[No surviving envelope]
I didn’t get caught this time – I mean not in the same way; I crept out and found my letter just in time to be able to catch the post with this. Dear dear deary me, I am afraid I shall have to tell you, no flesh and blood won’t stand silence in a case like this, was there ever a case like this, but your changing your hotel, I’m not saying it isn’t all for the best, I am sure it is, IFranceParis;b7TSE's 1910–11 year in;a1 know the Rue Cambon well it is very Central and I only pray it won’t be too Noisy – I used to have an English tailor there when I lived in Paris, not the one I go to now – BUT – I must out with it – forgive me – but – the hall porter and the monsieur or madame at the caisse of the Hotel Belmont & Bassano will wag their chins and wonder what to do with the roses delivered for Miss Hale from Guerin in the Avenue Victor-Hugo, and now its too late to do anything about it. But I hope Mrs. Bacon is Right and that it is a Good Hotel.
IMcPherrin, Jeanette;a9 will certainly write to Miss McPherrin about Foreign Exchange IF I can decide or get advice as to what is the best way to hold money. I will try to do something about it. But what DOES one know in the present state of things. For the moment, remember that the French Government may fall at any moment. IfFranceFrench politics;b4French street protest;a2 Doumergue resigns, or possibly even if he doesn’t, there may be riots.1 These usually occur in the evening. Keep away from the Concorde, the Grande Boulevards, the Bvd. St. Germain and the Sorbonne neighbourhood towards nightfall if there is the slightest restlessness, and LOOK AT THE NEWSPAPERS, also look at the people in the street. The French police get excited and heaven know where there [sc. their] bullets may go. It isn’t the mob that is dangerous, but the police. IStavisky, Serge Alexandreand the Stavisky affair;a1 have been following the French movement ever since Stavinsky [sc. Stavisky] died,2 and you haven’t, so don’t take me for a fool. Sarraut has gone, and probably Chéron,3 and heaven knows who next. ThereItalyand Italian–Yugoslavian relations;a2 won’t be any war until either Jugoslavia goes to pieces or loses its head (and the former will take some months) or Germany decides that France is in a state of complete chaos. IfMcPherrin, JeanetteTSE offers to rearrange studies at Cambridge, under I. A. Richards;b1 things should get very bad, Miss McP had better finish her year at Cambridge under Richards. Yes, I thought she thawed a bit on this last occasion; thats allright, I know a little about the Scotch.
NoCaetani, Marguerite (née Chapin);a6, I didn’t give Mde. de Bassiano your address (false) because I thought you might not want to see her on this occasion, it would be embarrassing to have to refuse, or go when you didn’t want to; I merely said she might hear from you. And I am not sure that she is there; but if she is, she will know who you are if you do write or telephone.
And I wonder why you say ‘Until next week, perhaps’? I have a question to ask before your birthday, but I am more likely to get an answer if I wait until you return, to ask.
IGalitzi, Dr Christine;b5 have just received an illegible birthday letter from Miss Galitzi.
It will be the last downpour upon my fireworks if this letter is not delivered until after you leave!
1.The National Union Government of Gaston Doumergue, which had come to power after riots in February 1934, was to fall on 8 Nov. The Radical Socialist members of the coalition cabinet chose to resign rather than to accept the Premier’s insistence that Parliament should be asked to vote provisional credits for government expenses covering the first three months of 1935. Doumergue proposed too to push through constitutional reforms.
2.Alexandre Stavisky (1886–1934), a Polish Jew who had perpetrated massive embezzlement in France, was reported to have killed himself on 8 Jan. 1934. Evidence from the scene showed that he may have been shot by the police. His crimes were thought to have implicated a number of politicians (with a consequent cover-up) including Camille Chautemps (1885–1963), who had been President of the Council of Ministers since Nov. 1933: he resigned on 27 Jan. 1934. During anti-government demonstrations in Paris on 6 Feb., the police shot dead fifteen demonstrators.
3.Albert Sarraut (1872–1962), French radical politician; Prime Minister during the 3rd Republic, Oct.–Nov. 1933; Jan.–June 1936. Henri Chéron (1867–1936), lawyer and politician; from 6 Feb. 1934, Minister of Justice in the Doumergue cabinet. Accused of delaying the prosecution of friends of Stavisky, he was to resign on 14 Oct.
4.MargueriteCaetani, Marguerite (née Chapin) Caetani, née Chapin (1880–1963) – Princesse di Bassiano – literary patron and editor: see Biographical Register. LéliaCaetani, Lélia Caetani (1913–77), sole daughter, was to marry Hubert Howard (1908–87), a scion of the English Catholic House of Howard, who worked to preserve the Caetani heritage at Rome and at the castle of Sermoneta.
1.DrGalitzi, Dr Christine Christine Galitzi (b. 1899), Assistant Professor of French and Sociology, Scripps College. Born in Greece and educated in Romania, and at the Sorbonne and Columbia University, New York, she was author of Romanians in the USA: A Study of Assimilation among the Romanians in the USA (New York, 1968), as well as authoritative articles in the journal Sociologie româneascu. In 1938–9 she was to be secretary of the committee for the 14th International Congress of Sociology due to be held in Bucharest. Her husband (date of marriage unknown) was to be a Romanian military officer named Constantin Bratescu (1892–1971).
2.JeanetteMcPherrin, Jeanette McPherrin (1911–92), postgraduate student at Scripps College; friend of EH: see Biographical Register.