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carefully arranged many months ahead. Will you kindly let me know 

 specifically as soon as possible if we shall be permitted to work at 

 the Comores and about Madagascar; we plan to come from about 

 August-October, first at the Comores and then to voyage round 

 Madagascar. 



You may not know that I am engaged on a large-scale work on 

 the fishes of the western Indian Ocean. During the past seven years 

 we have made a number of expeditions to East Africa, covering the 

 whole coast of Mozambique, Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kenya. 



In order to use our time as efficiently as possible, we need to 

 employ explosives and Rotenone poison, and have everywhere 

 received permission for that purpose. Will this be permitted in your 

 territory also ? 



We have got together very large and important collections from 

 the east coast for our final study, and it will certainly be a great pity 

 if the French Territories are not included in this work, which is 

 expected to run to a number of volumes. 



An early reply will be greatly appreciated. 



The memorandum which I enclosed was as follows : 



I have heard with great surprise that there has been strong re- 

 sentment in France against my fetching the Coelacanth fish from 

 the Comoro Islands. 



May I present the facts. From the time that the first Coelacanth 

 was found in 1938 I have constantly sought to find more and if 

 posGible where they live. My deductions led me to think that this 

 would be on the east coast in the neighbourhood of Madagascar. 



Immediately after the war I started an intensive campaign, one 

 of the methods being a special leaflet in English, French and Portu- 

 guese, showing a picture of the Coelacanth and offering a reward of 

 jfioo for each. 



By various means these were distributed along the East Coast. 

 In 1948 I was in Louren90 Marques arranging this distribution with 

 the Portuguese authorities, and with a Portuguese official called on 

 the French Consul in Louren90 Marques, and explained the im- 

 portance of the matter to him. He readily agreed to send a batch of 

 the leaffets by air to the authorities of Madagascar, and assured me 

 that they would be distributed there as requested. Neither then nor 

 later was there any suggestion that if a Coelacanth were to be 

 found, its removal would not be permitted by the French authorities. 



Since 1945 I have made a number of expeditions to the east coast 



