J. S. Fraser, Letter to [George] Thomson, Dec. 29, 1917

Your letter of the twenty-fifth inst came as a great shock to both M^rs Fraser & myself & we are grieved indeed that you should be labouring under such misapprehensions. There is not an atom of truth in your accusations & as sincere friends of Tom’s, it hurt us not a little that you, his brother, should accuse us of desecrating his memory.

We do not know who your informant is, but you might at least do us the justice of verifying such reports before wantonly accusing us, his friends, of insincerity.

You have been misinformed regarding the coroner’s verdict, for at no time was there a suggestion of suicide advanced by any of those giving evidence & the verdict as given was “death due to drowning” & not as stated in your letter.

There is no account standing against D^r MacCallum, for the cheque forwarded was returned to him. The account in question being paid by the proceeds from the sale of the canoes. In this connection there is a small account due his estate of ^$4.00 & I am taking the liberty of enclosing a postal note covering same & I would thank you to forward this to the executor. The few remaining personal effects are being forwarded to M^r Harkness. These, as you will remember, were held subject to your wishes.

Before closing I would like call your attention to the fact that all the debt of kindness was not confined to any one side, & I think if you would look back over the events that took place following his death, you couldn’t help but admit that we gave much of our time & money to make things comfortable for all concerned. Yourself included.

We are not looking for recompense for what we did, we did for Tom’s sake and this gladly & wholeheartedly.

Yours Sincerely,
J. S. Fraser