1937 January
From LJT to Annette
The Towers
Cossipore
Calcutta
Jan 5th 1937
My darling Annette
This Christmas business in Calcutta is really almost too much of a good thing, and when it is accompanied by the arrival of Ron Kaulback and John Hanbury Tracy – with whom I would like to talk by the hour and then by a visit from the Master General of the Kings Ordanance in India accompanied by his Lady Wife (“a bear of very little brain”) who are now staying her for six days, I seem to have little time for anything but coping with my guests, the housekeeping and going out to parties –
The welcome letters arrived Saturday – my poor Anne! I am grieved for your troubles with “Smell” – All I can say is its splendid practice for you in dealing with difficult people – quite likely more useful than the actual absorbing of the facts of any branch of knowledge.
I met a charming young French woman at lunch with the Vissers yesterday – She is a Mdelle Broques and is out here as sort of Companion to the Viceroy’s daughters – I was asking her advice about possible arrangements for you in Paris – She thinks living with a family and attending lectures at the Sorbonne would be the best thing – She has promised to send me the address of some friends of hers who have girls as “p-gs” occasionally – She says they are charming people, and as she is so bright and obviously well bred herself, it is probable her friends are nice too – At any rate if she remembers to write, it might be worth investigating.
Rosemary seems to have done fairly well for her first term in the big school – I always had an idea that Miss Mann rather underestimated Rosemary’s intelligence – Miss Capsticks comment on Rosemary, the first time I went back to see you at South Hall, was far more penetrating “As for Rosemary” she said “she will do anything she really wants to.” –
It quite appals me thing of the pile of letters I have to write! so I’ll not go further with this
Your wooden dish looks so nice – It is standing on a table made of Sikkim Walnut, which has gone a nice dark colour and the contrast with the pinkish brown of your dish is pleasant to the eye
Best love, my darling, from
Mum
From HPV to Annette
Calcutta
Jan 6th 1937
My dear Annette.
A pleasant story today from the General; who is staying here. Merely that a Babu sitting behind him at a match shouted “Bravo! bravo! – very bravo!!”
The General and his wife. Staying here for a week. He inspects Mr Matthews. Rather a stick and not too popular when he was stationed in Calcutta: but he unbends and in a dry way is genial. The sad thing about Generals is that they have to be entertained: or rather other people have to be entertained in their honour – asked in to meals and such; and the other people do not know when to move off.
On Monday I was put to shame. To lunch with the Vissers: 3 Dutch 2 French and 2 English – and a lot of French conversation. The shame was that I not only couldn’t speak it and couldn’t follow it but could not even hear it! Just as happens when one listens to a language that one does not know at all. In excuse (1) it was in a restaurant with the devils’ own babble all round us and (2) I was tired out. Tired owing to a stomach ache, not owing to any exertions in the way of work or pleasure. The belly pains of which I made mention last week continued with me. Causing feebleness though I lay about a lot. – However to avoid any suggestion of gloom let me say at once that they have been far better these last two days: today indeed I have done a lot of work, the which is a favourable sign.
(change of ink) Mosquitoes at that stage drove me into bed. They are thick this morning. I have broken the frame of my spectacles hitting at one of them which attempted to settle on my nose. A loss: real tortoiseshell costing several pounds.
Most of the week I spent in lying about with the idea of giving my insides a chance of recovery. But there was a lot of doing even so. I took Ron and his pal to the movies on Saturday night. The General arrived on Sunday. A lunch, a garden party and the Viceroy’s ball on Monday. People to dinner before the ball. People to dinner on Tuesday. Yesterday nothing for me; the others went to a Himalayan Club dinner and lecture.
(But the only thing that really interests me is the state of my inside)
Much love
Dad
Family letter from LJT
The Towers
Cossipore
Calcutta
Jan 7th 1936
My Dears,
At the end of my letter of the 24th December, I see I wrote “I really will try to write you a better letter next week”, and then I did not write you one at all! Christmas is always a whirl in Calcutta, and added to it this year we had the pleasure of welcoming Ron Kaulback and John Hanbury Tracy back from their protracted journeying in Tibet. I had the best intentions of shutting myself up to write my mail on Thursday but Ron and John were unpacking all sorts of fascinating things from odd looking boxes and bundles, and I kept on leaving off my writing to look at their treasures. Ron has given me a lovely present of a jade bowl (I think it is jade) and John has given me a dear little dagger or knife, in a sheath of silver alloy set with turquoise. I also had a present from the man who has been with them as one of their servants, Lewa, the old Everest Sirdar. He came up to the drawing-room, walking very carefully in his big nailed boots, and carrying across his hands a large sword, which he had brought all the way from Central Tibet for me.
