CONFIDENTIAL 2 I am glad to be able to report that, despite one or two rumours, proved false, there have been no incidents whatever and no undesirable speculation or manoeuvers. The Sultan, himself, has now expressed a strong desire to have the work completed next cold weather (what an advance upon this time last year and even at the start and middle of the past cold. weathex), and see what Iinause can be made of it - he would on no account allow us to be more commital than the words underlined. He will himself mention the matter in London, and will ask that it should be walker who should carry it on. his, my view, is quite essential. No one else could go on from where Walker will have left oil, and several months would be needed for the necessary study for anyone else to pick up the threads. The only alternative, if Walker cannot do it, would be for him to prepare a report on his work to date containing the evidence he has collected, maps of the territory and his opinion as to where the frontiers shoulå run. But this would be upon superficial rather than the best evidence, and present en incomplete work, and therefore a possibly dangerous basis upon which to attempt any final conclusions. I am sure that Your Excellency, together with the Rulers concerned, would if necessary support my earnest recomnendation that Walker should be made available next year, for a similar period, to complete the task. The only dissentient in fact might be Walker himself : but I think that he has been somewhat encouraged by the measures of success with which he has so far met, and would now also like to see it through. I think that we should be grateful for the skillfull and tactful manner in which he has been carrying on. He is reporting to Your Excellency in more detail than the foregoing and we are both sending copies of our letters to Tripp (with a copy for buckmaster).
