Nowell thanks Hill for his good offices in regard to Nowell's appointment to Trinidad. He awaits confirmation from the Colonial Office. Mr Watt wants to keep Nowell at the Imperial Department of Agriculture until the post can be filled, despite the great need for a mycologist in the Trinidad Department there has been an outbreak of mosaic disease of sugar cane in Trinidad that could ruin that industry. On a personal level, Nowell feels that Watt's actions amount to a blocking of his promotion. He also complains of the insincerity of politicians, particularly Darnley who promised him the promotion, and is grieved that the issue has been evaded and letters left for months without an official reply. He writes that the only thing that kept him from resigning was his reluctance to leave Freeman in the lurch. He is anxious to get to Trinidad, where he will be afforded actual contact with the problems he wishes to work on. He writes to Hill regarding these matters on the assumption that Hill would wish to remain informed as concerns appointments. Nowell informs Hill that F. Stell, the new man in British Guiana [Guyana], who Hill asked him to keep an eye on, stayed with Nowell for two days en route. Furthermore, he understands Professor Harrison is pleased with Stell. Stell has so far spent three weeks on the Agatark lime estate, confirming Nowell's diagnosis that the main trouble there is Gloeosporium blossom blight and not, as the Department insisted, Rosellinia root disease as found on new land in Dominica. He concludes that Stell will 'never be an ornament of the Georgetown Club' but that he will no doubt prove a hard worker and produce sound results. Nowell adds some further information about mosaic disease, noting that it is well established in Jamaica and Trinidad and has appeared in the Dominica gardens. He speculates that it is likely to have been taken on to Antigua although it may not find an appropriate carrier there. Page 1 of 7.