We were sorry that Ron and John did not arrive here for Christmas. We had a pleasant Christmas day. We did not do anything in the morning. Lunch was early so that we could get in to Calcutta in good time to watch the polo, two splendid games in the Indian Polo Championship, and from there we went to tea with Percy Brown in his flat, and later to dine with Harry and Winsome. We were a comfortable little party of eight, and spent the time after dinner happily making and flying paper areoplanes. Idris was one of the party, and Arthur Dash in whose house H.D. and Winsome are living was another, and as both of them are Air Pilots they were full of professional ideas about adjustments of these paper planes.
I’m not going to attempt to tell you all about the gay doings of Calcutta’s Christmas week. The Government Offices all shut from the 24th Dec till the 1st of Jan, and the business houses take a good many holidays too. The Viceroy is in Calcutta for his annual visit, and the ships of the East India Squadron and the newly formed Indian Navy come for a week or so. Party follows close on the heels of party. The Governor entertains the viceroy and the Viceroy entertains the governor. The local Princes such as the Maharajas of Burdwan, Cooch Behar, and Tripura entertain everybody. There are a number of private revels, especially on New Year’s Eve, when the different Clubs and hotels indulge in fancy-dress dances. The Saturday Club, which is where I spent this New Year’s eve in accordance with custom, bets into a real Carnival mood. After the New Year has come and Old Lang Syne has finished, the band come down from their dais and march out of the Club, round three sides of it in the public road and in by the opposite gate, playing old tunes, and new, and practically all the revellers dance after them. Its a merry custom. Back in the Club everyone moves about to greet old friends and wish them a happy new Year and there is much license in the matter of kissing. I was in a small party with Walter and Kitty Jenkins. Ron and John, both looking fine in Tibetan Clothes, went as free lances with an old Cambridge friend of Ron’s, and Ron drifted in and out of our party, and we saw the New Year to-gether. Herbert stood up to the first part of the Christmas festivities very well indeed, but unfortunately ate something later in the week which upset his digestion, and he felt off colour for some days, and is not quite right again yet. We watched polo on one or two days, which he always enjoys. On my birthday, Dec 27th, we watched the final of the Indian Polo Championship, between a team of Englishmen, who called themselves the Bing Boys, and Jaipore who have won the Championship for some five years in succession. It was the most thrilling and brilliant game I have ever watched, and I have seen some fine games in previous Christmas weeks. The Bing Boys all-but won. They were only beaten by one goal, and twice they had bad luck over missing goals. On one occasion the ball was going straight for the goal and glanced off a pony’s hoof, and another time hit the goal post and rolled the wrong side of it.
At the viceroy’s Garden Party on the 30th Dec, I met his Medical Officer, Col. Elliot, who is a brother-in-law of my friend Magda Elliot, who used to be Magda Salverson, and also brother of a girl who used to be at that funny little day-school I went to in Portsmouth. We were on the look out for one another, as Magda had warned us both, and after his duty in helping to greet the guests was over, he came and had a long chat with me. We were joined by some friends of mine, who were also old friends of his, Dr and Mrs Judah, and arranged to lunch with the Judahs the next day. This was one of the things that cut chort my time for writing my letters last Thursday, but Col Elliot was so nice, and I so much enjoyed hearing news of Magda and her family, and of his sister, that I succumbed to the temptation to accept the invitation. We actually managed several more talks, for he managed to join us at the Mayor’s garden party, and also for a vit at the Viceregal Ball which took place on the 4th.
