Letters to a Sister (8 page)

Their cry of armament increase is very cunning, as working men hope it will mean employment for them, and they are far more in number than the taxable classes, who know it will mean higher taxation. Baldwin is very shrewd, I think.

I feel Abyssinia is abandoned to her fate. Sanctions will do no good at this date, and the Italian army seems to be strolling unopposed over the land (fortunately). If there is no more bloodshed than this, it won't be too bad a war. I suppose Italy will be allowed to settle there in peace. It is all very, very wicked, but I hope the climate won't suit them and they will get tired of it soon…

Very much love,
   
E.R.M.

7,
Luxborough House, Northumberland St, W.1
15 December, [1935]

Dearest Jeanie,

… Everyone is delighted that Hoare has broken his nose
skating, and we all hope it hurts.
¹⁰⁶
I should like to be in the House of Commons for the Thursday debate, and see him face his angry foes. There is nothing he can say which can make it sound better. Even if he and Baldwin tell us that they were frightened of Mussolini bombing Malta unless they bribed him off with half Abyssinia, it will sound very poor and cowardly.
The Times
says the only way we can recover our lost prestige in the eyes of the world is to repudiate the suggestions at once, and apologise for having made them. I expect Hoare will have to resign. I hear that M.P.'s have never had so many angry letters from their constituents. I wonder if they have to answer them all. I suppose so, if they want to get in again next time. This must make them very much annoyed with Baldwin and the Government, and is enough to make them vote against the Government on the Vote of Censure. I've not written to my member, as I thought he was probably getting enough without me, and I had no time, and would have also found it difficult to think how to put it.

I notice that disapproval vibrated in the voice of Mr [Stuart] Hibberd when he gave the news to-night; the B.B.C. voices are not at all impartial.

I don't quite agree with you about ‘how can babies die better' etc. When killed by gas or bombs, their death is a sin on someone's part, and it is better they should die without malicious intent. If gas is ever dropped here, I shall feel it a bad way of dying…

Very much love,
   Your loving
E.R.M.

7,
Luxborough House, Northumberland St, W.1
18 December, [1935]

Dearest Jeanie,

… You got me wrong on death. To be gassed for peace would be a good death for
me
(though not for babies, who don't care about peace) but a bad action on the part of the gassers, so not on the whole a good human performance, any more than martyrdoms were…

I don't believe Hoare did (or does) feel like Judas. I believe he thought he had done quite right, though now we have all told him, it must have dawned on him that he hasn't. I should like to have heard what passed between him and Baldwin and the rest of the Cabinet before he resigned to-night. I wonder if Baldwin will pretend to-morrow that he disapproved all along.
The Times
prophesied only this morning that he and Hoare would justify the Proposals. But now is Hoare's chance for the speech of repentance that you want—only he won't make it. Baldwin, I suppose, can't, without resigning himself.

We really have done very well, making ourselves felt like this. I feel very proud. They know now that we are their masters, and that what we say goes, so long as we have the chief newspapers to speak for us. I hear that M.P.'s got thousands of letters, and felt they had to answer them. I heard of a very good man, who said to some one I know that he wishes he had died before all this happened, he was so ashamed. I don't wish I had, do you? I am enjoying it…

I quite agree with you about Lord de Clifford's trial. A disgusting exhibition, and
so
expensive.
¹⁰⁷
And what did his Counsel mean by saying that driving on the wrong side of the road was no proof of negligence? It seems to me one
of the most negligent things a motorist can do.
¹⁰⁸
Haste for post.

Very much love,
E.R.M.

3 June, [1936}

Dearest Jeanie,

Thank you so much for your letter. I
had
to meet my black Emperor,
¹⁰⁹
so asked Canon S.
¹¹⁰
if he could give me another date, and he offered next Wed: 10th. As he kindly put it ‘Sheppard is always here, Haile only once,' so I see him at 5.0 next Wed:, which gives us a week more to think of further things to say to him. I must say them quickly, as I think his time is as full as a dentist's, he has to look in his book, and puts down names for every hour of the day. So I must get down to the agenda quickly: first, Peace; then Stewardship;
¹¹¹
then Any Other Business, so send any along that you think useful. Shall I leave him the Church Assembly Report? I expect you want it back, and he probably has one.

