Eight Autograph Letters Signed (all 'William. G. Fearnsides') to Sir Henry Trueman Wood (3) and G. K. Menzies (3), Secretaries, Royal Society of Arts.

All eight letters in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Seven carrying the Society's stamp. The correspondence relates to a Howard Lecture by Fearnsides before the Society on 30 April and 7 May 1917. Initially to be titled 'The National Shortage of Cheap Iron-ore Supplies', its title was changed following the letter of 4 April 1917: 'I suggest that the somewhat ugly word CHEAP should be deleted from the title of my lectures as announced as it reads at present it might be taken as an adjective qualifying either | iron = cheap iron | ore = cheap ore | supplies = cheap supplies | and is therefore ambiguous seeing that iron ore is never allowed to become a supply unless it can be worked ie either mined or smelted at a cheap rate'. The final title, according to a letter of 13 June 1917, was 'The shortage of the nonphosphoric iron ore supply'. Several letters deal with the printed version of the lecture.