Ron and John kept clear of most of the big parties, partly on account of lack of clothes, for they only got the boxes which they left in Burmah, on this last Saturday, and only had about one suit each, and no evening things. The night before they left Calcutta some twenty two months ago, we dined in China Town, and thought it a great success. We remembered this when they got back here, and I said we might repeat the party, except that I expected that the last thing they wanted was Chinese food. They said on the contrary, they liked it very much, so we arranged a party for New Year’s Day, which rapidly grew to twelve. It was really very amusing. Some of the party were in the mood when they were ready to laugh at anything, and saw double and treble meanings in practically every remark. The laughter was encouraged by the fact that most of us were brave enough to eat our Chinese food out of basins with chop-sticks. We did not finish the last of our green tea till past 10 o’clock, and as most of us had been up the better part of the previous night, seeing the New Year in, we thought that home to bed was a better idea than seeking some belated amustment.
We had to pull ourselves to-gether on Saturday to greet General Sir Henry ap Rhys Pryce, Master of the Kings Ordanance in India and his Lady wife, who arrived to stay here. General ap (Variously known to the troops as “What Price Rice” or simply “tum” which as a good many of you know, is the mode of address to common people in Hindustani as opposed to the honorific “ap”) is the top dog in the Ordanance Dept, and comes round once a year inspecting all the Ordanance Factories. Idris wanted to ask him to stay for the week he spends in this neighbourhood, but we were rather taken aback when he telegraphed to know if he might bring his wife too. She is a large and kindly lady, who might be described as “a bear of very little brain”. She is a Christian Scientist, to boot, and at odd moments tries to get me to sit and discuss the higher matters of the soul, when I am extremely busy about the Martha-ish matters of our daily life. Ron behaved beautifully with her, and she tells me she thinks he is a charming young man, and has such an interesting face.’ (Ron may skip this bit if this letter comes into his hands). We or rather I, shall be relieved when they go on Saturday, for Lady ap takes up a lot of time. She likes to talk a good deal about everything she is thinking of doing, and change her mind several times. Luckily they are both out for the day to-day, so I can write my letters undisturbed.
Ron and John had intended to go off on Saturday, but owing to holidays in the customs Dept, they did not get their luggage till Saturday, and then would have had to get their passports renewed, so they had to put off their departure till to-day. However this being a bit over-full, they went in to Calcutta, where they are staying with Harry and Winsome.
Winsome, by the way is quite fit again now.
The Himalayan Club gave a dinner to Dr and Mrs Visser, the Dutch Explorers and mountaineers last night. When first I sent out the notices I thought the dinner was going to be a frost, for so few people sent in their names. However at the end we were well up to average numbers, and people did not seem jaded by all the late nights we have had. The dinner went merrily. The lecture was amusing, and the pictures were wonderful, and though it finished at 11 o’clock, groups of people stayed on talking and drinking till 12.30 A.M., so it was past 1 o’clock by the time I got home.
Major Morris, who was transport officer to the Everest Expedition last year, was passing through Calcutta yesterday, and had tea with me, but his arrangements would not allow him to stay for the dinner, which was a pity. He is such a delightful person.
The factory whistle is blowing its one o’clock blast, so I shall make an end of this.
Best love to you all
From LJT to Annette
The Towers
Cossipore
Jan 14th 1937
My darling Annette
Congratulations on a good report, especially when earned under such difficulties of long absence. I am glad you have “fulfilled the duties of Head of School in a most satisfactory manner” – I am pleased with Rosemary’s report too – I think Miss Capstick understands Rosemary far better than Miss Mann – I feel that her improvement in French is in part due to the advice given to her by you, which probably carried more weight than what we wrote home.
Poor Dad has fallen into one of his “sloughs of despond” the last few days. Its quite a while since he was as badly down in the dumps, even when he had indigestion and tummy ache last week. Its impossible to find anything that pleases him when he is in one of these troughs of depression – Anything that is suggested to divert him – or that he comes to of his own accord, he finds tiresome or tireing or something, and yet he gets insufferably bored if he does nothing, so its very difficult to know what to be at with him – I do so regret that he gave up both golf and billiards – but nothing I can say or do will make him take them up again. However I don’t get worried by these fits of depression as I used to do. He has always had them and he always gets over them. He has the excuse this week that work has all gone against him. The Finance Dept are stimieing him so completely, that I want him to chuck in his hand and go. I would like him to go to the Governor and tell him frankly that all his promises and orders are worth no more than the proverbial scrap of paper, since the Finance Dept, while apparantly agreeing and carrying out the orders, manages to nullify them by some ingenious trick. I’d like to have a heart to heart talk with the Governor myself, but its not very likely that I shall get a chance down here in the gay season with so many “nobs” about –
Well now – how are you off for over-work? I hope you wont work yourself to death for this scholarship business I don’t really fear you will – I think and hope you have the more solid and placed temperament of my side of the family, which does not tear itself to pieces over things.
