Very much love….
E.R.M.
12 October, [1939]
Dearest Jeanie,
… Just heard Chamberlain.34 Obviously war will proceed, as the conditions seem to be that German troops must leave Poland and Czechoslovakia and that Hitler must make us believe his word. First condition he won’t fulfil, second he can’t, so that seems to be that, and I think we are for it.
No acknowledgment to our telegrams will be made, I fear!35
I’ve just read the debate on B.B.C. in Hansard—the papers give very little of it. I liked best the M.P.36 who said, let them give the best music etc. at stated times each day, and keep the whole thing from being vulgarized to suit the vulgarest tastes, which is what happens now. Others said it should be more vulgar—i.e. more Variety, and the news and talks more ‘bright & brotherly’, which sounds like an Oxford Group meeting. The fact is we can’t get on without 2 programmes; it’s like setting us all down to read the same books.37 My experience of our taxi-drivers at the Ambulance Station is that they like it on, but don’t listen; they play cards all through the News, however important it is, and talk loudly through it too, which prevents other people hearing. It just doesn’t seem to strike them to listen. I wonder how common that is. The vulgarity at present is dreadful, as one M.P.38 said, crooners and jazz and silly facetiousness. However, there is the News. I don’t complain, as some do, that this is ‘colourless’. Noel-Baker complained of our lack of propaganda and explanation of what we are fighting for. He would like the Trades Unions told what the Nazis do to trades unions everywhere, the religious told about the Church treatment, every one told about the cruelty in the camps, and the spying, and about how the Poles are being treated.
When ’Ubby asks what the war is about, he would be told all this, and that (I suppose) we aim at stopping it, or at preventing it spreading. I don’t know. It might only make all the ’Ubbies angry and full of hate—but perhaps this is the idea. It seems the neutral countries complain that they get only German propaganda. What a bore all this propaganda idea is. A new bore, too. In old-time wars, no one seemed to bother about it much; but I suppose they couldn’t get it about, anyhow….
Very much love.
E.R.M.
Flat 7, 8, Luxborough St, W.1
Thursday [after 19 October, 1939}
Dearest Jeanie,
I am sending with King-Hall (who gets increasingly naval & military) a rather interesting analysis of Hitler by a psychoanalyst doctor, who is a professor of psychology at Oxford.39I don’t know if he has met H. A psycho-analyst who analysed H. would have a very exciting and alarming time. I think H. is probably too mad to be cured by it now, and would only be made worse, perhaps he would burst.
I have been thinking the situation over, and it does seem an appalling indictment of our civilization and intelligence that we can’t remove from the scenes into a Home for the mentally unsound a man obviously so mad as he is now getting.
Shutting him up, on the published diagnosis of an international commission of alienists, would blow up and show up the whole Nazi business, I think (which murdering him might not do), and we could have peace at once. Instead of even trying to get down to this, we think to solve the question by massacring the innocent men of all the countries, who have nothing to do with any of it. Really I suppose strait waistcoats for all the governments are indicated, but we can’t hope for that. But one for H. is imperative, and I think I shall start a League for it.
I was amused by the remark in the News to-night that, now ‘The Link’40 had been dissolved, its work was being carried on by ‘the British Council for the Christian Settlement of Europe’, whose activities were being carefully watched by the Government….
Very much love.
E.R.M.
There is a gap in the surviving letters between mid-October 1939 and June 1940. By that time Rose’s somewhat complaisant attitude towards Nazi aggression had changed into the frame of mind in which, amid bombing and the threat of invasion, she was to write to Jean, ‘The great thing here is to embattle everyone’s MIND.’
6 June, [1940]
Dearest Jeanie,
Here are various oddments... I hope you’ll like the book,41 when you get any time to read it. I’m afraid it’s rather a lot of Spanish politics, which interest me but perhaps not you. But it also has people in it. It comes out on 17th, probably timed for the big bombing of London.
