ON A hot dry Perth day in March 2014, Alem Matthees finished writing a letter.
It was a very polite letter, from a very polite young man. Alem wanted an answer to a simple question.
The letter travelled over the internet from Perth to London. It entered an academic bureaucracy.
A month later, a reply came, signed by a Records and Information Compliance Officer called Paul Smallcombe.
“I am afraid that we cannot supply this to you,” the letter said.
Alem Matthees did not believe that. He chose not to give up.