12, Mayfields Close,
Wembley Park,
Middlesex,

os. 49th July, 1953

Dear Professor Lederberg,

This isa letter that I find- extreme difficulty
in composing, in fact I have slready destroyed my first
two efforts.

My difficulty centres on the fact that: tifeel that

‘Ivan offering you'a gratuitous slap in the face. The
point is that after all your more than kind efforts on
my behalf, and after ‘the:way in. which yott have born
my many queries, I now have to tell you tnat it is
extremely. unlikely that I will, after all, be coming
to Wisconsin ‘this autumn.

‘Put biuntly like that: you may, almost certainly
will, be wondering just what has happened, In fact there
is more than: one reason, some financial’ andbied up with
them some others of a personal and domestic nature, I
heard yesterday. from the administrators of the Fulbright
Travel Grants_ that r had not been succesful in my
application for one - this mainly. due to. the overlong
‘delay on the part of the Bank of England in granting
my application to transfer sterling to the U.S. My
financial position is such that I cannot afforé the
full expenses‘of this journey plus the continuing
expenses which I will still have in the U.K. The nett
effect would be to reduce my savings to zero. TI have
gone into this carefully and can see no logical alter-
native, I have made many applications for various grants
in aid but all have been unsuccessful,

This drain on my finances I had envisaged as a
possibilty when first I wrote to you but, at that time,
I was not unduly perturbed, In the intervening months,
however, a change has taken place in my private affairs
which alters the picture considerably, When first I
applied for the appointment I was completely unattached
this is not now the case, My fiancee and myself were
both perfectly, if reluctantly, willing for the two
or so years delay which my journey would involve, as
long as I was able to obtain some form of financial
assistance, You will appreciate, however, that I can
herdly be as maim careless of my financila stabilty
in present ciscumstances,

Please donot think that I am putimg foreward
feeble or frivolous excuses, I have thought long and
seriously about this and will always regret not being
able to come, I can, however, see no alternative, I
had already started to make plans and arrangements
for my journey many of which, unavoidably, have already
involved me in expenses which I cannot rec@ver, That
cannot be helped, it is unfortunate that the rejection

of my application for the Travel Grant had to come so
date in the day,

I will arrange for the return of your reprints
in due cousse, Do you still wish for cultures of the
specific ‘coli'? I have most of them already available
and can soon obtain the others and also the sera
and arrange for them to be sent on to you, .
Please do not think too unkindly of me, I shall
always be grateful for the chance which you were
giving me and for all the kind help. I wonder, however,
whether I would be really suitable since my knowledge
of Genetics.is little more than basic althougiI have
been trying to remedy that in.the past few months, —

The above address will still find me for I have
yet to have my formal leave of absence cancelled and
do not yet know where my next appontment will take me,

Yours sincerely, .

) Dua.
Nae