24th October 1960

Written on HSBC Jesselton airmail letter

Dear Mum, Dad and Alan,

Many thanks for your letter which , with your description of your preparations for Richard's party, I found to be most amusing. I trust Dad's evening suit suited and you both enjoyed yourselves. We forgot to send a card but perhaps they will understand, we are in the middle of our Christmas Cards at the moment as they must be off soon by sea. Margo said you could use a Coffee Grinder. There is a nice one in Baker's magazine and if you would like it I shall put it in an order. Yes, Elisabeth continues to enjoy her exercises and can raise her head to look right up and around and she uses her left arm a lot. The heat has not been too bad, but the airconditioning is a blessing as without it we would have difficulties. Thank you very much for your offer of financial assistance. It is good to know that I can come to you for aid if necessary. However, in the short term things ought to be OK. It will be whilst on leave that I might find temporary difficulty, but in two years anything might turn up. I have not sold any shares after all as the market went down too much for my tastes and I think it might stay that way. Carraras are an uncertainity for the moment but they will pay off directly there is a couple of good year's results together. This now seems very probable. How did your gold shares react last week - there was a day's excitement for somebody. My long range planning is towards buying a house at home! Apparently if one becomes a ratepayer in some counties (say Kent) one can obtain an education grant for children from abroad. I am still trying to obtain details but in my case I would probably obtain enough to more than cover the cost of a house. This would not occur to nearer 1967 but the possibility is very interesting and of course if it came off it would produce a free house plus rent whilst I am abroad and free accommodation whilst on leave. Of course I would have to find the finance for the initial expenses plus furnishing but I hope to be able to obtain tat from the bank plus the mortgage, but that should be OK if I can show that it will all be paid off within ten years. Nothing like planning is there? But I am told others have done it or something similar. (But keep it dark.)

Cheerio for now and love,
Peter