David Pilkington talked to me a bit about Richard – and like you he is somewhat comforting and says that this pacifist attitude is quite common and usually does not take very long to get over – I still have a sneaking feeling that it goes unfortunately deep with Richard – I shall be interested if you have thought to give your impression of him –
Best love, my darling from
Mum
P.S. I have the address of some people in Paris, recommended by the very charming French girl who is out here as a sort of companion to the Viceroy’s daughters – They have girls as “pgs” and would help with arrangements about working at the Sorbonne of wherever was desired – I think I will write to them soon and enquire about terms – that would not commit us to anything – Mean time I hope I shall hear from you what are your own ideas on the subject.
Mum
Family letter from LJT
The Towers
Cossipore
Calcutta
Jan 14th 1936 (should have been ‘37’)
My Dears,
If I am not mistaken this is my twin brothers’ birthday. Many happy returns of the day to them!
Life has now returned to a more normal course after the holidays, and the departure of Sir Henry and Lady ap Rhys Pryce. They went off on Saturday evening, after dinner. Since their departure I have got through a lot of Himalayan Club work. I went in to Calcutta on Sunday morning, and spent about an hour and a half going into the question of our equipment with the man who has just taken over as Equipment Officer. He seems very keen and very through, so I hope he will do well with the job, which has become quite a heavy one.
Most of my time on Friday was devoted to meeting David Pilkington, the son of my old school friend, Evelyn Pilkington, who was out here for a few years at the time when the children were very small. David has come out to join the firm of Bird & Co, and came round by sea to Calcutta on a B.I. Boat. Luckily Idris Mathews also had some old friends arriving from England by that boat, so we arranged to go down to the docks to-gether. At the last we had a rush, for the boat which had been reported as being due in the dock at 2 p.m., arrived at mid.day instead. We just got there in time, and met our respective friends successfully. I had arranged for David to stay a few days with Percy Brown, as the house was full here, and there would also have been difficulty about getting David in to office in time of a morning. After dumping the luggage at P.B.’s flat, Idris took us to lunch at Firpo’s. David then went off to report himself at his office, and I to do Himalayan Club work at the Geological Survey, where our clerk woks. I got through a lot of arrears of letters before meeting David again at 5 o’clock. We had tea at the United Service Club, and then went to see Harry and Winsome, before meeting Herbert and Percy Brown at the Saturday Club, where we stayed for a Grill dinner, in the new Grill Room where one can “dine Dirty”, and so home to a reasonably early bed. David is a nice lad, and gives me the impression that he ought to do well out here. He has good manners, for a start, and is neither shy nor uppish. He is quick in the uptake, and obviously observes and notices things. He came out here with me on Sunday, after I had done my work with the equipment, and spent the rest of the day here. All four of us reclined in long chairs under the trees by the river after lunch, and dosed for an hour or so. We then pulled ourselves to-gether, and went to Dum Dum, where Idris took David for half hours’ flight all over Calcutta and the neighbourhood, while Herbert and I sat on the very pleasant lawn of the Flying Club and read the newspapers which had just come in, and watched the coolies pushing trucks full of earth and tipping them into the big pond in front of the club, which is to be filled up to enlarge the areodrome. In true Indian style they had omitted to put any sort of block at the end of their little trolley line, just allowing the rails to sag down the edge of the bank, with the result that presently they let one of the trucks run down it. It turned turtle, luckily not in the water. Then the shouting and the talking that took place before they succeeded in getting it up again was tremendous.