I hear the most pessimistic prophecies from those who are best informed, but they can only be guesses, of course. I am sorry that so many of my friends are on the Nazi black-list, either as Left-Wing, anti-Nazi journalists, writers, publishers, public speakers, or what not. [David] Low is, for one, I hear. And, of course, the Jews, such as Victor Gollancz and Leonard Woolf, and Philip Guedalla, who are anti-Nazi also. Some people have schemes for taking the identity cards from corpses after raids and assuming new hames, but I fear the Gestapo will be up to that.
I hear hundreds of walkers, cyclists and motorists are now lost in the countryside, all sign-posts and names of villages taken down,42 and the public advised to give no information to enquirers, which seems cruel. I feel there should be some shibboleth. Mind you stop at once if a man with a gun tells you to, as they now have leave to shoot those who don’t, and a lot of untrained men are wandering about with rifles looking for parachuters, who are often dressed as nurses. So do be careful. Dear me, what a fantastic world we have come to inhabit! Phillips Oppenheim, it seems.43
Marvellous weather. Did you hear the bombing in the eastern counties last night again? Portsmouth too seems to be getting it….
Very much love.
E.R.M.
University Women’s Club, 2, Audley Square, W.1
14 June, [1940]
Dearest Jeanie,
Many thanks for your cards. I only read the first one after my clergyman44 had gone, as he came too early, and your card came just as he did. But I know he would say (and think) that the Church does teach universal love, though it doesn’t practise it successfully, of course. Still, it would have been interesting to discuss it with him. Also clerical knowledge of psychology. At least—would it? He… has a habit of uttering slightly unanswerable clichés which aren’t true—e.g. ‘Beauty is the only truth, isn’t it’—this in the course of suggesting that novelists should concentrate wholly on ‘showing God’ to their readers. I expect, not being one, he can’t understand that novelists do much better when they write of some aspect of life as they see and know it, to the best of their ability, and aren’t thinking about God and beauty, but about the human beings they are representing. One can’t really argue about that. I think his is the professional point of view. He thinks I have ‘an immense power for good’, and should ‘use it for God’. I have been often told that, but never by people who write, and know how novelists write their stuff best. He is vexed about the Churches pulling so little weight; but he himself, I gather, has quite a little clientele (largely of shop assistants) who come to his services and who consult him. I think he is probably eager to help people, but perhaps something of a humbug unconsciously…. However, he is really keen in his job, which is a great thing.
I have just been at the French Red Cross (25, Belgrave Square, s.w.i) and have probably got a job as an ambulance driver, to go fairly soon if it comes off. No private cars can now get over. This would be driving ambulances for the French army at the front—interesting, quite, and I hope it comes off.... I would rather, actually, drive an ambulance than work among refugees, as I have had more experience of it. I must now improve my mechanical knowledge, so as to be able to cope with all repairs if necessary. I will let you know any more I hear. I shall store my car again. If I should (improbably) get bumped off in the mêlée, I leave it to you. But that is most unlikely, I dare say I should be more likely to perish here. I shall slightly regret having to leave London if we are to be invaded, as who knows what will happen to people, or to my flat? I must have some one to look after it and keep my books
& things from the Germans. Perhaps I had better lend it to some one who will take care of it and keep Mrs Browne on….
Much love….
E.R.M.
I’m so glad you like the book.45
Flat 7, 8, Luxborough St, W.1
21 June, [1940]
Dearest Jeanie,
King-Hall writes in much more chastened mood than usual, though angry at having been so misled all this time. I am afraid he is only too often misled, like the rest of us. But his proposals for the future seem good—though I don’t like his estimate of a 5-years war. News still goes on of great dissensions in France. Reynaud is said by one paper to be under arrest, but this may not be true. Anyhow, old Pétain and his gang are said to be the worst possible leaders for the situation, being right-wing, clericalist, and slightly pro-Fascist, so more inclined to come to terms with Hitler than the bulk of the nation would be. The most heart-rending stories one hears, I think, are of the Gestapo let loose in Paris and elsewhere to arrest those refugees and internees who have fled from them before. I am afraid there is great bitterness against us in France, for not having sent them more troops and armaments in all these months. What were we thinking of, going on slacking as we did? We have let them down terribly—they us too, of course, by not fighting better and always letting the enemy through to get behind us, but that was much less bad than our long apathy and indifference and slackness. They say Churchill’s union proposal46 was rejected by the French Cabinet by 13 votes to 10, and not mentioned on the French wireless or press at all. They thought we were after their colonies, it seems. What tragedies alliances lead to!…
The Cambridgeshire town in which those houses were wrecked on Tuesday night was Cambridge, by the way. I hope to have details of it from Dorothea47 sometime soon. I am dining with the Ogilvies to-night, and shall hope to make a few suggestions about programmes.48 They are very nice people, both of them.
