528
DOCS.
505,
506 APRIL
1918
My changes
concern
the
following points.
1)
I
have
set
my
annual
payment
at Fr
8
000.[3]
This
is certainly
plenty.
I
cannot
go
further without
having
to fear
that
I
myself
fall
into difficulties.
2)
The
deposit
of
the
money
in Switzerland
will
not be
possible
now.
I
already
have
problems, you know,
in
getting
the
regular
remittances
for
your
upkeep
sent
over.
The
sum can
be secured
just
as
well if
it
is
placed
in trust here
with
the
necessary safeguards.
Moreover,
I’ll
see
that the
affair at
the
Ministry
is
settled
soon.
If
you
were
to receive
the
pension,
that
would be the best
solution.[4]
3)
It
would
be all
the
same
to
me,
for
easily guessed
reasons,
if
the
Nobel
Prize
eventually
came
into
your possession.
We
could
then
arrange
it
so
that
in
this
case
your
income
was
raised
to Fr.
9
000.
4)
Surely you
don’t want
to demand
that
I
always
come
to Switzerland
(in
peace-
time)
to
see
the
children.
No
fair
person knowing
the
circumstances
would
condone such
an
imposition.
Do
you
insist
on
having
the
legal process
conducted in Switzerland?
It
seems
to
me
that it
would
go more
quickly
here;
if
you
all
think that it
would
go
smoothly
in Switzerland
as well,
I
am
satisfied if
it’s done there. The reservations
I
had
expressed
against it[5]
seem
to
have been unfounded.
I
am
curious
what
will
last
longer,
the
world
war,
or
our
divorce
proceedings.
Both
began
essentially
at
the
same
time.[6]
In
comparison,
this little
matter of
ours
is still
much
the
more
pleasant.
Amiable
greetings
to
you
and
kisses to
the
boys
from
your
Albert.
P. S.
As
long
as
you
are
alive,
the
children should have
no
right
of
disposal
to
the
available
money
(Nobel
Prize)
except,
of
course,
in
case
you get
married.
The
money
seems
best
secured
if
it
is
in Switzerland and
is
your property.
506. To
Willem de
Sitter
[Berlin,
15 April
1918]
Dear
Colleague,
I
understand
your
point
of
view,
since
although
the
metric
distance to
the
“equatorial
surface”
is
finite,
the
time
that
a
mass-point
needs
to
move
there
is