Appendix 9 - Correspondence between the Director and Trustees
concerning culpability
Forsdyke from Harlech.
5 Mansfield Street, W.1.
PERSONAL. Sunday.
Dear Forsdyke
I am afraid I shall be out of London all this week. I have to go
to Shropshire & North Wales till Thursday & spend all day
at Cardiff on Friday 28th for the Annual Meeting of the National
Museum of Wales of which I am President. Next Saturday to Monday I
shall be with my in laws at Hatfield. So I can't attend a meeting
of the sub committee on the damage to the Parthenon Sculptures.
I have written my views pretty fully to MacMillan & whatever
the other members of the sub committee think I am clear that Price
& Holcombe ought to be got rid of & possibly Hinks too.
Price's evidence was deplorable & I don't see how he can be
entrusted with responsibility any more. Holcombe obviously lied to
us, & deliberately did what he did the moment the Keeper's back
was turned entirely to please Duveen. The Trustees & you &
the whole Museum have been let down badly, and effective
disciplinary action must follow. Frankly I don't like MacMillans
desire to hush it all up and minimize a very bad job.
What I mainly want to make clear is that when it comes to the
Standing Committee you can rely absolutely on my personal
support.
I hope the Sub-Committee will be able to report to the Standing
Committee by next Saturday week.
Yrs Sincerely
Harlech
My address till Thursday will be Brogyntyn, Oswestry.
Letter from Macmillan to Director
PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL
44, Millbank, Westminster, S.W.1.
19th October, 1938
My dear Director,
Sir William Bragg has suggested that it might be helpful to our
investigation if we had a practical demonstration of the cleaning
process by way of experiment. I agree & now write to ask if it
would be possible for you to have available tomorrow afternoon a
fragment of old marble (preferably Pentelic, like the Elgins)
together with the cleaning materials used. We should like to have a
demonstration, separately & independently, by the mason &
Mr. Plenderleith & for this purpose you might kindly arrange
for their attendance.
Yours sincerely,
Macmillan.
Letter from Lord Harlech to Forsdyke. 28.Oct1938.
5 Mansfield Street, W.1.
28 Oct 1938
Dear Forsdyke
Knowing MacMillan's views I am agreeably surprised at his draft
report. He has adopted a good many of my suggestions. It is of
course not easy for us to say what exactly should be the
disciplinary consequences without hearing further from you your
considered advice.
If the Standing Committee is on Nov 5th I am afraid I cannot
possibly be there as I have to attend the quarterly meetings of the
Shropshire County Council in Shrewsbury that day to be sworn in
etc. as an Alderman in place of my father.
I'll attend the subcommittee on Tuesday but I have to be at
Broadcasting House at 7 p.m. to broadcast to the Dominions on the
short wave at that hour.
Yours sincerely,
Harlech.
PENCIL MARKS ON TOP OF PAGE TWO OF THIS LETTER - someone else's
notes
Letter from Forsdyke to Lord Chancellor dated 25th November
1938
PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL
The Rt. Honble The Lord Chancellor, The House of Lords,
Westminster, S.W.1.
25th November, 1938
Dear Lord Chancellor,
The Board of Enquiry, which has been investigating the facts of
the damage done to the Parthenon Sculpture, will present its Final
Report to the Standing Committee of the Trustees on Saturday,
December 10th, and the questions of disciplinary action which are
involved will be submitted to the General Board on the same
day.
The dismissals of two senior officers of the Museum will have to
be considered, and since the whole matter is exceptionally
important, and staff appointments are particularly the concern of
the Principal Trustees, I think that you may wish to be present,
and hope that you may be able to do so.
I shall send you a draft of the Final Report as soon as it is
ready.
Yours sincerely,
E. J. Forsdyke (sgd)
Director and Principal Librarian
Letter to the Director from the Earl of Crawford and
Balcarres
9th November 1938
7 Audley Square, W.1.
Dear Sir
I am shocked by the report about the Parthenon sculpture. If all
is well, I shall attend on Saturday. I keep asking myself why the
cleansing process upon the metopes had not been detected.
Yours sincerely,
Crawford & Balcarres
The Director
British Museum
LETTER FROM ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY TO FORSDYKE.
Lambeth Palace, S.E.1.
10th November 1938.
PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL
Dear Forsdyke,
I thank you for sending me a copy of the Interim Report of the
Board of Enquiry into the damage done to the Sculpture of the Elgin
Marbles. I have read it with care and with very great distress. I
cannot imagine how able and responsible people like Messrs Pryce
and Hinks can have shown such culpable carelessness. But we shall
read or hear what they have to say when the Standing Committee
meets on Saturday. I am very sorry that this painful episode should
have occurred.
Yours very sincerely,
Cosmo Cantuar
Letter from W. H. Bragg to Forsdyke, January 11 1939.
The Royal Society
Burlington House
London W1
January 11. 1939
Dear Forsdyke,
I shall not be able to attend the meeting of the Standing
Committee on Saturday as I shall be out of town. I take my
Christmas holidays rather late because I must be at the Royal
Institution when the children's lectures are given.
I have no suggestion to make respecting the third report of the
Parthenon Committee. I would however like to say that if the
Standing Committee could see their way to reducing Hinks' ten years
to five, I should be pleased. I think that the firm steps that have
been taken will lead to radical improvement; and the damage to the
sculptures has fortunately been approximately repaired, in
appearance at least. It might be possible now to relax the first
severity without impairing the effect of the disciplinary
action.
I shall be at the Royal Society tomorrow (Thursday). If it
suited you to send papers there for my signature I would return
them at once.
Yours sincerely,
W. H. Bragg