Letter f rom Thomas Gold to Mr Daniel Hunt Jr., Head, Office of National Centers and Facilities Operations, National Science Foundation, 1800 G Street, N.W., Washington DC Hunt's letter has come as a surprise. They did not have the understanding that they had an obligation to pursue lines of work which in their view were inappropriate in the circumstances, but to operte the Observatory as a National Laboratory, and therefore to maintain it at a high efficiency, up to date in instrumentation and available to qualified outside users. STs out his arguments 9 October 1970