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Minister of Economic Affairs. The South African Council for 

 Scientific and Industrial Research had not long before been 

 placed under his direct charge; he knew of my work, and I 

 knew him personally. In my dealings with him I had found him 

 prompt, efficient, able, and of keen perception. Yes, he was the 

 man. From the lines on his face his duodenum probably twisted 

 the same way as mine, and I had a suspicion that he might look 

 on Christmas time with the same jaundiced eye as myself. So 

 began my long vigil on the bridge of the Dunnottar Castle. Would 

 the Post Office please find Minister Eric Louw and get him on the 

 telephone as soon as possible ? Half an hour later the Post Office 

 telephoned to say that Minister Louw was in the U.S.A. on an 

 official visit, and it would take a long time to make contact with 

 him there. In America he was no use in this matter, anyway, 

 so I had to start all over again. Donges? Sauer? Yes. Donges. 

 Would the Post Office kindly find Minister Donges, and tell 

 him I wished to speak to him on an urgent matter. 



After some time the telephone authorities told me that they had 

 tracked Minister Donges, but as he was on a train running from 

 Pretoria to Cape Town, I should have to wait until they could catch 

 him on arrival there, some hours ahead. Another agonising wait, 

 then another message, they had got hold of him on his arrival at 

 Cape Town Station, and he said that he would be able to speak 

 to me in half an hour's time from his home. Half an hour. That 

 half-hour seemed like a year. So I spoke to Eben Donges, Minister 

 of Internal Affairs, one of the most able men of our University 

 days, a formidable antagonist in debate. He turned away from one 

 of the most successful and lucrative legal careers for political life, 

 and soon became a character notable in Parliament, where not even 

 the keenest jibes or thrusts, not even those of Smuts himself, 

 could shake his imperturbable calm, a wonderful asset in his 

 position. I rapidly outlined the situation, which he grasped as 

 quickly, for he knew the main essentials of the story of the first 

 Coelacanth. He said that if he had been in Pretoria and in normal 

 times he might have been able to do something, but where he was, 

 in Cape Town, at such a time, the most difficult in all the year, 

 communications almost impossible, he felt that what he could do 

 then and there would probably not help a great deal when time 

 was such a vital factor. Had I tried to approach the Prime 



