January–April 1954

Curium 4 Apr 54

Dear Rodney:

Yrs. of 30Mar.

Here, the Passouri transaction is all but completed. Sir Panyotis had a telephone call from Nicosia that the sale was approved, and the letter of approval will probably follow in a day or two. In the meantime the deed of transfer between him and the purchaser has been all drawn up and signed and the purchaser has given him his check for £270. I should think I would have the money this week. Sir Panyotis / has no experience in the says he

As to Cyprus Airways, Sir Panyotis / has no experience in the English stock market and would not know what to recommend. The people with whom he has discussed the possibilities for sale now say that he would be very lucky to get 10 shillings per share at the present time. That is, half face value. That would mean a considerable loss if we sold now. I got the impression from Sir P. that future prospects were not good, what with rapid depreciation in planes, constant necessity for replacement, etc. I accordingly raised the point as to whether or not it would be advisable to sell at 10 shillings, if we could get it, before the stock got worse. I could not get a real answer from him on this, but I think it is an aspect worth following up. I think he can put me in touch with knowledgeable people to do so. I can discuss this, and I shall ask him to do so.

Assuming, contrariwise, that it turns out desirable to hold on to this stock, I have thought of an alternative which I should be glad to have you consider. If we have not sold it by the time I leave, perhaps I could arrange to leave it with Sir P. and to have him sell it, as our agent, whenever he can get an acceptable price. I could also perhaps arrange with the Exchange Control Office for permission for him to send the proceeds to us in USA when they are available. It would mean a delay, of course, and it would mean bringing home cash balance would be in the neighborhood of $4,000 (deducting value of CA stock and value of Rover, if it goes to Gordon, from my original estimated balance, p. 7). Could we struggle along on that?

Looking at my estimate of expenses (again p. 7), other partial alternatives occur to me. In lieu of giving cash to Joe at the end for his proposed honorarium, and in lieu of giving Peter cash for the Basilica and for the proposed purchases of land I could perhaps turn over to them some of the stock. That would take care of the face value of $2,800. I shouldn't want to do this, particularly in Peter's case, unless there was good reason to think that the face value or nearly so could be realized within the foreseeable future. The thought has occurred to me that perhaps I could arrange with Cyprus Airways itself to accept stock in lieu of passage money. I don't think it's a very bright thought, but a possibility which I might investigate, if I had to. If, as is possibly true, CA is merely a branch of BEA-BOAC, we might be able to get full transatlantic passages with the shares.