WCP736

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne.

May 30^th. 1905

June 4th.

My dear Fred¹

I was anxiously expecting the solution of the mystery which stills remains for another fortnight — missed by one hour. So I have little to say in fact really nothing but what I have already said in previous letters.

I can only hope that you did [MS burned] have already sent off all your collections in hand to Janson.²

His letter is, no doubt, a little [MS burned] nasty, but if he is honest , (and we have no proof to the contrary<)> he might reasonably feel [MS burned] at your complaints and dema<nd> [MS burned] seeing that he is not at [MS burned] [2] blamed for not getting more than the market value for your collection.

The best way now to get out of the muddle, is to take no notice whatever of his letter, but send your collections as if nothing had happened. You see he does not refuse to have more, he does not even say he does not want them. So if you do not take any notice (in the way of a lengthy reply) all will go on in the usual course of business.

As I said before you really must keep on with him for the present. You cannot send these ^collections to anyone else without previous arrangement — <esp>ecially if, as I suppose, you have [MS burned] go by ship, involving bills [3] of lading, custom House forms, & all kinds of correspondence besides unpacking & repacking &c. You want the money for them, & there is no other way of getting it.

What I should do is, to write a formal letter of advice of the despatch of the collections, as you have previously done. Then, at the end, say, — you are sorry you missed seeing him when in London, as that might have preve<nted> the misunderstanding — that you do not expect him to change his method of business on your ac<count> but that you should be glad of a<ny> information as to sales that <he> can give you. _____ ([MS burned] [4] on that subject) Then, I would ask his advice, on the general position, as to a profitable collecting-ground that can be reached without great expense from Trinidad, — mentioning those suggested by me & others. Really, no one is so likely to know as he is of the localities that are good and are not over-worked like Trinidad & Guiana. The mere asking for this information will be a kind of olive branch. At the same time it will commit you to nothing. Even if we can <arr>ange for you to send special <coll>ections to any particular buyers [MS burned] will always be a lot of other [MS burned] that it may be useful to have [MS burned] what they will fetch.

[MS burned] sincerely | A. R. Wallace [signature]