In 1933 permission was granted to the British by the authorities in Tibet for a further attempt on the mountain. The Mount Everest Committee's task of finding a leader for this, the fourth British expedition, was made difficult by the incapacity of Charles Granville Bruce (the leader of previous British expeditions to the mountain), and the unwillingness of Major Geoffrey Bruce and Brigadier E. F. Norton to assume the role. As Ruttledge wrote, 'it was necessary to find someone with experience of Himalayan peoples as well as with mountaineering knowledge, and eventually the lot fell upon me'.