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554 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA rence, amounting to Rs 14,000, sent to India. With this amount he wanted to have a modest but separate house of study erected in the vast grounds of the Friary of Mussoorie. Fr Louis of Seggiano, the Guardian, not only accorded with this plan but was exceptionally cooperative in getting the scheme afoot The two together selected the area called ''Fox-hill'' as the site. Louis, an adept in construction works, had assured that the amount sufficed for the scheme and that he would himself supervise the operation. But by the time the liquid cash arrived, the Commissary was fully out of the picture and the amount was sent_back to Florence 163 • The anticlimax finally came in the form of a brief note from Fr General, which was handed over to the Commissary in an unsealed envelope. For as many as five of his missives, he had had no replies. The General's letter dated 14 December 1926 thanked him for "the sacrifices borne, the hardships sustained and the good promoted". It was a letter that wasted no words. The new Regular Superior of Agra, Fr Hyacinth of Leghorn [Livorno], was made ad interim Com– missary for the Novitiate and the Study. The interimistic arrangement was to prevail till a definitive systematization would be worked out for the Order's two institutions in India 1 64_ 6. Taking Soundings: Damaun, Mykrpore andManga!ore When the friars of Agra were wailing and wishing that their Friary of Mussoorie be made free of the clerics, some others were going all out for the 163 APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Commissary, "Sunto Storico...": "Ma se piaceva tanto a noi questo piano, non piaceva forse al Signore; il fatto sta che il piano, per varie cause naufrago. Intanto la banca di Delhi prima di consegnarmi definitivamente il denaro, esigeva una formalita che mancava nell'assegno emesso dalla banca di Firenze, di modo che dovetti scrivere in Italia e aspettare pazientemente la risposta. Quando venne, le cose erano cosi radicalmente cambiate che il denaro non servi piu a nulla. Fu rimandato in Italia per essere usato a favore o delle Missioni o dell'Ordine nostro". · 164 AGCap G 68, II, Novizjato e Stud.to, Fr General to Fr Hyacinth of Leghorn, Rome 13 December 1926: "Essendo scaduto il termine dalla elezione del Commissario Generale peril Noviziato e per lo Studentato nelle Indie e dovendosi procedere alla nuova elezione, Noi, abbiamo designato la P.V.M.R ad assumere tale ufficio di Commissruio Generale 'ad interim', fino a tanto cioe che, finite le pratiche per una conveniente e definitiva sistemazione delle due suddette Istituzioni, non si procede ad altra eventuale elezione". APCapTusc, Mirsione Indostan, ''Noviziato di Sardhana. Studentato di Mussoorie", Fr General to Commissary, Rome 14 December 1926. The Commissary scribbled a note on a separate sheet "Questa lettera del P. Generale mi fu spedita per mezzo del Superiore Regolare di Agra in busta aperta sulla quale non era nome ne indirizzo alcuno. Questa lettera e l'unica risposta che ho avuto alle cinque mie".