Very much love, it was so nice seeing you.
E.R.M.
Collins says my book is going well, in spite of the War. I expect it scores from so few novels coming out just now; so has fewer competitors.
Thursday [25 June, 1940]49
... What a good idea about Canada—I do hope you will go.50 Will could meet you at the place of landing, I suppose there wouldn’t be time for you to go to Alberta. I know they want nurses to take the children.
What a nuisance if Romford visits are really stopped…. I suppose they are afraid of spies. It is a bore if it goes on. In fact, I think you had better move to another district if possible, as we mustn’t be parted for the duration—may be 20 years. But I’ll do my best, with my identity card and a lot of urgent business to transact.
Did you have warbles last night?51 We did—and woken up again later by the All Clear, so feel very jaded to-day. I haven’t yet heard where the bombs fell or what they did, except that a bull was killed, a good riddance. They are now bombing the South-West too. Harold Nicolson says the Gov: are much afraid of public morale being shaken by bombing, so that they clamour for capitulation. I met him and Mr Ogilvie and H. G. Wells at dinner last night. Poor Mr O. is told he must be lower brow in talks for the simple, and higher brow for the educated, etc., and has a very rough time altogether. I told H.N. how good his talks were; he has been rather hurt by the attack in the House of Commons.52 I am improving my bandaging to-day, also stretcher-bearing, but this isn’t good for my back just now, and I hope to leave it to others in real life.
Love till to-morrow.
E.R.M.
[After 29 June, 1940]
Dearest Jeanie,
I am sending Picture Post, which came out late this week. Tom Wintringham is going on in it about Arming the People.53 It is thought to be a great way of keeping us determined not to surrender—that, and promising us a better England. And we really should do something more about rubbing it in day & night what an awful England it would be under the Nazis. I hear that it is very common to hear people say it would be as good as it is now, so why not let them come quietly instead of bombing us first? If that spirit grows, we are done. It was very strong in France, apparently. There was an interesting article in The Star last night about the state of affairs which had led up to the French collapse—I do hope we shall avoid it. A mixture of Right Wing, very anti-left & slightly (therefore) pro-Nazi politicians, more afraid of social revolution than of Hitler; of Communism; and of sheer defeatist apathy. The great thing here is to embattle everyone’s mind. There is a terrible lot of bitterness and anger in the B.E.F. By the way, I’ve not yet seen the Savings Committee (I hope to to-day) but all intelligent people tell me it would be absurd to sell investments now—it is simply annihilating money (about half one’s capital) which otherwise would be used for useful purposes, when things improve. Better than that, hand one’s investments over bodily to the State. The National Savings Committee are asking not for investments but for loose money not invested.54 I will let you know when I have talked to the N.S.C.
Very much love….
E.R.M.
Friday [19 July, 1940]
Dearest Jeanie,
Here is King-Hall. You will notice (I hope) that you are becoming quite alone among right-minded people in your views on the alien question.55…
To-night I have to read aloud for 4 minutes at 11.55 at the B.B.C., in the ‘And so to bed’ series. They get a different person each night (well known, or moderately so) to read anything they like. I shall read two poems of a somnolent nature, which I shall recommend for saying to oneself after the light is out, to send oneself to sleep. You won’t hear me, you will be, I hope, long ago asleep.
What is all this fuss about not repeating things ‘Haw Haw’56 is supposed to have said?57 I thought the man last night very tiresome and silly about it. I can’t see what harm it can possibly do, to believe that Germany hears things quickly about us. I wish they would explain. They seem to me to get fixed ideas about things, and not really know any reason against them.