I was at a nice party on Monday evening. Sir Edward and Lady Benthall gave a cocktail party under a huge shamiana in their garden, and for the amusement of their guests they had a stage rigged up and flood-lit, and had a charming young Indian woman dancer from southern India performing for us. She is in the first flight of Indian Dancers. Uday Shankar wanted her to dance with him, but she has a husband and a small child, and did not feel she could leave them to go on a world tour. The effect of her dancing in the dark garden, with the flood-lit background of a huge mahogany tree was delightful. All the eminent people in the world of Asiatic Art in Calcutta seemed to be there, and altogether it was a most enjoyable party. Herbert felt that Indian Dancing would be more than he could bear, so he did not come.
He has had for him, rather a lot of social doings during the past fortnight. We had a dinner-party for the ap Rhys Pryces on Thursday night. Amongst our guests were the American Consul-General and his wife. She is a perfectly charming person, and the greatest asset in making a party lively and interesting, because she is so vivacious and intelligent herself. We succeeded in doing what is always a little difficult in a dinner-party of about twelve people, and that is in getting people to move and mix with different groups after dinner. The Whites wanted to see my Tibetan Banners, which are all in my sitting-room, and talk had turned on the stars so various people went out on to the verandah to look at the stars through the telescope, so our guests changed partners so to speak, without being obviously moved about.
It is not often that one goes out into the country round Calcutta, but I had an outing on Tuesday, which was quite like the old mofussil days. I had promised to give away the prizes at the athelitic sports at a girls school run by the RamaKrishna Mission. You may think that Bengali girls and athelitic sports are contradictions in terms, but I assure you that these sports were remarkably good. The RamaKrishna Mission started this school some few years ago in a neglected rural area about twenty miles south of Calcutta. The children are all from the local villages. Little by little they have inspired them with a keenness and energy that are quite remarkable. They have persuaded the parents not to marry their daughters off at the age of fourteen, and there are big girls of fifteen and sixteen still working in the school, and making no sort of attempt at being purdah. What is more remarkable still they do all their physical training work under a most efficient man who trained and worked for some years with the Y.M.C.A., and their costume for all sports and games is a pair of small black shorts and a white shirt. The sports the other day started with hurdling, which I do not think is often attempted in English schools, and yet these girls did it extraordinarily well, and in such good style. They did high jumps and long jumps, sprinting, relay walking race, throwing the javelin and putting the shot, as well as a few comic things. It took me about 1 ½ hours to drive down to the school from here, and I was there from 2 p.m. till 5.15 p.m., so I had a good dose of it. Luckily it was a perfect day, and sitting under the shamiana, the temperature was ideal, neither hot nor cold. Sitting next to me was one of the Ramakrishna monks who is just back from many years of working in South America, and he was most interesting to talk to. This order was founded by Ramakrishna, whose centenary will be celebrated next year. He gave his life to an effort to draw people to-gether into a universal religion, and sent his desciples out to preach all over the world. The greatest of the, Vivakananda, went to America, and appeared poor and unknown with no credentials at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. When he was allowed to speak he made such an impression that the hundreds of people present rose to their feet and cheered him. From that time on his difficulty was to avoid being lionised in America. It was he who gave Ramakrishna’s teaching form in lectures and in books. He must have been a most remarkable man. This Swami from South America told me that in Buenos Aires he gives on an average seven lectures a week, and twelve interviews a day, and after nine or ten months of that, he goes away to some remote mountain or sea-side village to rest and think again. He goes back again in a few months.
To all of you who so kindly sent me presents and letters, I send my apologies for not having written to you personally yet. Please dont think me ungrateful, for I am not, and I will write the moment I can.
Best love to you all
LJT
From HPV to Annette
Calcutta
Jan 14th 1937
My dear Annette.
Nothing to write about except my mental and bodily state. Of the former little good; my mind long feeble has given way altogether – there is no mistake in elementary arithmetic that I have not committed during the last few days. As to the old body, the particular ailment (tummy ache) has disappeared in a general diffused weariness. It is a change for the better because I am getting some work done under these new conditions; but it is not gay.
The Finance Dept has done me down again. Their usual method. Professing to grant what is necessary by way of staff, the allow such low rates of pay that one cannot get the men: then they proclaim that one is altogether unreasonable for not carrying on gratefully. I saw the Governor the other day who told me that I was being given what I asked for: and not having seen the decision, or heard of it before, I was not in a position to say that it was a hoax. How absolutely futile the whole thing is! I am in a weak position: because I do want to get my development scheme working, and they put me into a position when I must either abandon the hope of it or carry on with inadequate means. Maybe this is why I have stomach ache – of course, it is why I have stomach ache in that it necessitates overwork.
