC PETROLEUM CO. LTD.
(2) With regard to annual leave, this
depends on the necessities of the business in the particular place where you
happen to be. There is no obligation
on the part of the Company to give annual leave.