Dear Mohr,

Consider the reply to the enclosed questions very carefully and answer me by return, so that I have your answer Tuesday morning. 1) How much money do you require to pay all your debts so as to have a clear start? 2) Can you manage on £350 a year for ordinary regular needs (excluding extra costs through illness and unforeseen events), i.e. so that you need not contract any debts in the process. If not, give me the sum that is required for that. Everything on the assumption that all old debts are paid off beforehand. This question is, of course, the main question. My negotiations with Gottfried Ermen are taking the turn that he wants to buy me out at the end of my contract – 30 June – i.e. he is offering me a sum of money if I pledge not to go into any competing business for 5 years and allow him to continue the firm. That is exactly what I wanted the fellow to do. As the balance sheets in recent years have been poor, however, I am in doubt whether this offer will put us in a position to live for a number of years without money worries, even supposing the probable case that all kinds of events again involve us in moving to the Continent and the extra expense thereof. The sum offered me by G. E. (of which, long before he offered it to me, I had already resolved that it would exclusively be used, if it eventuated, to cover the necessary subsidy for you) would enable me to assign you a secure £350 annually for 5–6 years and, in extraordinary cases, even rather more besides. But you understand that all my arrangements would be upset if, from time to time, a sum of debts were again to accumulate that would have to be discharged out of further capital. Precisely because my calculation must be based on the fact that our living costs are defrayed not solely out of revenue but also – from the very outset – partly out of capital, it is somewhat complicated and must be strictly adhered to or we shall come to grief. The way in which I proceed further with G. E. will depend on your reply, in which I ask you to set out the matters to me straight as they really are. So state the sum yourself that you regularly require per annum and we shall see what can be done. What will happen after the above 5–6 years is, admittedly, not yet clear to me myself. If everything remains as it currently is, I would then certainly no longer be in a position to send you £350 a year or even more, but still at least £150. By then, however, much may change and your literary activity will also be in a position to bring you in something. Best regards to your wife and the girls. From the enclosed photographs, send one to Laura.
Your
F. E.