[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
IHale, Emilyholidays in New Bedford;m8 have just had your letter no. 19 of Dec. 31 from New Bedford, and am rather puzzled that my envelope[s] of enclosures, which have gone by ordinary threehalfpenny post, seem to have been reaching you more promptly than my letters, which have gone by one and threepence air mail. It may simply be that the mails were disorganised more than usual during December, by there being less traffic and probably just as heavy mails as ever. I hope to hear soon that you have all my letters up to date; and it would be helpful if you referred to my letters by number as well as date, because I am not always sure whether you mean the date of my letter or the date on which you received it. You mention, for instance, a letter of the 8th December, and I wonder whether that means the date on which you received it, because I wrote on the 7th, not the 8th of December.
TheSecond World Warthe 'Winter War';b4 newspaperswintercoldest in memory;a5 probably tell you of the severe cold in Europe. When I think of it as holding up the fighting, and assisting the Finnish resistance, I hope that it will continue; but at the same time one remembers the hardships to the poor everywhere, to the fleet and merchant marine – and in this climate it seems to mean a certain diminution of one’s own energy. If the weather had not been steadily clear and fine, we might have had heavy snow fall even in London, but have had hardly any. Tuesday night was the coldest I can remember in London. IBelgion, Montgomeryhosts dinner at Chinese restaurant;c4 went to dine at a Chinese restaurant as one of a small party arranged by Montgomery Belgion: a very nice middle-aged spinster and a young girl in her charge, andCantlie, Kenneth;a1 a talkative Major who had been for some years in the employ of the Chinese government and therefore was able to order the meal.1 I did not feel much like such an expedition when the time came, but as it was a kind of farewell of M.B.’s – he has got a commission in the Army Transport and is shortly leaving for a provincial place for a short course of training – I could not beg off. However, the food, of its Chinese kind, was exceptionally good; and on the way back after dinner, walking the Mile End and Commercial Roads to the tram halt, Limehouse and Limehouse Church looked very romantic with the moonlight shining on a thin fall of snow. But it was cold! Chinese food is rather unsatisfying to me: as with a vegetarian meal, one stuffs and stuffs, and an hour afterwards, after having had the sensation of overeating, suddenly is hungry again: the endless variations of combinations of the same things – bamboo shoots, rice, shredded chicken, bits of rather powerful pork and fish etc. all to be eaten at once. IFranceFrench cuisine;b1;a1 remember a French gourmet once saying to me, that other countries had des plats, but only France and China had a cuisine, and that is true. It is a highly civilised and self-contained system of cookery, but rather terrifyingly alien. The only thing you can properly drink with it is green tea (Chinese rice wine I imagine to be very strong and unpleasant). Everybody spends the first ten minutes trying to eat with chop sticks and has to abandon them for forks; and afterwards I wish that I had had some beefsteak and a glass of claret instead.
Your letter was an especially good and comforting one; and I accept your admonitions without reservation. In a hideous change of circumstances such as that of September, it takes one some time to make the necessary and proper readjustments which will give a place both for new activities of the time and the continuance of one’s natural function. IChristian News-Letter (CNL)becoming too politic for TSE;b2 do not consider it wholly unprofitable for myself, to give a little regular time to criticism of an informal kind – conversation and memoranda – to other people’s affairs such as the C.N.L., but I am beginning to doubt whether this particular venture will need or merit (from my point of view) more than that. ToOldham, Josephas editor of CNL;d2 tell the truth, I have recently begun to wonder (this is wholly confidential, as I don’t want any gossip about such a worthy attempt to get about, and it is too early in any case to pronounce a judgement) whether Oldham is not inclined (from the point of view of the kind of thing that I, and one or two other of the men whose brains I most respect, can do) to be too much of a diplomat and strategist. It is possible that, as Oldham thinks, the publication of a paper on the needs of Educational Reforms, with the fundamental ideas of which I wholly disagree, may be at the moment ‘all the people can take’, and that the introduction of the matter in this way may lead to better ideas later. But this kind of manoeuvring is something which I cannot engage in; and I am always afraid that ‘strategy’ may lead only to compromise and failure of an ignominious kind. It represents the attitude of Archbishops etc. who to my mind are far too diplomatic. I should prefer a bold Christian message, for those who have ears to hear.2 But this is in a way an official Churches paper – it is under the auspices of a council of Anglican and Free Church hierarchs – and has to aim at a large circulation. I suppose that it is now as good as a paper that is to retain a circulation of 10,000 can be; but if, as they hope, they get a circulation of 20,000 – why then it cannot afford to be as good as it is now. Don’t mention this criticism to anyone: I give it to you, as evidence that I do not want to waste energy on this affair, but only to give to it what I usefully can; and that I ought soon to know pretty clearly exactly beyond what limits I should not bother to go.
