Letters to a Sister (37 page)
Read Letters to a Sister Online
Authors: Constance Babington Smith
129
Lord Cecil of Chelwood, speaking at a Foyle's Literary Luncheon on 15 June, at which the Emperor of Ethiopia was a guest, said he had been told that âto suggest that we ought even now to carry out our obligations would be Midsummer madness'. He had just come back from France, where, he said, there were âmany mad people'.
130
âNot Enough', a satirical comment on a Rome report that âthe lifting of Sanctions will not be enough⦠only a reversal of the League verdict that Italy was the aggressor in Abyssinia would really meet the case'.
1
R. M. had not moved, but Northumberland St had been re-named.
2
Sir Neville Henderson, British Ambassador in Berlin, had flown to London on 26 August, bringing a statement from Hitler emphasizing his demands on Poland. The statement had not been made public.
3
This nickname was derived from the registration number of R.M.'s car: ELX 299.
4
The German liner
Europa,
due to call at Southampton (from New York) on 28 August, had proceeded direct to Bremerhaven with about 40 passengers for Southampton still on board.
5
Britain had been at war since 3 September.
6
German sources had suggested that the British liner
Athenia,
which was torpedoed on 3 September, had been attacked on orders from the British Admiralty, so as to provide material for anti-German propaganda.
7
The
K.-H. News-Letter Service;
a weekly news-letter by Commander Stephen King-Hall.
8
Cdr King-Hall gave his reasons as follows: âWe are at war because France and Great Britain and the Dominions⦠stand in the world for an interpretation of life which is sometimes called democratic. This⦠insists on the value of the individual⦠includes racial and religious tolerance⦠freedom of discussion in the written and spoken word.'
9
Hugh Trevor-Roper, who with J. A. W. Bennett was working on a new edition of Richard Corbet's poems (published 1955), had written to R.M. questioning the date 1612 which she had given for the poem âGreat Tom' in her anthology
The Minor Pleasures of Life
(1934).
10
Postcard.
11
On 16 September the Commander of the German troops before Warsaw had issued a 12-hour ultimatum to the capital, and on the next day Russian troops crossed the eastern frontier of Poland along its whole length.
12
âPeace with Ignominy', see below, p. 91.
13
Postcard.
14
Arthur Greenwood, M.P., was making a broadcast speech to members of the Labour movement in Britain and the Empire.
15
At Margaret Macaulay's house (she had moved to Liss, Hants, from Petersfield).
16
Sir Walter and Lady Nicholson.
17
Sir John Simon's âWar Budget' demanded economies in Government departments.
18
Postcard.
19
The British Expeditionary Force.
20
Kingsley Martin.
21
R.M.'s charwoman.
22
Abp Temple had given a broadcast address on âThe Spirit and Aim of Britain in the War'.
23
Mrs Browne's husband.
24
He had advocated a âtrue Congress of Nations' to decide the terms of Peace âwhen the fighting stops'.
25
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (1871-1946).
26
It has not been possible to identify this article.
27
In the Clackmannan by-election in October 1939 Arthur Woodburn (Labour) gained a majority of 14,000 over Andrew Stewart (Pacifist).
28
This had been urged by D. Lloyd George, see below p. 94.
29
In âOur Turn Now'
(News Chronicle
âWar Diary', 9 October) Hitler's terms, in his recent Reichstag Speech, were described as âutterly unacceptable'.
30
In the
New Statesman
(âOur Way with Neutrals', 16 September), H. N. Brailsford wrote: âIn positive terms our war aim is not merely self-preservation but the maintenance of the values that constitute Western civilizationâhumanity and intellectual freedom foremost among them. By diluting our ranks with powers that know nothing of these values, we might compromise that supreme objective.'
31
A pacifist organization formed in 1935, under the leadership of George Lansbury and Canon Sheppard, âto express the positive side of pacifism'.
32
Christ's College.
33
The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Marylebone Road.
34
On 12 October Neville Chamberlain rejected Hitler's peace proposals.
35
R.M. and Jean Macaulay had persuaded some of their friends to join them in signing telegrams to Neville Chamberlain, as a last-minute effort to stop the war.
36
H. G. Strauss, M.P.
37
There was only one programme at this time, allegedly because of the danger of giving navigational aid to enemy aircraft.
38
A. MacLaren, M.P.
39
A letter from Dr William Brown on âThe Make-up of Hitler âwas published in
The Times
on 19 October. He identified Hitler's main tendencies as follows: (1) an hysterical tendency, (2) a paranoid tendency, (3) a growing megalomania, and (4) a compulsive tendency towards more and more âbloodless victories'.
40
An Anglo-German organization, accused of being an instrument of Nazi propaganda, which was closed down in September 1939.
41
And No Mans Wit,
R.M.'s latest novel.
42
In case of airborne invasion.
43
The novels of E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) dealt mainly with adventure and political intrigue.
44
It has not been possible to identify him.
45
And No Mans Wit.
46
The British Government's offer of an act of Union between Britain and France, which had been announced on 16 June.
47
Dorothea Conybeare, R.M.'s first cousin.
48
F. W. Ogilvie (later Sir Frederick Ogilvie) was then Director-General of the B.B.C.
49
Postcard.
50
Jean Macaulay had volunteered to take parties of evacuee children to Canada.
51
This was the first air-raid warning in London since September 1939.
52
Harold Nicolson was then Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Information. In a House of Commons debate on 28 May his broadcasting style had been rudely criticised.
