Letter from Coche de la Ferté to Schaeffer on the organisation of the excavation siteÉtienne Coche de La Ferté

12 October47 King George Hotel Famagusta

Dear Sir,

Here we all are, settled in rediscovered Famagusta; the place is still just as pleasant. They have built only a few more places of pleasure, which are all just as full of "Tommies" on a spree as last year.

I arrived by plane on Tuesday morning 7 October. Megaw was on holiday, but I went straight to the Museum to see Dikaios who is well, as is his wife. He showed me the "antiquities of Enkomi 1947" which have kept very well: the labels have not even been eaten! The Museum staff, on the other hand, has been painfully impressed and variously worried by following the theft committed last year (this winter I believe). Dikaios (who spoke to me about it first) is now coping well, thanks in part to the conversation he had had with you, following which, in full agreement with Megaw, they sent to the administration a pessimistic report on the security conditions in the Museum and also took the measures within their power which, as you know, proved insufficient.

I found the good Giorghios, Molinias etc. again and have been the object of various (of services) tempting, sometimes embarrassing offers, of which I spare you the … continues