From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Letter from Paris to Derby concerning the impossibility of changing the registered owner for a car import (98-NK Car) due to customs regulations.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 71\4\ scan0017 | |
| Date | 2nd February 1925 | |
| SECRET. X8940 To: "Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}", DERBY. PARIS HK{Col. T. Harker - Sales}11/Dn4.2.25 re 98-NK. Car. I am very sorry to note from same that you should desire at the present stage to have this car come over in CJ's name, which is practically a material impossibility now. I therefore wired you this morning: "HIVES CONFIRM MY MEMO SECOND NINETYEIGHT "NIGEL IMPOSSIBLE ALTER ARRANGEMENTS NOW "WITHOUT CREATING DIFFICULTY EXPLAIN CJ "WRITING" and confirm this. On receipt of your former memo Hsl/LG31.1.25, suggesting CJ as owner, I immediately got into touch with the transport agents here, who are also customs experts, to see if it were possible to change the instructions we had already given to them, but they informed us that the application had already been made in the name of Mr Lidsey, as per your original instruction, and they strongly advised us to let the matter stand as it was, otherwise it would be tantamount to asking for trouble by causing suspicion. As you must realise, that is the very thing to be avoided, and apart from that, it would be by far preferable to have the car come over in the name of Lidsey than in CJ's name; in fact, the change cannot be made, but in any case it would not be advisable to show "CJ" as owner, as he is too well known over here. You will therefore see that the change proposed is impossible, and we will have to let things stand as they are. The transport agents have again assured us that there will be no hitch, and that it does not really matter if the car is a day or two late. Now if "CJ" is averse to the car being brought over in the way we had arranged, there is only one thing to do, and that is to cancel the instructions issued to our transport agents, and make arrangements to have the car imported through some other port, by some other means, although we would not advocate this unless it were absolutely essential. Kindly let me know what is ultimately decided. HK.{Col. T. Harker - Sales} [Signature] | ||