53
âArm the Citizens',
Picture Post,
29 June, 1940.
54
On 18 June the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir Kingsley Wood) had made an appeal to âpatriotic citizens in a position to do so' to lend money to the nation without interest till the war was over. On 21 June he reported a âmagnificent' response.
55
Jean Macaulay was then in favour of interning all aliens, whereas in Parliament, letters to the press, etc., it was being argued that there should be a âsifting process' and that âfriendly aliens' should not be subject to internment.
56
âLord Haw Haw', i.e. William Joyce, broadcaster of German propaganda (executed for treason in 1946).
57
A Ministry of Information campaign for a âSilent Column composed of men and women who are resolved to say nothing that can help the enemy' had been launched on 11 July.
58
It was being rumoured in Rome that a last-minute âconference of belligerents' might be called to try to avert direct conflict with Britain.
59
In a broadcast speech on 22 July Lord Halifax, as Foreign Secretary, replied to Hitler's summons to âcapitulate to his will'. He defined the freedom for which Britain was fighting, and denounced âthe challenge of anti-Christ'.
60
It was announced in Parliament on 23 July that the âSilent Column' movement was being abandoned, and that sentences imposed for âloose or defeatist talk' would be reviewed.
61
Frances Conybeare
(née
Cropper, 1847-1933).
62
See above p. 50n.
63
Postcard.
64
Margaret Macaulay's cook-general at Liss. See above p. 88n.
65
General de Gaulle had made a world broadcast as leader of the Army of all Free Frenchmen.
66
Paul Baudouin, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Vichy Government.
67
Nancy Willetts, the friend with whom Jean Macaulay lived at Romford.
68
Negley Farson,
Behind God's Back
(1940).
69
Mary Macaulay (1867-1953).
70
During the first two weeks of September, 1940, German invasion barges were massing at the Channel ports.
71
The caretaker at 8 Luxborough Street.
72
R.A.F. targets on the night of 10 September.
73
Postcard.
74
As protection in air-raids.
75
Owing to the intense dislike for Quisling in Norway he had been excluded from the Cabinet in the new regime.
76
The weekly
Christian News Letter,
first published in October 1939 (by Dr J. H. Oldham) for the Council on the Christian Faith and the Common Life.
77
The issue of 25 September, 1940 included an extract from a letter from an air-raid warden who had found that gardening and also country dancing were helpful in âforging new social bonds'.
78
General de Gaulle, leading a Free French force, and supported by a British naval squadron, had tried unsuccessfully to establish a foothold at Dakar.
79
âColonel' J. C. Wedgwood, later Baron Wedgwood of Barlaston (1872-1943).
80
John W. Cudahy.
81
Postcard.
82
254 Collier Row Lane, Romford, Jean Macaulay's flat.
83
An Institution of the L.C.C. Public Assistance Department which was almost next door to Luxborough House.
84
See R.M.'s
Three Days
(1919).
85
âThe Cold Shoulder'. Many Danes were wearing a small badge with the letters D.K.S., to express their feelings about the occupying Germans.
86
On 17 July, 1941, after P. G. Wodehouse had been released from internment in Germany, and it had been announced that he would give a weekly broadcast from Germany to the U.S., the B.B.C. broadcast a sneering attack on him by âCassandra' of the
Daily Mirror.
This broadcast aroused violent criticism on grounds of its bad taste. Four days later Duff Cooper, who was responsible for the broadcast, was succeeded as Minister of Information by Brendan Bracken.
87
In âThe Londoner's Diary'
(see Evening Standard
of 22 July, 1941) there had been a paragraph in defence of the broadcast: âI prefer Cassandra to P. G. Wodehouse as a broadcaster, Cassandra is vigorous and vulgar, like the late William Cobbett. He speaks, as he writes, at the top of his voice, and he hates humbug and the enemies of his country.'
1
On 9 February, 1944 the House of Lords debated Bombing Policy (with special reference to the âarea bombing' of German towns) and on 16 February the Preservation of Historical and Art Treasures. The latter debate was chiefly concerned with the dangers to art treasures in Italy, in the light of the recent bombing of the Benedictine Abbey at Monte Cassino.
2
The Bp of Chichester (Rt Rev. G. K. A. Bell) had challenged the Government's policy on bombing enemy towns, and demanded a respect for the distinction between military and non-military objectives.
3
Lord Lang of Lambeth had said: âIt is one thing to accept the destruction of military objectives as a regrettable military necessity; it is quite another thing to exult in it, to gloat over it. If it be true that such a mood... of exultation is becoming prevalent among large sections of the people, it must involve a very lamentable lapse in their moral outlook.'
4
The Abbey at Monte Cassino had been heavily bombarded on 15 February; its destruction by bombing took place a month later.
5
Probably âScrounging and Stealing', an âunfinished discussion on whether “knocking off” is different from stealing', which was broadcast on 17 February, 1944.
6
Mary Macaulay's Irish maid.
7
In February 1946, following a period of mounting tension in French-Spanish relations, the Pyrenees frontier had been closed, and the Spanish frontier garrisons strengthened. The frontier was not fully reopened until February 1948.
8
The engagement of Princess Elizabeth and Lieut. Philip Mountbatten.
9
The Conference organized by Britain and France to discuss the Marshall offer of economic aid had opened in Paris on 12 July.
10
Spain had not been invited to take part.