It should cheer me up to know that in little more than two months I shall be going on leave; but it doesn’t, for that means that I have little more than two months in which to straighten out the appalling muddle into which things have fallen. Also, strange to say, I have no particular desire to come home to England and even less to knock around in German or in France for that matter. “East of Lucerne there are only crocodiles,” said the French lady: I begin to feel that she might have omitted the limiting words.
I have omitted praise for work well done at school: till now.
Much love
Yours
Dad
From LJT to Annette
The Towers
Cossipore
Calcutta
Jan 21st – 1937
My darling Annette
It was fun hearing about Joey’s dance and about Christmas – I am glad the dance was such a success – I was sure it would be, because anything that Auntie puts her hand to, she does so well, however simple it has to be. I don’t think it is surprising that you were a little tired – In fact I think the marvel is that you were not all completely dead by the time the evening came, when you had been so busy with preparations beforehand. I am a little worried to hear about the smarting of your eye, but you know it is not unusual for people to feel something of the sort, when there is a great deal of smoke and the chalk off the floor! I often feel my eyes very “hot” after a dance in a badly ventilated room, and especially where the floor is specially polished for the occasion, so that there’s a lot of chalk flying about. I hope the trouble did not last.
Do tell me – where did auntie Do get the 60 year old black velvet dress? I’d love to see you in it – One of the best fancy-dresses at the Vingt-et-Un Ball last Thursday night was a white silk evening dress of about that period, which I am pretty sure was genuine.
How very tiresome about the typewriter getting such a bang on its journey home and the repairs costing so much. Its a depressing sort of unnecessary thing to happen – Incidents of that sort crop up now and again and the only thing to do is to deal with them and forget them – I’m inclined to let them come back and nag at me. I find myself thinking “If only I had done that . . . “ and so on – but its no use! Just waste of thought and energy.
I am getting such pleasure from the scent of a most heavenly narcissi growing in a bowl, which was an Xmas present from the American Trade Commissioner here – and I think such a charming one, don’t you? Its so different from the scents of the Indian flowers, however beautiful they may be.
Have you read Gunther’s “Inside Europe”? I have just started it – very late in the day, I know, for people have been talking of it for months past – I think I am going to find it extremely interesting – I’m really in the middle of the Life of Swami Vivakananda but the Gunther book is on loan, so I thought I had better put the other book aside for the moment. Its odd to jump from the life of a man who renounced everything in an effort to unite the whole world in love and peace, to reading about Hitler with his ferocious nationalism. I had a long letter from Herbert Richter last mail – He evidently does not like the Germany he has gone back to. He actually says “If I ever have the luck to be appointed in the East again, I shall never want to come home.” There must be many people in Germany who hate the Hitler regime – Herbert is very internationally minded and really fond of people who are not of his own race –
Having covered three sheets – I think I had better get on with the other children’s letters
Best love, my dear
from
Mum
Family letter from LJT
The Towers
Cossipore
Calcutta
Jan 21st 1937
My Dears,
I have been in the air again this week-end. Idris flew me up to Jalpaiguri. We left here just after 6.30 on Saturday morning, and arrived at Jalpai at 10.15, having stopped at Berhampore to take in petrol. It has been fairly cold down here, but it was much colder in Jalpai, and the gardens there are further on than ours down here. After a second breakfast which we said we did not want, but ate heartily when it was put before us, we nosed all round Bry Jones’ garden, our hearts filled with envy at the splendour of his sweet-peas. We were glad of a sleep after lunch, especially Idris, who had had to attend the big Mining and Geological Institute dinner the previous night, and had got home late. The late afternoon and evening we spent walking round the station visiting various people and looking at their gardens, we finished up at our old home, where I was glad to see many of the plants which I put into the garden, still flourishing. The Fawcuses were away, but I went to see my horse, Tip-It-Up, who I may say, showed no excitement at seeing me again, but having taken a good sniff round, and discovered that I had no sugar or carrots, put his nose back into his hay box, and went on munching. We dropped in at the Club on our way home, as I wanted to see the alterations and improvements.
