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My dear friend,
Many thanks for your letter of 19 February. Alas, it is not only your brother who is held up here by the transport difficulties. My whole mission is blocked; I can only find a plane for myself, and even then not straight away. But that is no use to me, for I cannot go to excavate without my architects, etc.
So, as the season is already advanced, I have had to, to my great regret, postpone the excavations of Cyprus and Turkey until autumn. I am sorry for this new delay. I am told that by late summer all will be well and the communications will be more frequent.
I am writing to you, enclosed, an official letter to announce the Mission. In short, the essential point is that this is only a postponement and that we shall still see each other this year. I think I must begin in Autumn by going to Turkey first, because of the premature end of the excavation season on the plateau. The excavation season should there end around 1st October. Then it is a matter of reaching Cyprus directly from Turkey or via Syria if that route is then open. Do you know whether there are boats between Turkey and Cyprus?
Another question: from about 1st October, until what date could one work at Enkomi without being hindered by rain? I think that the winter rains come late there as in Syria. As I must make clearances over a fairly large area, I hope it will be possible to avoid damage to the crops. When do the peasants begin to sow their summer wheat?
Now the question of your brother's journey: there are only few opportunities at present and a great many official passages which monopolise the few places available. In these circumstances I wonder whether your brother could not accept an engagement as architect with the Mission of Ras Shamra and Enkomi. In these circumstances I could ask for an official passage for him and try to get him away at the next opportunity, if he does not find a passage through the good offices of his Consulate at Lyon.
If he engages with the Mission, and as he does not yet have experience in excavation, I would propose to him a monthly salary of 20.000 Frs or c. 40 Pounds Sterling for the duration of the research. I expect about two months of excavation. From this salary, he would have to repay the Mission half of his journey to Cyprus, which will be, barring change, in the order of 25.000 Frs by air, or 15.000 Frs by boat, of which he will repay 12.500 or 7.000 Frs as the case may be.
If this proposal interests him, please tell your brother to
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