June 22nd Glos. Dear Whittemore,

The Pigeon House, Foss Bridge Cheltenham,

I saw Buckler in Oxford a few days ago, and he told me that he had seen you in Constantinople. I wonder if a letter which I sent to your London address has reached you there ? In case it has not, may I make a brief resumé of it ?

I wrote that I had been in communication with Millet about the publication of the Trebizond book, and that he had said he could not get his part ready for some time to come. I, as you know, am anxious to see it published as soon as possible, firstly because I must show some concrete result as soon as can be managed to the man who put up the money for the work. Secondly because it is, as you know, very hard to raise funds for any work of this sort, and I think that a published work of the nature of « Trebizond » does help to make it a little easier. I am very anxious to get out in the field again, but find it well nigh impossible to raise anything as things stand in England at present. Thirdly, I urged a personal reason, namely that I want to present the book as part of the contribution for a degree at Oxford. On account of these reasons I asked Millet to hurry as much as possible. He suggested that the work be published in two parts, one by me, one by him, that mine appear at once, and his later. He is prepared to arrange this with the publisher, but the approval of the Committee is necessary. I wrote asking you to plead my cause with the Committee, for I fear that it will be some time before Millet's part is ready. He has promised it at intervals of a month or so for the last two years ! I hope you will understand that I do not want to be objectionable – I only feel that it is unfair for me to keep the Trebizond donor waiting ; unfair to me, in that it hampers chances of raising funds for future work, and unfair to any students who may need the material for their researches.

Apart from Trebizond, there are two other matters I am anxious to discuss with you. As you know, we are attempting to work up the Near Eastern side at the Courtauld Institute, I enclose a little article on it. On the basis of the Conway Library (presented by Lord Conway of Allington) I am trying to build up a really first class collection of photographs. I feel that this should be available for all students of the subject, and I wonder if some arrangement could be arrived at whereby we could exchange facilites with the Byzantine Institute library in Paris ? I don't know how far you are collecting photographs there ? At the Courtauld I mean to concentrate on them, and to get only those books which are absolutely essential, as long as finances do not permit both !

Secondly I should like to talk to you in detail about the old Byzantine Research Fund. You agreed that the revival of this was important and that collaboration with the Byzantine Institute was desirable. Things have now moved so far that the old committee of the Fund have decided on a policy, namely the publishing in full of the old material which they have on Salonica, in collaboration with the Greeks, who have done all the recent research there. Only when this is done will they be prepared to consider the revival and reogranisation of the Fund. But arrangements with the Greeks are going forward, and I hope that something will be finally settled before long. I have all along been against republishing anything that has been done in the French book, with the chance of making a few corrections in minor detail only, but Weir feels that all the material the Fund has should be made use of. This point will only be settled when the scheme with the Greeks is definitely on paper.

But I hope that in a few years the Fund will be revived that it will have a body of subscribers, and that its material will be centered at the Courtauld. I think that in readiness for that day it would be well to have a plan arranged for collaboration with the Byzantine Institute, both as regards interchanges of library facilities & as regards collaboration in the field.

Very best of luck for this seasons work. I am looking forward very much to the publication of the first report.

Yours sincerely, David Talbot Rice

P.S. When you are in England, I am very keen To see your Ekatherine Teapot, & for you To see the few things we have.