Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

105 28 October 1896 Dear Mr Read In accordance with my promise of last evening I write to say that I am prepared to recommend the Committee of the Surrey Club to meet you on the basis proposed in your letter of 2 September – that your office of Assistant Secretary shall continue until 31 December 1897 and that you receive by 25 March 1897 £375 in lieu of all future payments for salary, season tickets, allowances and match money. I can only repeat what I said to you yesterday that it is, I am sure, the wish of every member of the Committee to deal with you as fairly as they possibly can consistent with the arrangements made in the autumn of 1895. I am, very truly yours, R E Webster W W thought he might be able to better than that. He could, but not by much. 14 November 1896 Dear Sir Referring to your letter of 28 October and the interview with yourself, Mr Shuter and Mr Alcock at your rooms when you were good enough to say that you would kindly recommend to the Committee payments of such a sum of money as would be equal to such sums as I have been receiving from the Surrey Club in previous years. I would point out that £375 does not quite meet the case as you will see by the following – viz. £150 salary, £100 donation, £120 average match money, £28 season ticket – in all £398. I feel sure that you will not mind my placing the slight error before you. With regard to the vexed question of the continuation of the Assistant Secretaryship I may say that never since my connection with the Surrey Club have I been told or has it been hinted to me, until I received the resolution passed by the Committee last summer, that the position was not to be permanent, otherwise it is most probable that I would have retired from Surrey cricket some time since. Negotiations...no broken Read, he