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Hy dear Patrick D.n,,
77 Arthur Circle, Forrest, A.C.T, 2603, Australia,
14th December, 1975,
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Its incredible hou I jump to reply to your letters.
Actually there's no mystery concerning my last, merely avarice, as the postage rates having hit the ceiling in this benighted country I am adopting the practice of handing over more to the British High Commission office here uho put it in the diplomatic bag for Suva uho in turn post it to you instead of ringing you up to collect (its probably the only letter they have from Canberra),
2, Uith this letter there goes not only our compliments but also copies of some documentation uhich you said that you'd like uhsn you uere here, (Wo, nou I come to think of it uhy should'nt I send that also via the H.C,), Uhat it is I can't remember now but Honor and I copied i t on a machine at the
University shortly after you departed, uith the enthusiastic assistance of a Yugo—Slav mechanic, and if you cut it into pages uou'll find it all there, including Rotan's evidance-in-chief
and cross-examination.
3, Shortly after the copying I uent into retreat to finish Sabatier's Sous I'equateur du Pacifique for the Oxford Univers
ity Press, and have only nou emerged for air and to take up the
threads of mundane life once again.
4, On the sub[ject of spelling mistakes I make plenty these days but usually manage to spot them uhen reading through the original, and then correct them uith the aid of that uonderful device called 'Tipp-Ex', Houever I have groun too old to coreect (there goes another mistake) the carbon copies uith my
'Cop-Ex' and so you are apt to get uncorrected copies of corr
ected originals,
5, As to your being more 'mentally agile' I merely uished to make it clear to the legal authorities in charge of the tuo actions that if they uanted a good, not to say sensational, story probably concocted on the spur of the moment you uere their boy. Surely its best for them to knou the score in
advance.
6, Re my financial expectations, I have talked this over uith Honor, as representing the voice of conscience, I don't honestly think that I make more, or as much as, you do from my uriting uork: then engaged by the ABC yes, but iiias I have
driven them into bankruptcy. From ordinary uriting for public
ation I gat more like the ordinary Australian average uhich, as calculated by the Society of Authors, is about $1 an hour, Uere I to suitch to mouing launs I should get at least S3,50,
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7. So if you say £20 a day this is uhat I shall ask for;
summarize in t o t o : -
, (1) Open-andod return Ist-class air tickets to London.
• Stop-overs of 1 day at Nadi, and 2 clear nights each at Honolulu, Fiiami, Sohannesburg and Mauritius,
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(3) All expenses to be paid, including the cost of uinter - -y clothing, tips, taxis, internal transport, etc.
(A) A living-auay-from-homo-allouancB of £20 p.d, fru...
Canbarra to Canberra, plus expert witness fee (if any)
usual in such cases.
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<•,»-, j ' (5) Personal accident insurance for say £40,000, and any
. :.;"V medical and hospital expenses, while away from home to be defrayed by H.n.G,
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1 - ( 5 ) Cost of a watchman and domestic's wages in your case,
and security service inspections in mine, to be similarly
C'-^:y^''S-'-V. met by Government,
iVa-^ (?) Ditto for any excess baggage charges incurred by the necBssiity to take documentation required for use.idi- Th(8)seorns much the same as suggested by you oxcapt that ue reckon one can get from Honolulu to Miami without a stop-off
Los Angales; and we feel that two stop-offs are desirable ' on the way home as on the way to London, i.e. in South Africa
and Mauritius,
8. If you agree that this sounds O.K. I shall negotiate
with Sands accordingly, though you would probably be better atfr iL than I am, after your recent experience in the bazaars of 3eddah, Anyway he will presumably refer everything to London for decision. But uhat about your guarantee of non-liability
for payment of U.K. Income Tax?
9* tfo think that 2 nights is clearer than 3 days and agree that all stop-overs in excess, unless occasioned by illness, should be on us. Honor reckons that the period away from home should not exceed a month, I personally don't think that she will go but if not she will fly to Adelaide and stay with
Alaric, All visits to, or entertainment of, relatives and others in England to bo on us.
10, Please note numbering of paragraphs, in deference to those who find art^Cicialaids to comprehaneiAonnecessary, I remember whan I learnt 'music I was taught to count the bars 1, 2, 3, 4 or whatever; but as one became more proficient such adventitious aids became redundant. Honor has just produced . - three unnumbered addenda; one to send her love; two to wish v'ou
;• a Happy Christmas; and three to say that she intends to write when the weather enables her to cease the garden watering
' schedule, which keeps her going most of the day. Its beautifully warm today; over IOQOf, outisoe. Makes one foel 100% fit.
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