With regard to flying over the Hills and getting a good view of the snows from the air, we missed the bus by not going in November. For some reason, I have never discovered what, January is nearly always cloudy over the Darjeeling area. Visibility was so bad that there was no sign of the great mountain range as we approached Jalpai, and I feared that there was little hope of better conditions on Sunday. Idris wanted to fly up over the hills, and as I had been before, and as I guessed that Bry Jones would love to go, I asked Idris to take him instead of me, which he did. The arrangement had two drawbacks, the first that Bry weighs nearly three stone more than I do, and the second that he has nothing like the intimate knowledge of the map of the mountains. They started off about 9.45, and climbed very rapidly, quickly disappearing from our sight. A whole lot of my friends, the Sherpa porters from Darjeeling were there to see the plane. They are working on the preparation of the camp for the annual exercises of the Northern Bengal Mounted rifles. I spent quite a long time talking to them, and then went back to the house to write letters. The flyers were away for nearly an hour and a half. They climbed to 10,400 ft, of which Idris is very proud, for the “ceiling” of the plane is supposed to be 11,000 (without some special altitude control gadget, which he has not got) and he had a heavy load on board. He followed my directions, and flew North up the Teesta Valley, turned West over the Rungeet Valley, and swept round in the big basin in the Hills to the West of Darjeeling, returning more or less by the same route. Darjeeling was completely blocked out by cloud, and there were great banks of cloud all over the place. They neither of them had much idea where they were, and I spent part of the afternoon making them a relief map in wet sand, of the lie of the mountains, from which they were able to reconstruct their course. Having returned from the mountains, Idris then took Mr Hutchings the Deputy Commissioner, who is also a keen pilot, and an old friend of his, for a flight across the Duars, and they landed on a big grassy maidan at a place called Falakata, where polling was going on for these famous elections for the New Government under the Reform Scheme. It gave Mr Hutchings a chance to appear in sober truth out of the blue, and see that everything was being conducted properly.
Idris and I spent the afternoon going round a neighbouring tea-garden and spent so long over it that we had to fill up the plane with petrol and see to the oil and so on by moonlight. We wanted her to be all ready to get off by 6.30 in the morning. However A.A.D. (The plane’s number) had other ideas. She did not like being left out of doors all through the cold night, and utterly refused to start in the morning till the sun had got up and warmed her a little. So with the greatest efforts of swinging the propeller by Idris, Bry Jones and the Police Inspector, we did not get away till 7.45. Once going the plane flew beautifully, and we came back at great speed. We flew over the three palaces of the Nawab of Murshidabad, who played fast and loose with Clive, and whose descendent is the premier princeling in Bengal, but who has been so extravagant that his estates are under the strict supervision of the government. A little further south, we flew over the battle field of Plassy, which I photographed from the Air last spring, but then we came down low to take photos, whereas this time we flew high so that I could see the whole lie of the land.
I have had to lunch in Calcutta the last two days and have devoted a good part of each afternoon to Himalayan Club work, and a small amount of shopping, a tea with Winsome, and a visit to the Agrihorticultural Gardens. I am putting David Pilkington up for the Saturday Club and had to take him there on Tuesday evening to introduce him to members of the Committee, and last night we had some friends who are going home soon for good, to drinks at the United Service Club, so my time has been rather full up.
Frank and Nita Bawtree should be arriving here soon. I dont know how long they are going to stay. Kingdon Ward writes to say that he will be arriving in Calcutta on Feb 17th, and staying two or three days on his way through to Rangoon, from where I gather, he goes to China. I sent an Air-Mail letter, which I hope will reach him at Marseilles, asking him to stay with us.
General Bruce has just arrived in India, but unfortunately he is not coming to Calcutta. I heard yesterday that he is advertising whisky. I dont know if it is true, but I am sure he must find it a great joke if it is. I wish we could persuade him to come over here.
The weather has been delightfully cold every since Christmas, but I fear the cold is passing now. It does’nt last here much after the middle of January, though it goes on being perfectly delightful till the end of February.
