In 1934, Shute negotiated with Anthony Fokker for a licensing agreement with Fokker. Shute found Fokker to be "genial, shrewd and helpful" but "already a sick man", and difficult to deal with because "his domestic life was irregular". Fokker worked "at all hours and in strange places". Frequently "his very efficient legal advisor and secretary could not tell us where he was". In 1935, Airspeed signed a manufacturing licensing agreement for the Douglas DC-2 and several Fokker types, with Fokker to be a consultant for seven years. Airspeed considered making the Fokker D.XVII fighter for Greece, which wanted to buy from Britain for currency reasons. Shute and a Fokker representative "who was well accustomed to methods of business in the Balkans", spent three weeks in Athens but did not close the deal. Shute recommended reading his novel Ruined City to find out what Balkan methods of business were. After a year, the drift to war, and their Air Ministry contracts, meant that the Dutch could not go to the Airspeed factory or board meetings.