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honor its pledge of $5 million. The Secretary's immediate reply of September 10 reiterated the Institution's objections to the terms of the 1983 agreement and acknowledged that if, in the Saudis' view, the proposed changes negated the agreement, then the Institution would view that agreement as terminated and would return the funds already received. On September 20 Mr. Dutton wrote that the agreement would need to viewed as terminated, and the funds returned, unless a constructive alternative were possible, and to that end he proposed the establishment of a more independent Center for Islamic Arts and Culture not necessarily associated with the Quadrangle. In his reply to Mr. Dutton on September 27, Mr. Adams reiterated the difficulties inherent in establishing such a Center within the Smithsonian and urged Mr. Dutton to consider still another alternative: the partial funding of the Institution's purchase of the Vever Collection.

No reply to Mr. Adams' September 27 letter has been received, though Mr. Dutton did refer to the Secretary's proposal negatively in the October 9 article of the Washington [[underlined]] Post [[/underlined]]. There have been no subsequent developments to report.

[[underlined]] Policy on Arrangements for Special Visits to the Museums [[/underlined]]

Mr. Adams pointed out that occasionally domestic or foreign dignitaries visit Smithsonian museums and require special security arrangements established by outside agencies (e.g., State Department, Secret Service). When such visits occur during normal public visiting hours, he added, they can result in the closing of portions of a museum or, in some cases, an entire museum for some period of the day. While dignitaries' visits are welcome, there have been isolated