Letter from Megaw to Schaeffer on the mission budgetArthur Hubert Stanley Megaw

Stamp: No. 36/36 — handwritten "No. 36/36." top left

TELEPHONE No. 61

Printed: coat of arms

DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES, CYPRUS.

Nicosia, 17th December, 1946.

Handwritten: Dear Dr. Schaeffer,

Thank you for your letter of 4th December. I am glad to hear that your own 1947 budget for Enkomi has been approved, and that members of the Commission des Fouilles are favourably disposed to the proposal that our Department should participate in future work on this site. We shall look forward to hearing what decision is reached when the proposal is put forward officially.

I note your proposal to spend £300 of your 1947 budget on acquisition of the site.This may require some modification in the light of the figures given in my letter of 29th November. There is a great difference between the figure of £1334 (approx.) given in the official valuation and the rough estimate of £600 which I gave you in October. This is due to the unexpectedly high valuation now put on land in this area, based on recent sales, and to the inclusion of additional plots, which your discovery of the town wall in the last days of the digging in October proved to lie within the town.

However, if you are able to set aside for this purpose an amount of the order of £300 from your annual budget it should be possible to acquire the whole site by the end of 1948, assuming that the Cyprus Government is prepared to pay an equal share of the cost.

With this in view and having in mind the possibility that the joint-expedition project may be approved in time for us to undertake a short season's digging in 1947, I am putting the whole scheme before the Cyprus Government and am asking for funds to be included provisionally in the 1947 budget in accordance with the figures we agreed upon. I shall let you know in due course what results from my representations. If for any reason the joint-expedition project cannot be put into operation in 1947, it should be possible if funds have meanwhile been voted for our excavations to expend at least part of the sum provided on acquiring the site. On the other hand, if we are in a position to start joint operations in 1947 and it is not possible for us to spend the whole amount voted by the Cyprus Government on excavations, I expect you would agree that the balance should go, together with your contribution, towards the acquisition of the site.

I should like to have consulted you before taking this step, but as this is the last possible moment at which the Government can be approached in connection with the 1947 budget that is not practicable. I trust that you will approve this initiative on my part.

Dikaios' family to whom I have given your message, joins with us both in sending you our best wishes for 1947. We all look forward to hearing in due course when you expect to be back in Cyprus. In this connection I should perhaps add that I shall probably be absent during the months of June, July and August.

Handwritten: Megaw absent (annotation in left margin)

Dr.C.F.A.Schaeffer,M.A.D.Litt. Musées des Antiquités Nationales, Chateau De St.Germain-en-Laye, France. ANH.

Handwritten: Yours sincerely

Handwritten: signature: A.H.S. Megaw