I shan't ask him about Danger, as I can think of that for myself. There are any number of dangerous sports. Some, of course, are only accessible to the well-to-do, such as flying, ski-ing, mountaineering, polo, punting, exploring wild lands, shooting lions, speed-racing, etc. All these are largely done by both young men and young women who can afford it (young women of the well-off classes enjoy danger as much as
their brothers, I think, though not, for some reason, in the poorer classes. This seems to me a real class difference). Of course poor people can't do most of these things; but they can climb anything handy, sometimes ride motor-bicycles very dangerously; or even pedal-cycles can be made dangerous by any rider who likes to; or walk in the streets; tease bulls and savage cows and horses; swim far out to sea; sail in storms; all kinds of things.

I remember getting lots of thrills by walking along high walls, climbing to the tops of difficult trees, etc. when young. I don't myself believe that liking for danger as such does play much part in causing wars. You should see
Things to Come,
¹¹²
in which special mention is made of the dangerous and exciting sports they had after war was banished.

I quite agree with you about controversy. I said that, in the comments I sent the B.B.C. on their Peace Week programme that they sent me a memorandum on. I'm not quite sure it was a great success last time we had foreigners here for the purpose, as the Nazi Jewish persecutions made the Englishmen too cross, and besides, the Nazi, instead of standing up for them and discussing them, only said there were none, which made the discussion absurd. Which is, I'm afraid, what Mr Thomas would say to Lloyd's about his Budget disclosures,
¹¹³
and the non-stop driver to his victim. One must have frank admission, of course, before a discussion can begin. One might stage one this week between the Negus and Signor Grandi
¹¹⁴
or some other Italian. Only Haile can't talk English, I think. He had a black interpreter at Waterloo, who translated to him the address he was given, and translated to the givers his thanks to the English for their sympathy. He had a great reception from the public to-day, though only met by an inferior Foreign Office official, which I thought a
shame. The King went to Devonshire for the day.
¹¹⁵
Eden should have come to Waterloo, I think, and one of the Princes. I am afraid the Government has decided to snub and keep him under, to please Mussolini. Nearly all the papers (not
News Chronicle
and
Herald)
are ignoring him now, and accepting ‘Italian East Africa' as a fact. The Council meeting
¹¹⁶
on 16th will be most awkward. Haile says he will be there, and won't leave England and Geneva until something is done about it! He is in for a long stay, I fear, poor man. I think it is a horrid shame, the way governments all behave. Cum-mings
¹¹⁷
says we are preparing for an Anglo-Italian pact, and I expect he is right. Though I can't see what good any pact with Mussolini can do, as he doesn't keep them…

I will write to you after my Sheppard interview (of which I really ought to take notes, I feel) and tell you what he says. I have a crowded day—a literary prizegiving in the afternoon,
¹¹⁸
then dash off to St Paul's by 5, then dash back to a Liberal reception, home & dress, then to the Opera. Everything has got crowded onto that afternoon. The evening before, Margaret comes up and goes to Scotland by night train. I'm so glad I don't.

Very much love,
   
E.R.M.

11 June, [1936]

Dearest Jeanie,

... I think you had better become a full member of the Brotherhood
¹¹⁹
… But find out more about it first. You could ask Sheppard... He is certainly a most friendly and interested person, and extremely easy to talk to. We didn't really nearly finish about Pacifism, as he talked so much about other things, and told me so many stories. I was there an hour, and alone, but must go again sometime, he says, and finish discussing Peace. He quite sees the dilemma, and is torn in both directions himself, but always, he says, comes back to the view that Christ would say we mustn't attack and kill one another. This doesn't dispose, as he knows, of the bully who is attacking and killing the weaker power, and what line we are to take with him; but there seems to be something called non-violent resistance (see Aldous Huxley, enclosed) which they think would work. When you meet him you can go on discussing it. I think I never met a clergyman so genuinely and pleasantly interested in people and their affairs. I had to try not to waste time answering his questions about when and how I worked, my sisters, where I went for my holidays, did I go to church much (No, was the answer to that), were you Church, what kind of nursing did you do, etc. etc. I don't wonder people find him sympathetic and nice…

