Thirring sends BR his best wishes for a recovery, as he heard through the radio that BR was ill from shingles.

Thirring writes that he is working hard to broadcast the ideas of the Pugwash Conference in Vienna.

"Please forgive me when I am using this letter for making a personal request...."

Thirring asks BR to sign the enclosed petition (not present) to the Romanian dictator, Gheorghiu Dej, on behalf of a 78-year-old former citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as his younger son, due to his relation to a "damned exploiting capitalist", was unable to finish his studies and graduate, and his attempts to emigrate have been unsuccessful. The old man feels "... that a word of a man like Bertrand Russell explaining that the release of the last offspring of an old Austrian family might serve to relax tensions and would possibly help to pierce the Iron Curtain."