1953: McFadden's death (1 of 2)

April 28, 1953Professor Rodney S. Young Curium House Episkopi, Limmasol Cyprus

Dear Rodney:

The attornies here apparently don't want me to give you any information about George's will, since he is not yet legally dead. Hence, I will have to be immoral in giving you some information upon which to base your decisions in Cyprus. I trust, of course, that you will protect my immorality and not expose me to the others at Episkopi. Nothing can officially be done here or here until there is some proof of death. Theoretically, if there is no such proof we should simply maintain status quo for seven years. However, if proof is provided by the Cyprus authorities, satisfactory to the courts here, then there will be some income from George's estate to carry on minor work at Curium. However the house is disposed of, we shall have the right to use it to complete the publications. Therefore, withthese bare facts, I suggest that you stop all major expenditures for excavation; that Hill, who will soon have the right to check against the Limmasol account, transfer the balance of the money to Joe Last when he leaves Cyprus so that Joe can pay the bills, (it was easier to authorize Hill to withdraw this money because he is officially connected with us,) and that you come to some conclusion there, regarding who and how we shall carry on the work of publication, maintaining the status quo, but without any major expenditures for excavation. That is, I assume that Benson of Yale will arrive there on funds already provided by George, and I see no reason for altering this plan. Inevitably, we will have to see that Curium is published.

It is impossible for me to say what funds we will have to continue at Curium, but I am sure there will be some, and I hope it may be possible for Mrs. Harrison to get interested in this job as a kind of memorial for George. Roger thinks we might get the Youngs out there to do the job, but I can't say at the moment whether we have sufficient funds for that. Its possible