Letter from the French Consul in Cyprus to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the mission's creditsConsul de France à Chypre

CONSULATE of FRANCE TO THE ISLANDS of MALTA and CYPRUS

Stamp: CONSULATE of FRANCE TO THE ISLANDS of MALTA and CYPRUS

I.J.MOA./J.M.A. 22 - 8 - 47 AE 200 CO

The Consul of France in the Islands of Malta Ref: your 68 CO and Cyprus,

to HIS EXCELLENCY M. THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Re: Schaeffer Mission in Cyprus.

Ref: letter of 12 January 47 from the Secretary General of the Commission of Excavations, to the Consul of France in Malta, Gozo and Cyprus.

I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that the 956 Cyprus pounds 18 shillings and 4 piastres transferred to Nicosia in Cyprus to the account of M. Claude Schaeffer, archaeologist, for his excavations of 1946 and 1947, correspond to a supplementary grant awarded in 1947 by the Department and which is the subject of my accounts for the month of January 1947 (AE 22 CO) payment order Form 18. Earlier I had sent, through me, to Cyprus at Nicosia in January 47 at the disposal of our consular agent in Cyprus M. Jules Lepierre, to be handed over to M. C. Schaefer when he came to Cyprus.

Now he came to Cyprus in 1946, has not come to the island of Paphos this year, and I have mentioned it to Your Excellency at the service of Cultural Relations. The department concerned, having recognised and decided that the operation was perfectly regular and that, in agreement with the Finance Ministry, the funds could be, even in the absence of the beneficiary, transferred to his account at Barclays Bank in Famagusta, where he does not live. This is what was done by my office.

It is therefore only a payment already accepted in principle, for which the payment order was already made at the time, and that the transfer from an account in Nicosia where the sum was deposited in the personal account at Famagusta of our consular agent pending direct contact with M. Schaeffer, absent from Cyprus up to this day. M. Schaeffer's receipts should be requested from the cultural relations department in Paris, where our archaeology does not seem to have thought of it.

Although M. Schaeffer is an extremely serious man, the generalisation of the system of grants sent at a distance to people who are not on the spot, would seem dangerous and fraught with consequences.

Please believe, Excellency, in the assurance of my very high consideration.

No. 947 Gen.

Handwritten: illegible initials and date, lower left

Handwritten: signature