Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 517
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[Page 517]
7.
Jim Fairfax, who by no stretch of imagination could be called the Editor-in-Chief, to whom the invitation was addressed, or at any rate intended. Enquiries were made, & the Herald proprietary stated that it was not convenient to allow Mr. Heney to go. Then the Sydney pressmen generally took the matter up, & communicated with the Acting Prime Minister. Jim Fairfax however sat tight & refused to pass the invitation on to the person for whom it was intended, so Watt sent another invitation to Heney, asking him to represent not the Herald, but Australian journalism generally, & this was accepted by Heney, who left in the same steamer with Fairfax & the others. One would expect that there will be a vacancy in the office of editor of the S.M.H. on their return. People are enquiring if the Fairfaxes are so hard up that they cannot afford to pay for their own passages to England & back, but have to avail themselves of the chance of going there, free of cost, as guests of the British & Commonwealth Governments! This little story will help you to understand the little Bulletin paragraph, which I send you with other cuttings.
And now goodnight, & God bless you & bring you back safely to us in His own good time. The weather is very cold & we are both writing late at night in the library as usual. The mail goes tomorrow.
I posted you a couple of copies of Hermes (with a notice & portrait of you in it) & another copy of the Alma Mater (with the notices of Roger) by a transport a week or so ago.
Your loving father
Thomas Hughes.