NEW ZEALAND EMBASSY Casilla 112, Las Condes Santiago, Chile Dear tonisa her are think of you and praying for 25th November I979 a sate outcome for hike. Once more the time has come, with unbelievable rapidity, to compile an- other Christmas letter. Summer at long last seems to have arrived and the temperature under the awning on the terrace is an agreeable 32°, or in the old more familiar terms, 90° It has been another busy year, much of it occupied with my new responsibilities for Brazil where, after an 8 month delay, I was accredited on 18th December last year. I have made four visits this year, but even so have only just begun to explore a fraction of this vast country which is larger than the United States, if one omits Alaska! We went over in March for the inauguration of President Figueredo, taking in a few days in Rio and Manaus, the cap- ital of Amazonia en route. Flying to the Amazon made one realise how huge Brazil is, since after a touch down at Brasilia we then flew for three hours over nothing but the endless green of tropical rain forests cut by the serpentine course of the vast sluggish rivers which drain from the eastern slopes of the Andes to the Atlantic a thousand miles away. Manaus is another world and another age; the hotel we stayed in reminding us of a New Zealand provinial hotel of the early fifties. We visited the famous opera house, admiring its superb Venetian glass cha- ndel iers, the marquetry floors and ceilings painted with rosy cherubs trailing garlands of flowers in the heavy equatorial heat. The Brazil- ians maintain all their historic buildings in a superb state rivalling the care lavished on Versailles or the Trianon. We spent a day on the shores of the Amazon where, despite the dread piranas, people seem to swim and paddle quite unconcerned. From there back to the rigors of the Presidential change-over where I calculated I spent nearly seven hours, in three or four separate periods, standing at the spot appointed for New Zealand in the reception hall of the Presidential Palace. The Brazilians, despite a relaxed attitude to many aspects of life, certainly observe the strictest timing in their official ceremonies and the three day programme went precisely accord- ing to the timetable. The only jarring note was our arrival in Brasilia which coincided with a most monumental thunder storm, endemic in the summer months. It is the only time I have heard thunder crashing and seen lightning flashing inside an aeroplane; most unpleasant. I went back to Rio in April and again in June to accompany our Minister of Energy, Bill Birch on a brief visit to Rio, Brasilia and Sao Paulo, and we returned again in September, spending an arduous week in Sao Paulo, four days in the almost African city of Salvador de Bahia and again Brasilia for another round of well orgnanised celebrations. Last Christmas we managed to get all the family to-gether here except for Simon. Penelone and Nick, Rupert, Guy, Rowena's brother and her father as well. In fact Tom, Rowena's father stayed on till after Easter which was nice. We did not do much and with such a crowd did not make any very extensive trips. We did however, with Rupert and Tom, make a dash over to Mendoza in Argentina crossing the Andes at Portillo where the road rea- ches an altitude of I0.000 feet. It was not long after the threat of war the two countries had subsided and there were very few travell- Which made getting through the frontier posts a bit quicker since the Argentines are notorious for their appalling delays. In the summer one can spent hours in queues while swarthy officials take down in painstaking details the names of ones maternal grandmother and cous- ins twice removed. In May Rowena took off for England and Simon's wedding in Ireland on June 2nd. I could not go as I had to accompany the Minister of Energy on his visit to Brazil. We had met Janey Gough at Penelope's wedding two years before and were delighted at his good taste and good sense in marrying her. They are now settled at Caterham where Simon has gone back to the 2nd Battalion of the Coldstream Guards. He is now a Captain and has just finished a year's stint as A.D.C. to the G.O.C. Southern Command, General Acland whom he got on with very well. Penelope is still working for Thomson North Sea in London and Rupert has just completed his fourth year law at Victoria in Wellington. They are all planning to be with us for Christmas. The pace of life seems to have speeded up for the Embassy and we have had an unprecedented and welcome spate of visitors from New Zealand. A Trade Mission came through in June and the Head of the Ministry, Frank Corner in October. We have also had Barry Leahy, the Director of the National Party and were subjected to an inspection in October. In addition we have had a number of staff changes including the res- ignation of our New Zealand Marketing Officer who left us to set up an export office in Santiago, which was a very welcome development. We had 70 applicants for his job and decided, because of the heavy pre- ponderance of female staff in the Embassy that we would appoint a man. However, we ended up by selecting a woman who has turned out a splendid asset to the Embassy and New Zealand. She is only 26 and is a graduate of the Chilean Diplomatic Academy but decided not to make the Foreign Ministry her career and has settled to being an excellent represent- ative for New Zealand. In June I returned to the traumas of youth by sitting the Foreign Off- ice Spanish exams at the British Embassy. I have barely had any time to keep up my Spanish lessons but thought I would see how I got on with the examinations. I did not do as well as I had hoped but better than I had feared, passing the oral, not doing too badly with the Spanish/Eng- lish and crashing on the English/Spanish. But I have numerous competent girls in the office for that anyway! We have not made many visits in Chile this year with the four trips to Brazil but managed to get in a four day visit to Concepcion, the sec- ond city of Chile a couple of weeks ago A pleasant trip down by car along the Panamericano which stretches all the way from Puerto Montt in southern Chile to Colombia in the north. Concepcion treated us very well with a reception given by the 27 year old Alcalde -the Mayor- and a very pleasnt lunch by the Intendente, or Governor, who also commands the Naval base at Talcahuano where we saw the magnificent Chilean sail training ship, the Esmeralda, in dry dock. South American navies maintain the agreeable tradition of training their naval officers in sail and nearly all have superb square rigged four masted barques like the old style tea clippers. We were due to finish our three year term in October but have been extended for another year so that will take us half way through I980 I expect. With love and very best wishesí for Christmas and New Year, David E Rowena.