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I was able to note the favourable disposition of Damascus regarding the preservation of the library of the former Service des Antiquités, now united with the Institut de Syrig. I brought Jaffar and Ménaget to the idea that there would be a great advantage in avoiding the division of this collection, and I have the impression that they are coming round to this view.
I hope that Madame Dussaud and yourself are in excellent health.
The weather is still favourable, cool, and the few showers have not hindered the excavations. I think the work will be able to continue until mid-December. I shall leave from here in a fortnight for Turkey to take up the resumption of the excavations at Malatya and give some lectures at the University. Before returning at the end of the year, I think I can make a quick trip to Palestine to see the results of the Feza excavations and make the division of the 1946 finds.
The post from the Secrétariat des Fouilles follows me here, but there seems to be no difficulty regarding the measures agreed with the Finance department before my departure.
Mladiba has asked me to convey his respectful regards. All the staff of the Mission, Madame Schaeffer and my daughter are all very well and are currently helping with the sorting of pottery at the area. A tomb dated to the beginning of the Late Bronze where a fine deposit of bronzes was found and of the beginning of the 13th century; this northern quarter promises an excavation instructive.
I shall see Seyrig before my return and I shall tell him of the pleasure I had in seeing his Institute function in such a satisfactory way and become the archaeological centre of Beirut.
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Mr R. Dussaud, Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, 30 rue Perronet, Neuilly-sur/Seine.
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