Wealth from beet
Sir: In view of the Shah of Persia's warning about depletion of oil reserves, constantly escalating prices, restrictions on output by producing countries and the poor financial state of the oil compan- ies, the sooner the development of the sucrochemical industry is commenced the better.
The development of such an industry, which is the natural suc- cessor to the oil industry when oil reserves are depleted, would greatly improve the balance of payments by reducing the import bill, for all raw materials are indigenous. Moreover, since all agricultural products can be utilised in increas- ing quantities whatever the con- dition (i.e., not properly ripened, deficiencies in the desired constit- uent as sugar in sugar-beet, et- cetera), the farming economy will be considerably improved and farms will be able to stand on their own feet without the aid of subsidies.
It is being proposed to take- over the Cupar sugar-beet factory, which has been running at a loss for several years and is shortly to be closed down along with one or two other factories by the British Sugar Corporation, and diversify into chemicals (alcohols, plastics, plasticisers, heterocycliccom- pounds, terpenes, non-oxidising lubricating oils, and, eventually, various aromatic compounds such as cyclohcxane and phenol). In this connection I refer you to a letter of mine to the Lord -Provost of Dundee, copies of which have been distributed to a number of MT'S, the Chairman of the Tayside Economic Development Council, and various other people. The letter has also been published in Fife News (16 January).
A. J. H. Brown 46 Merryton Avenue, Giffnock, Glasgow
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