D24 Letter with rules on reading and tone of voice

CONFIDENTIAL

 

Mr Sesma Manzano:

 

The sound level is now more acceptable at those hours. Perhaps because there is a smaller number of customers in the upper room of the Café Lión.

 

Despite everything, while the report is being read, murmurs can be heard which we do not know whether they come from the basement or from the said room.

 

We have undoubtedly observed great audibility during its reading by the gentleman who does the reading (Mr Garrido Buendía): Should he not be present, we ask you to raise your voice a little.

 

During your talk, please ask for more silence. Whole paragraphs of your comments are muffled by the background noise when you speak at a lower voice level. However, you articulate much better when you talk than when you read. We advise you to observe yourself and correct this small defect.

 

We remind you, Sesma Manzano, that you should suggest a temporary break, whenever you think fit, in this cycle of report readings, to avoid the natural weariness of the members of that society as summer approaches.

 

For our part, we would reduce the frequency of the mailings, confining ourselves to less transcendent and more entertaining subjects which might perhaps be of use to your readers. We will then resume the important reports from whichever autumn month you suggest to us.

 

You will state these details aloud before everyone, as if you were addressing the members of the Society, Repeating them two or three times in case we do not pick them up with our equipment.

 

DATE of the last session planned by you.

DATE of resumption after the summer.

 

Do you plan any absence during the summer?: Indicate that too.

 

Mr Sesma Manzano: We address a request to you: Mr Enrique Gran is away from Madrid; we ask you to keep our summons standing (so that on his return he may give his version of the events that took place on that date) We ask you to fulfil by then the points specified in our letter. We have already sent a note to his home in Madrid.

 

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Mr Fernando Sesma Manzano

 

Sir:

 

Since this report needs an overall structure that avoids false interpretations when it is read in fragments, do not read it to your friends until you receive a second part within a few days.

 

Please: We beg that it be read in a loud voice. We ask you to request the people who express their opinions to do so by slightly forcing the intensity of their voice.

 

If the usual reader should happen to be suffering from loss of voice (however slight), Let one of your male brothers (after a voice-level test) be asked to read it.

 

We earnestly beg this of you