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High Commissioner's Office, Johannesburg.
Nov: 16: 1902
My dear Murray
I was delighted to hear from you, though it was so very short a note. Certainly, I shall do all I can for Mr Gordon, when his application comes before me. His record looks excellent, and I think any man who has been part of the heat and burden of administration in a place like Nigeria should be given a look in in healthier latitudes.
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The only difficulty is that we have very little left to offer, though I think something might be done in the School Inspection business.
I wish you had told me more about yourself. I hope your immediate relations are now in robust health. And what is the name of your Euripides book & who is the publisher, that I may get it? This place is a desert for literature, and I am driven back upon the classics and a few tattered
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volumes of poetry.
I would discourse upon my work but I don't think it would interest you. It has been very heavy the last six months – chiefly repatriation of Boers, Land Settlement & finance. Finance is private secretary's work, but the other is pure administration, in which I have more or less a free hand. I detest official work, but I love this plain dealing with facts. I have to rove all over the country in all weather, and I have got to know & like our new subjects. You know I was always 3/4 of a tramp, and
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I am very much in my proper place. I have acquired a mass of quaint learning, which I may some day put into an African book – not party politics! Also I have kept in robust health – except for a little fever got in the low country.
My kindest regards to Lady Mary & the children, & my respects to the young Basil whom I hope to become acquainted with.
Ever yours
John Buchan
