| 10 May 1871.
Dear Jung
The subject in question has
been talked over many times previously between M
arx
& myself & again tonight—we cannot come to any other conclusion but that
there are only two candidates likely to
take
the place
that can be taken into consideration viz
Hales
or
Mottershead
. What
you say about H. is quite correct & if he was proposed, it might be made a
condition that he should get himself cleared in a more satisfactory way than he
has done hitherto—as to his being an overlooker, so is
Dupont
, & so long as he behaves straight otherwise, that,
though a little unpleasant, should not be an absolute bar. We think him, on the
whole, preferable to M. whose temper does not perhaps fit him so well for
successful agitation among the London masses & that ought to be the
principal occupation of the Sec.—As to the ignorance of 
| languages, that is
a thing that cannot be helped
so
long as you yourself are not in a position to take the office
which I am affraid you are not; so we shall have to take an Englishman. On the
one hand I do not consider the absence of linguistic knowledge a serious
impediment
under our present organization; on the other this very circumstance might be the
means to define more clearly the position of the Sec
retary
which
hitherto appears to be rather uncertain. To draw up the minutes & to carry
on the correspondence with the English branches;
&
at the same time to spread the
Assoc.
amongst
the masses of London & to render it independent of the aristocracy of the
working classes &
thin
//
(?)
its acknowledged
leaders,—if we could find a man capable & willing of doing that, we should
probably get more consideration for our
15/-
than hitherto. We must not forget that the office to be filled up is not that of
“General Sec.” to the Association, as
Ecc
arius
chose to call himself, 
| but
merely Sec. to the Gen. Council, an office which confines his official duties to
those performed in the Council Meetings & to the Correspondence with English
branches (English-Americans only by special resolution as far as I know); that
is to say he is at the same time Sec. for Great Britain & as such has to
keep up the agitation in this country which Ecc. never did & which yet is
very important. This latter portion
of his duties
M.
& I consider the most important.
However you will have to
talk the matter over & see what can be done. At all events here you have our
opinion (confidentially of course), as you asked for it; there is no knowing,
perhaps it might be as well merely to come to a provisional arrangement, but
that will be for your Committee to decide, as well as all the rest.
Very truly yours
F. Engels.
Those
fellows that ran away from Fort Issy without being attacked deserve to be
shot. The military situation has become much worse through
this piece of
cowardice.