26 October 1954

Prof. Charles D. Coryell

Room 6-427, Department of Chemistry

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge 39, Mass.

Dear Charles:

I thank you for your letter. It was a shock to me and to my wife that we were not able to make our trip to India and other countries last December.

I may say that in your letter of 17 October to Prof. Geoffrey Chew there is a misstatement - at any rate a suggestion that is not quite right. You say that you heard in Paris that on my arrival in Paris I went immediately to visit Mme. Joliot-Curie to commiserate with her about the denial of her of membership in the American Chemical Society in July 1953. The fact is that when I arrived in Paris, with eight hours between planes, I went to the Sorbonne, to visit the department of physical chemistry - I hoped to see Professor Bouer. On my arrival there one of the men told me that Mme. Joliot-Curie had been denied membership in the American Chemical Society. I expressed skepticism - I could not believe that this had happened. Accordingly I went to her laboratory, and asked her. She showed me the letter that had been received. I said that I was sure a mistake had been made, and that I would write to the present president, (at that time), Farrington Daniels. I did so.

Your story about the refusal of a passport to me is essentially correct.

As to the Public Health Service, so far as I am aware research grants have not been withheld from our Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering; in fact, the grants for which I applied were then applied for by other members of our Division, and immediately approved. I may say that I have just been notified

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that a grant to me by the National Science Foundation has been approved.

I wrote to Victor Weisskopf about ay passport situation a few months ago.

I am going east next week, to give some lectures at Princeton. I am planning to be in Boston early in December, but only for two days when the Advisory Committee for Massachusetts General Hospital meets, and I am afraid that I shall not have time to come to the Institute to see you.

With best regards, I am

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling:W

P.S. We are also making a visit for two days at Cornell, next week. LP