LETTER, PREMIER TO SEPTIMUS BURT, RE APPOINTMENT AS AGENT-GENERAL IN UNITED KINGDOM

Carbon copies of two-paged typed letter and decoded cable both sent on 26 June 1909 from Premier Moore offering Burt the acting position of Western Australia’s Agent-General in London for a few months from 16 Oct 1909. The letter contained the text of the cable along with a further clarification of the request.
The letter was typed on Premier’s Office stationery dating from a decade earlier, with space for an 1890s date at top right. The Western Australian crest is printed at the centre top of the page. The cable was typed on Treasury Department stationery normally used to record messages to the Agent-General in London. The letter and the cable are on single sheets of paper; there are three small tears to the side of the cable. There are three lateral folds which show the letter was folded twice more for storage.
The cable was sent from Premier Newton James Moore in Perth to Burt while he was on one of his trips to England. The Premier had heard that Burt was planning to stay there until about March 1910 and he enquired if Burt would be prepared to accept an acting appointment as Western Australia’s Agent-General in London for a few months from 16 October 1909. This was the date the term of the current Agent General (Cornthwaite Hector Rason) concluded. The Premier advised that early in the new year the Government would seek a new appointment. In the end, Rason continued as Western Australia's Agent General until 1911 and so the need for Burt to step in was no longer there. It is not known what Burt’s response to this offer was.