the Italian Government, through IR1 or othenvise, played a dominant role as a customer. A detailed "Project for the Financing and Reorganization of the Company" was prepared and submitted to ESPI in May 1967. 16. The management of ELSI took the view that one of the reasons for its lack of success was that it had trained and was employing an excessively large labour force. In June 1967 it was decided to dismiss some 300 employees ;under an Italian union agreement this involved a procedure of notifications and negotiations. On the intervention of ESPI, an alternative plan was agreed to whereby 168workers would be suspended from 10July 1967,with limited pay by ELSI for a period not exceeding six weeks. After a training programme during which the workers were paid by the Sicilian Government, it was contemplated that ELSI would endeavour to reemploy the suspended employees. The necessary additional business to make this possible was not forthcoming, and the suspended employees were dismissed early in March 1968. A number of random strikes had occurred in early 1968, and as a result of the dismissals a complete strike of the plant occurred on 4 March 1968. According to the Government of Italy, this strike also involved an occupation of the plant by the workforce, which occupation was still continuing when the plant was requisitioned on 1 April 1968 (paragraph 30 below). The United States claims however that strikes and "sit-ins" prior to the requisition were only sporadic and that only after the filing of a petition in bankruptcy on 26 April1968 (paragraph 36 below) did the workers actually occupy the plant for a sustained period. 17. When it became apparent that the discussions with Italian officiais and companies were unlikely to lead to a mutually satisfactory arrangement to resolve ELSI's difficulties, Raytheon and Machlett, as shareholders in ELSI, began seriously to plan to close and liquidate ELSI to minimize their losses. General planning for the potential liquidation of ELSI began in the latter part of 1967, and in early 1968 detailed plans were made for a shut-down and liquidation at any time after 16 March 1968. On 2 March 1968, the company's books and accounting records, and, according to a witness at the hearings, "quite a lot of inventory", were transferred from its offices in Palermo to a regional office in Milan. On 7 March 1968, Raytheon formally notified ELSI that, notwithstanding ELSI's need for further capital, Raytheon would not "subscribe to any further stock which might be issued by Raytheon-Elsi or to guarantee any additional loans which might be made by others to Raytheon-Elsi".