ASSOUAN DAM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 1, 1 December 1931, Page 7

ASSOUAN DAM

DISPUTE OVER CONTRACT. NORTON-GRIFFITHS TENDER. ' FAMOUS ENGINEER’S DEATH RECALLED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received December 1, 9.5 a.m. CAIRO, Nov. 30. The dispute between the NortonGrifliths Company and the Egyptian Government over the non-completion of the heightening of the Assouan Dam has been settled by the Government releasing the £IOO,OOO which the NortonGriffiths Company deposited, also by paying £70,000 as part of the value of the plant left on the site when the Egyptian Government took over the scheme after Sir John Norton-Griffitlis’s tragic death in September of 1930. The Egyptian Government claimed the right to confiscate the whole of the £360,000 worth of plant, in addition to damages for the non-completion of the contract. A cable message from Cairo published on September 29, 1930, stated : Under somewhat extraordinary circumstances, the death took place here on September 27 of Sir John Norton-Griffiths, governing director of the well-known London firm of Nor-ton-Grifiiths and Company, public works contractor. Sir John was seen to go out in a small boat from Ramleigh in the morning. Ho paddled for some distance, then observers ashore noticed that the boat was drifting apparently unoccupied. Swimmers hastened to the spot and a police launch examined the boat. They found the engineer lying in the bottom of the boat dead from a bullet wound in the right temple. Sir John Griffiths, came to Egypt to clean up a dispute between the Egyptian Government and bis linn regarding the Assouan Dam heightening contract, the British engineers alleging that it was impossible to carry on in- the face of constant pin-picking and obstruction, arising from the incompetence of inexperienced Egyptian inspectors. The Egyptian Government alleged that the work was not proceeding at proper speed. The London Daily Herald later said that behind the tragic death of Sir John Norton-Griffiths in Egypt “lies a story of a world-famous engineer’s fear that a mis-' calculation in connection with the Assoceji Dam contract might injure his personal reputation. . . After the acceptance of the tender a suspicion arose that Sir John had allowed only for ordinary steel, where non-rustless steel was required.”