I was amused by his view of Kenneth Mozley which is also mine (they live next door, being both Canons of St Paul's). He thinks K. has ‘a medieval mind', and lives 600 years too late. He has seen him address a service for working and other men, all in the mood for some live religious teaching, and give them a doctrinal address on the Atonement etc. They looked entirely blank and uninterested, of course. It really is dreadful
how the clergy go on. Canon S. thinks it is bad for them to become bishops and archbishops, and that both Canterbury
¹²⁰
and York
¹²¹
have become conventionalized and timid. However, he still has hope for the Church. I told him I had too, despite its curious and disappointing history.

I'm sorry you think Cecil wrong. I think his letter is very useful, so do most pro-Leaguers.
¹²²
If the public manage to make enough fuss now, we
may
save the League still; if not, people seem to think it will just collapse into being an instrument for doing nothing, and the Covenant will lapse.
The Times
has gone most disappointing; I was shocked at that leader on Cecil, so were many people.
¹²³
I was told by Sir Walter Lay ton (one of the directors of the
News Chronicle)
that the
Times
Editor
¹²⁴
has changed his views and is going antiLeague and antisanction, owing to the influence of [Lord] Lothian and the Astors on him. He spends week-ends with the
Observer
Astors at Cliveden, and is influenced by them, as well as by the
Times
Astors. Canon Sheppard is much disappointed with him, so is every one of our way of thinking. The Italian Press, on the other hand, says that
The Times
‘has at last, though late, turned to realism'. Realism always means something bad, I notice. I am very sorry, as it was the only non-Opposition paper that took a right line, and it has so much influence. I hope the phase may pass, but it is a bad moment for it. Did you see Cecil's letter yesterday?
¹²⁵
I enclose it in case you didn't. I think it is good.

Margaret and I had a nice evening on Tuesday. First we went to the Negus's garden party,
¹²⁶
for which I had an invitation. We didn't talk to him, but saw him. Then we saw
The Littlest Rebel,
a very nice American-Civil-War film, with Shirley Temple. You should see it.

Just off to the House of Commons, for which I have been given a ticket, and I hope to hear Thomas & Butt on their iniquities.
¹²⁷

Very much love.
   
E.R.M.

I enclose a rather nice cartoon of Dick Sheppard and Lansbury, by Low, which well puts the dilemma.
¹²⁸
He quite agreed with it.

17
June, [1936]

Dearest Jeanie,

… I'm glad you had a nice letter from Canon Sheppard... I think he may be really keen on the Stewards, it is quite in his own line of thought, I gathered. It will be fine if he takes it up. You would like him very much, he is so friendly and enthusiastic and has such a live idea of Christianity. It is wonderful how he has won the respect of his intellectual superiors, such as Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard….

The Government has obviously quite decided to abandon sanctions. Eden will say so on Thursday, I expect. Lord Cecil was very bitter about it, speaking yesterday at a lunch given
to the Negus. He says the new French Government would be willing (he thinks) to go on with them if we were.
¹²⁹
Vernon Bartlett is, I am sure, correct in prophesying the end of them. The weak point in keeping them on is that they are such poor ones that they make no real difference to Italy, and are only slightly inconvenient; they certainly wouldn't ever ‘bleed her white'. They would really only be a gesture. The only one which would have been good was oil. I don't feel I know
what
we ought to do now. The Abyssinians are anxious, of course, for help, and say it is not too late, and that at least we can try and prevent millions of Italian immigrants turning the natives off their land to starve, which they say will happen, and they are probably right, as the colonists will all be given land, and all the cultivatable land belongs already to Ethiopian peasants. I doubt if the Emperor has much hope now of getting back. I am told he is getting very bitter… There is a strong popular sympathy with Haile. People line up and cheer wherever he is known to be going. I think they feel they are trying to make up for the rudeness of the government to him. I feel ashamed when I think of him myself. The Cabinet are now longing for him to go away, he is so embarrassing. Baldwin hasn't seen him, either, and Eden only for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the King goes to Ascot and all about, and has a good time.