IMurder in the Cathedral1940 Latham Mercury revival;f8wartime modern-dress production suggested;a2 expectDukes, Ashleysuggests wartime Murder revival;f8 to see Ashley Dukes next week to discuss the possibility of a modern dress Murder. Did I tell you that I was well advised to buy three suits of light wool underwear? If I had waited for the very cold weather I might not so easily have got what I wanted. NowSecond World Warrationing;b7 I have enough clothes to last for some time, and I don’t think that there will be any shortage of food staples – actually, I think I am eating more butter than before, because I am more butter-conscious. The shortages will come in minor ways; and the prices of odds and ends of necessary things – such as toilet articles – will probably go up: but I think both shortages and higher prices will come gradually. As I told you, I am interested in finding out about American opinion, if I can. SeenSecond World Warand America's response;b8 from here, the reluctance of the American government and Congress to release munitions – or credits for munitions – for Finland appears grotesque. ApparentlyBell, Bernard Iddingsapparently anti-British;a8 my old acquaintance Iddings Bell is rather anti-British: I am trying to find out what he said. He is a sound Catholic, I think, and has done much good in many ways; he is also intelligent. But he is somewhat plebeian; and I dare say that his intellectual isolation in America, and the shabby treatment he has several times received, because of holding independent opinions which were not those of the people who could have helped him, have gone towards making his temper more difficult.
I am glad that you can give a somewhat reassuring report of yourself from New Bedford – yes, don’t go to midnight service again; we did not have any this year. IHügel, Friedrich vonLetters from Baron Friedrich von Hügel to a Niece;a7 amHale, Emilyreading;w8Letters from Baron Friedrich von Hügel to a Niece;a2 glad if you have found refreshment in von Huegel’s letters; it is a precious book. As for what you wish for me: the physical danger, please God, does not seem to be great – I walk carefully in the dark; my physical health I consider nowadays, as the nervous strain of life is greater; for spiritual health I need your prayers also. And your gentle reminder of my proper function in writing is never superfluous and always welcome. I desire to keep on growing and developing, to avoid narrowing or petrifying, and to keep as much alive as if I were in your company always. And as you suggest, to welcome a mood of gaiety even now and then in these times.
1.KennethCantlie, Kenneth Cantlie (1899–1986) – whose godfather was Sun Yat-Sen (1866–1925), first President of the Republic of China – was a British engineer who had worked in China, India and Argentina: he was famous for designing the KF 4–8–4 locomotive (a huge engine built in Britain for the Chinese railways); later a trade consultant with links to international espionage. See the Kenneth Cantlie Archive at the National Railway Museum. See further TSE to Hayward, 17 Jan. 1940 (Letters 9, 390–2).
2.Matthew 11: 15: ‘He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.’
4.MontgomeryBelgion, Montgomery (‘Monty’) Belgion (1892–1973), author and journalist: see Biographical Register.
3.BernardBell, Bernard Iddings Iddings Bell, DD (1886–1958), American Episcopal priest, author and cultural commentator; Warden of Bard College, 1919–33. In his last years he was made Canon of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Chicago, and a William Vaughn Lecturer at the University of Chicago.
1.KennethCantlie, Kenneth Cantlie (1899–1986) – whose godfather was Sun Yat-Sen (1866–1925), first President of the Republic of China – was a British engineer who had worked in China, India and Argentina: he was famous for designing the KF 4–8–4 locomotive (a huge engine built in Britain for the Chinese railways); later a trade consultant with links to international espionage. See the Kenneth Cantlie Archive at the National Railway Museum. See further TSE to Hayward, 17 Jan. 1940 (Letters 9, 390–2).
4.AshleyDukes, Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), theatre manager, playwright, critic, translator, adapter, author; from 1933, owner of the Mercury Theatre, London: see Biographical Register.
8.JosephOldham, Joseph (‘Joe’) Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), missionary, adviser, organiser: see Biographical Register.