Read Letters to a Sister Online
Authors: Constance Babington Smith
11
V. A. Kravchenko,
I Chose Freedom
(1947).
12
Luis and Susan Marques (
née
Belloc Lowndes).
13
When Parliament adjourned for the summer recess on 13 August (to reassemble on 20 October) the economic crisis which followed the nationalizing of the coal industry was deepening. It was decided that the House of Lords should return more than a month early.
14
R.M.'s handbag had been stolen from her car.
15
On 16 August Winston Churchill, as leader of the Conservative Party, had made a broadcast on the critical economic situation in Britain.
16
âProfile of the Spiv',
The Observer
, 17 August, 1947.
17
The Spanish âBlue Division' had fought with the Germans on the Leningrad front, suffering very severe losses in the winter of 1941-2.
18
Eleanor Whitton, a District Nurse whom Jean Macaulay and Nancy Willetts knew very well, had died suddenly, aged 47.
19
R.M. had stayed at Denia, south of Valencia, on 27 July, at the beginning of her trip.
20
In Portugal Senhor Daniel Barbosa, then Minister of Economics under Dr Salazar, was leading a drive to reduce food prices and to combat black markets.
21
An inn.
22
Cadiz had been devastated on 18 August when chemicals in the naval shipyards blew up, setting off torpedoes, shells, etc.
1
Postcard.
2
R.M. and a friend, Marjorie Grant Cook, had stayed a night with Elizabeth Bowen.
3
In reviewing
The World my Wilderness
(
The Spectator,
12 May, 1950), Frank Swinnerton examined R.M.'s philosophy of life, as seen in her novels. He concluded that âshe has left us with the verdict that the answer to mankind's various ills, follies, disagreements, would appear to be a lemon'.
4
U.S. troops in Korea were falling back before the southwards drive of the North Korean forces.
5
See
News Chronicle,
10 July, 1950.
6
Postcard.
7
âCrib'. In the Macaulay family the Crib at Christmas was a cherished tradition.
8
âPeasants'.
9
A pamphlet entitled, âUNESCO Statement on Race', issued in July, 1950.
10
It was argued that since all men belong to the same species,
Homo Sapiens,
a race may be defined as one of the groups of population constituting the species; also that there is no proof that the groups of mankind differ in their innate mental characteristics.
11
Probably Dr Isidore Singer (1859-1939), editor of the Jewish Encyclopaedia (1901-5) and founder (1922) of the American League of the Brotherhood of Man.
12
âWe follow the Road to Hell',
Picture Post,
16
September, 1950.
13
Cecil Woodham-Smith,
Florence Nightingale
(1950).
14
Mrs Samuel Smith (âAunt Mai').
15
A review mentioned by Jean Macaulay.
16
Ralph Allen's Sham Castle, on Bathwick Hill above Bath.
17
R.M. was then working on
Pleasure of Ruins.
18
This was a news article headed âIs another world watching us?', not a serialisation.
1
Union with Greece.
2
The Bp of Bristol (Rt Rev. F. A. Cockin).
3
The Church of the Holy Angels, Cranford, which serves a London Diocesan Home Mission district.
4
Rt Rev. Cyril Eastaugh.
5
Mrs Curry.
6
A saying attributed to Max Jacob (1876-1944), French Catholic poet.
7
R.M. was by this time a very regular worshipper at the Grosvenor Chapel in South Audley Street.
8
Rev. J. H. C. Johnson, S.S.J.E., see above p. 22.
9
Postcard.
10
When Marshal Tito appeared in public during his visit to London in March 1953 he was heavily guarded and evoked few cheers.
11
J. P. de Caussade,
Ordeals of Souls: A Continuation of His Spiritual Letters
(trans. A. Thorold, 1936).
12
See Letter IV, âTo a Postulant' (Mme de Lesen).
13
âAnother Art', a broadcast talk reviewing Prof. Benjamin Rowland's
Art and Architecture of India.
14
Jean Macaulay had long been attracted by the idea of living permanently in South Africa.
15
Queen Salote of Tonga, a Wesleyan Methodist.
16
Doris Bââ, whose parents Jean Macaulay had nursed, was receiving teaching from her about the Christian Faith.
17
The Altar Missal,
edited by a Priest of the S.S.J.E. (Mowbray 1936), sometimes known as the âCowley Missal'.
18
R.M. was probably reading
The Cambridge Platonists: a Study
by F. J. Powicke (1926).
19
A free rendering of one of Powicke's quotations from Ralph Cudworth (1617-88).
20
One of the quotations from the
Discourses
of Benjamin Whichcote (1609-83) included in Powicke's
The Cambridge Platonists.
21
Plans were being made for a broadcast discussion between R.M. and John Betjeman on âChanges in Morals'.
22
âWe Beg to Differ', a broadcast discussion on various topics between Kay Hammond, Joyce Grenfell, Celia Johnson, John Clements, Gilbert Harding and John Betjeman.
23
Grace Macaulay was always very nervous about colds. In church when others coughed or sneezed she sniffed ostentatiously at a eucalyptus-soaked handkerchief, to the great embarrassment of her family.
24
âTalking of the Welfare State', a broadcast conversation between Violet Markham and Dame Rachel Crowdy-Thornhill.
25
Doris Bââ, see above p. 156n.
26
St Cyril, Bp of Jerusalem
(c.
315-386).
27
In February 1954 R.M.'s flat was burgled, see
Last Letters to a Friend
(pp. 147-8).
28
By A. W. Watts (1953).
29
R.M. had been considering going to Russia in a party in honour of Tchekhov.
30
It was Ephesus. See II Timothy 4. 14,15: âAlexander the coppersmith did me much evil....'
