Memorabilia from a bygone era: Letter to Mohamed Ali Eltaher from Habib Bourguiba from his French prison on the island of La Galite in 1953.
Among other things, Bourguiba congratulates Eltaher for the imminent reappearance of his newspaper "Ashoura", though as discussed in the Biography section of this Web site, the Egyptian government under the Free Officers had disregarded its own decision to permit the republication of the newspaper that had stopped since 1939.
It is worth noting here that this is the only original letter in Bourguiba's handwriting left in Eltaher's archives. A few years after he passed away in 1974, and once the civil war in Lebanon ended, Mrs. Eltaher; in agreement with Tunisian authorities shipped Eltaher's papers and correspondence related to Tunisia's struggle for independence as well as all the original letters he had received from Bourguiba for safeguarding and archiving in Tunis. Three or four crates were shipped through the Tunisian embassy in Beirut. However one of the crates and its contents were never traced anywhere since. There is no indication as to whether the papers and correspondence were received or not; and, if they were, their location has not been determined. Subsequent inquiries and searches in Beirut and Tunis have not been successful. Should any of the readers possess any information about the whereabouts of these papers, it will help history if he/she could communicate with us through the 'Contact Tab' in the website.
