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Show Prof. A.S. Atiya (Cont'd) Page 2 handle for you over here, please do not hesitate to call upon me. Number 5. I will be interested to hear, as soon as possible, about the possibility of the foundation of an Institute of Mediterranean studies in the Alexandria University. Number 6. As you know, unless I am on a route journey through the Middle East, in connection with my Foundation's expeditions in Arabia, it is very difficult to justify the expense of a journey to Egypt unless there is something which is directly beneficial to the American Foundation. It was in this regard primarily, that I discussed with you the possibility of the presentation by Alexandria University of Honorary Degrees for Dr. Luther Evans, Librarian of Congress and for myself as President of the American Foundation. As you know there is no one more interested in creating good will between the United States and Egypt than I am. And I feel that an opportunity such as the presentation of the microfilms from the Library of Congress and the American Foundation to Egypt, and the presentation of the degrees from Egypt to the Library of Congress and the American Foundation, with the accompanying publicity and good will, would be a very worthwhile enterprise all the way around and would more than justify the expense of my journeying back to Egypt in the near future. By the way, while we're speaking about honorary degrees, yesterday I received the degree Doctor Honoris Causa from Spain with reference to the work of our expedition to Mount Sinai. I have just been to the Library of Congress where I met with Verner Clapp as Dr. Luther Evans was away at the time. I will be seeing Dr. Evans this next week. Verner Clapp tells me that the Library of Congress is doing away with its honorary consultantships and at my suggestion Verner Clapp said that he would look into the matter immediately of giving you an appointment which would be more important and carrying more prestige than an honorary consultantship. As I pointed out to you once before, honorary this and honorary that in the United States, with the exception of honorary degrees, do not mean anything. In England you have honorary presidents, and honorary secretaries, and the rest, but we rarely have them in this country. So I will attempt to arrange something for you through the Library of Congress which will be at least as good as what you wanted and possibly considerably better. Thank you for the enclosed documents relative to yourself and to your collection of manuscripts. I will do my best in regard to the manuscripts as we discussed. I have held up the publication of your volume on the Arabic microfilms until we could have the presentation of the microfilms in that I wanted to pay tribute to General Mohammed Naguib in |