I am waiting eagerly for the peace-kite,58 aren’t you. If it seems a good one, who knows but that we may encourage it?
Much love.
E.R.M.
24 July, 1940
Dearest Jeanie,
Many very happy returns of to-morrow. (How many will any of us have?) I shall be coming at about 4 or 4.30 for a short time, so can also give my good wishes in person. It has been a very fortunate year for me, I haven’t seen so much of you for a long time, and it seems almost too good to last. These almost weekly chats are a tremendous pleasure in my life.
I do hope you will get through the next week without breaking down, and that August will be a proper holiday for all of us…. How thankful I am that you aren’t going to spend it with sea-sick evacuees on the ocean!… Did you like Halifax?59 I thought him v. poor, he sounded so tired and spiritless. It reads better than it sounded, he read it so badly. Some one said afterwards that he feels self-conscious about talking about religion. If so, he shouldn’t do it, but should leave it to the Bishops. I think too he should have replied to Hitler much more circumstantially, it would look better before the wor’d.
I’m so glad we have got the Government down about the Silence Column and Rumour-mongers, and that the sentences will be remitted or revised.60 It really does make one feel we have a democracy. The Aliens too are going to be revised.
They have started the idea at my Ambulance [Station] of putting down a list of people who would be willing to be telephoned for to come at once during raids. I found I was on it, so had to agree, though not altogether in favour of it. The Commandant had decided that I wouldn’t mind, I don’t know on what grounds, and I didn’t like to undeceive her. But as it takes me about ½ hour to get there (counting getting the car out of the garage) I think the raid might be over before I was there.
What do you think of the new budget? Very much love for the year. It will be, as Aunt Frances61 always said, a very strange year, whatever else it proves. It will anyhow be nice to meet to-morrow.
/> Your very loving twin,62
E.R.M.
[Postmark: Petersfield, Hants]63
Friday [23 August, 1940]
… I wish you were here, to help pick blackberries. I found a splendid blackberry patch, and Margaret and I went there, tricycling and bicycling yesterday and picked 2 lbs for jam; which Ethel64 is making to-day, in time for me [to] take away my pot on Monday…. The jam smells lovely this morning….
De Gaulle was v.g. last night.65 So was a French speaker explaining to French R.C.’s that R.C.’s needn’t be pro-surrender, and explaining away the Vatican utterances. Baudouin66 says this morning that what Churchill calls humiliating apathy and submission is really Christian meditation which accompanies re-generation. This re-generation idea that the R.C. French are trying to spread is dreadful, as it seems to mean submission, and withdrawal from political thought, and concentrating on agriculture and breeding children. We are having a lull here for the last few days. Our windows shook at the Calais guns last night—we didn’t know what it was. Was Deal hit, and was Dover? They don’t say….
I liked De Gaulle’s contemptuous comments on the new French ministers: ‘Le Ministre de la Guerre—quelle guerre?’ No wonder they have condemned him to death….
Much love.
E.R.M.
Wood End, Liss, Hants.
Friday [6 September, 1940]
Dearest Jeanie,
It is so lovely here, I wish you were here. Incredibly perfect hot weather. I hope to walk all afternoon & evening over hills and woods. Rather a bomby night, but nothing quite near, I think. You probably had much noisier ones. The night before last, I watched the battle over East London, from Pad-dington Street—most beautiful, with the search-lights, and parachute flares, and the fiery balls from our guns which are said to be tracer bullets, and the sky lit up with gun-flashes, like sheet-Hghtning, and a wonderful background of stars. The guns were faint, I think about Stratford. I’m so sorry you had such a noisy night, Nancy67 said it was awful. Do you use wax ear-balls? I think this is important. One can’t sleep through bombs, but it does deaden them. Ours last night woke me, and I couldn’t sleep again till about 6.0, but otherwise [they] weren’t disturbing like guns, and didn’t go on long. I’m sure it can’t be good for either of you, it makes one headachey & tired. Was any damage done in Romford again?
Letters to a Sister Page 8