31
R.M. means their discussion on âChanges in Morals'.
32
Replying to a question from R.M. on the moral effects of present-day irreligiousness, John Betjeman said: âI think we're living on the spiritual capital of the past, and that it will soon run out... we can't go on being morally sound if we forget the model of our soundness, and He is, I submit, God become man, Jesus Christ.'
33
The anonymous author of the Preface to the 1953-54 issue of
Crockford's Clerical Directory
had criticised the currently proposed revision of canon law relating to the remarriage of divorced persons in church, and advocated leaving decisions to individual parish priests, who could seek advice if needed.
34
Rev. W.J. Conybeare, co-author with Rev. J. S. Howson of
The Life and Epistles of St Paul
(1852).
35
A correspondence in
The Times
had followed a leading article on âChristianity and Bombs' (7 June), which supported the views of the Archdeacon of London, Ven. O.H. Gibbs-Smith (that the New Testament lent no countenance to absolute pacifism, that the pacifist had âthe heresy of perfectionism' in a world which had not achieved perfection, and that the infernal machine was not the bomb but the âunprincipled and unconsecrated human mind').
36
In a letter to President Roosevelt dated 2 August, 1939, Prof. Einstein recommended that supplies of uranium should be guaranteed and that research in nuclear fission should be speeded up.
37
A discussion on âBilly Graham and his Greater London Crusade' between Malcolm Muggeridge and Rev. George MacLeod was broadcast on 25 June.
38
Since R.M.'s car had been stolen and damaged, on 19 January, she had been getting about London by bicycle.
39
At this time R.M. was in the habit of worshipping both at Grosvenor Chapel and at St Paul's, Knightsbridge.
40
Rev. E. B. Henderson, Vicar of St Paul's, Knightsbridge.
41
Akira Kurosawa's
Seven Samurai.
42
A comedy by Philip King and Falkland Cary.
43
Sir Richard Acland had resigned his seat as Labour member for Gravesend in protest against the Labour Party's acceptance of hydrogen-bomb manufacture in Britain.
44
Cardinal Griffin (1899-1956) preaching in Westminster Cathedral on 13 March said, âthe problem⦠rests upon whether this bomb can ever be brought sufficiently under control that, given a just war, it can be directed only against unjust and violent aggressors. The answer to this must lie with those who have access to the necessary scientific knowledge.'
45
Sir Lawrence Jones,
A Victorian Boyhood
(1955).
46
âThe Churches and Psychical Research', a broadcast talk by the Dean of St Paul's, given on 9 March.
47
In âAny Questions?', a weekly feature in the B.B.C.'s Light Programme, âquestions of the moment' put by members of the audience are discussed by a panel of well known personalities. âAny Answers?', a âradio correspondence column', deals with letters from listeners to the previous week's âAny Questions?'.
48
The question of the relationship between the Press and hospital authorities was raised in February 1955 when an operation to separate confined twins was performed âsecretly', in order to avoid the sort of âpersecution' that had occurred when the Boko conjoined twins were separated at Hammersmith Hospital. On that occasion reporters and photographers forced their way into the hospital and waylaid doctors and staff, and some took photographs through windows.
49
At a luncheon on 11 March the William Foyle Poetry Prize was awarded to John Betjeman for his book of poems,
A Few Late Chrysanthemums,
and Lord Samuel was one of the speakers. When he ridiculed the poetry of Dylan Thomas, Stephen Spender got up and left.
50
Jean Macaulay does not recall what âthat book' refers to. She often used to say to R.M., âYou ought to write a book about that'.
51
âIt is time we shunned South Africa'
(News Chronicle,
27 June, 1955).
52
Fr Huddleston quoted the South African High Commissioner in London (G. P. Jooste) as saying that âhostile criticism
does
hurt', and commented that this was a very healthy sign, for it meant that âat last one South African is beginning to feel... a little bit cold shouldered by civilized people'.
53
At this time political relations in Cyprus were exacerbated by an intensification of the Eoka terrorist campaign.
54
James Benson,
Prisoner's Base and Home Again: The Story of a Missionary P.O.W.
(1957).
55
âDirge for Trebizond', see
The Times Literary Supplement,
24 June, 1955.
56
Rev. W. R. Derry, Curate-in-charge at Grosvenor Chapel.
57
Mary Stocks was a member of the âAny Questions?' panel on 24 June.
58
March Cost's novel
By the Angel, Islington
(1955), which was discussed by the B.B.C. âCritics' on 16 October. The programme was repeated on 18 October.
59
The Miramar, see R.M.'s
Fabled Shore,
Chap I.
60
The Church of England in South Africa, which developed from an evangelical minority, has always remained strictly apart from the Church of the Province of South Africa (formed by Bp Gray in 1870).
61
In a letter to
The Times
(11 October, 1955) Rt Rev. A. B. L. Karney, former Bp of Johannesburg, reported that on one occasion, hearing that one of the so-called Church of England churches had some candidates for confirmation, he offered to confirm them, but the offer was rejected.
62
In the âAny Questions?' programme on 14 October.
63
Freda Bruce Lockhart, Philip Hope-Wallace, Tom Hopkinson, John Connell, Eric Newton.
64
Rev. D. B. Harris, who had become Vicar of St Paul's, Knightsbridge in September 1955.
65
A meeting initiated by the Council for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an Anglican body, was held in London on 20 January.
66
During the week ending 25 January (Feast of the Conversion of St Paul) special services with sermons were held at Westminster Cathedral.
67
The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches are not, in fact, in communion, though in an emergency the Sacrament can be adminstered by a priest of one Church to a communicant of the other.