EMBASSY OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

June 5, 1946

Mr. Rudolph Dunbar
Hotel Scribe
Rue Scribe
PARIS

Dear Mr. Dunbar :

The Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has inquired concerning the
works of some of the Guggenheim fellows in musical composition.

I am sending them the programs of your Paris concerts. Would
you be kind enough to send me either the program or the lists of
works by Harris, Schuman, Still and Thompson which you have conduct-
ed in Berlin, indicating also the names of the orchestra and the
dates of the performance.

I would appreciate it, if you would let me have your answer at your earliest convenience.

COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE,

JAMAICA.

10th January, 1953

Thank you for your letter dated January 8, 1953. It is difficult to know just what reply to give you, because my own feeling, and that of Mr. Houghton with whom I have spoken on this matter, would be in favour of saying as little as possible to the Press or any section of it. In fact I would myself in similar circumstances take the line that the whole of the negotiations for a Jamaican Symphony Orchestra were deliberately kept as confidential as possible and nothing which was put on paper was available to more than a very small number of people, and that therefore I should not feel myself at liberty to break that confidence by any kind of statement to the Press.

If you feel that such a refusal on your part would be either ungracious to the Press or unfair to yourself, I would at any rate suggest that any statement should be extremely brief and avoid very carefully anything which might provoke a rejoinder, either from Mr. Sibthorpe Beckett, or other individuals or from the Government. My instinct would be in favour of merely saying that you had consultations with Mr. Houghton and myself as a result of which a scheme was proposed which we felt had considerable chances of success if it received the active support of all those interested in music and if the Government of Jamaica felt able to accept it. Unfortunately our early hopes proved too optimistic and it became apparent that the support of the Government could not at this time be forthcoming.

My reason for suggesting this rather bald and somewhat uninformative statement is that I do not see how it could be possible to get all the details of the difficulties and problems explained in such a way as not to lead to controversy which might easily become acrimonious and could not be expected to have any beneficial effects.

Rudolph Dunbar, Esq.