The town is all topsy-turvy with elections going on. This is the introduction of the Reforms. Its curious how little notice the Europeans are taking of it. The topic only gets a passing mention at the clubs or at parties. The Europeans have become fatalistic about it I suppose. Most of the officials just try not to think about it. There is quite a strong body of opinion amongst the business people, that the good old days of the Pagoda Tree will come back again, and then instead of being hampered by Government red-tape, they will be able to buy any permissions they want by brigery. Every candidate has his symbol, so that the enormous illiterate electorate may have some idea in which box to drop their paper. They symbols are such things as, a boat, a spinning wheel, a bicycle, a mangoe tree, and so on. There is some gentleman near here who has a bicycle symbol, for the streets are plastered with pictures of a bicycle. I must question some of the servants and see what they make of it all.
Its only just over two months now till we leave! I am getting excited!
Best love to you all
LJT
P.S. I’ve just remembered a good thing told by Bry Jones. In the early days of areoplanes out here, he received a report from a sub-inspector of police. “Areoplane passed overhead 8.30 a.m. sounding vehemently”-
From HPV to Annette
Calcutta
Jan 22nd 1937
My dear Annette.
It is cheery to hear that you had a lively Christmas. Your letters turned up on Saturday evening, as they should always but usually do not. Your mother was away, at Jalpaiguri, on one of her flying jaunts, and I had been having rather a boresome evening by myself. It is one of the defects of over-working that everything feels flat and unprofitable every evening. And on that one I had no book to read save an attack on Lloyd George which at no time would have been of interest. It was therefore unusually good to have a bunch of happy letters to read.
I found two remarks in a book on America which might amuse you. One the best American Irish Bull: an Indian said “The first white man who ever came to Chicago was a nigger”: and the other a retort. Mrs Staunton, wife of the candidate for the Presidency against Abraham Lincoln, said to some woman “And to think that soon I shall be sleeping in the White House” and the other replied softly “Not unless you sleep in Abraham’s bosom”.
One tea at Tollygunge by myself: one visit to Brother Harry’s: and the Browns in to have drinks at the US Club last night – that sums up the week’s entertainment for me. I humped a rickshaw in a crowded street in North Calcutta but otherwise had no exercise. And I have done a lot of work but none of it leading to anything.
Much love
Dad
From LJT to Annette
The Towers
Cossipore
Calcutta
Jan 25th
My darling Annette
It would be splendid if you could win a special Concours prize of a course at a foreign university. I don’t know when you will try for it, or when you will hear the result, but just in case nothing comes of it, and you want to be getting information about something else, I enclose Mdelle Broques de Roger’s card with the name and address of her friend on it. There’s a chance that, as she is with the Viceroys daughters, she and her friends may have a very smart and expensive sort of connection, but if you need somewhere to go there would be no harm in you or Auntie writing to find out what they charge – I am amused at your comments on Fräulein’s report! The praise is certainly strong and might be taken to mean anything. Dad is pleased with your practical attitude to-wards your language learning and books. It certainly is a comfort to have a daughter who knows what she wants and is capable of getting it. People who cant do anything on their own are very tiresome. There’s a fat old dame out here, who is always trying to get other people to make up her mind for her. She will ring up comparative strangers and ask them which dress she ought to wear at such and such a party or whether she should get the cakes for her next tennis tea at Firpo’s or at Flury and Trinka’s! Fancy having reached the age of 50 or thereabouts and still be in that state of mind.
Did I tell you that I had a long letter from Herbert Richter. He evidently does not like being in Berlin and finishes up by saying that, if he ever has the luck to be appointed out in the East again, he will never want to go home. That’s pretty strong for a German writing from Germany, is’nt it? If all the things that are stated as facts in “Inside Europe” are true, Hitler must be much worse than I had thought.
Richard has behaved very well. He has written and told us that he has withdrawn his promise to the Absolute Pacifists till he is older, and will not do any propoganda or work for them at present – he only wants leave to attend meetings and listen to discussions. This has cheered Dad up no end and I think it’s a very good thing – Its a great mistake to take oaths too young. I feel that after a couple of years more experience of life and the world, Richard may see things from a different angle. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure he is’nt going to be a bit too good for the rest of us. He seems to have that sort of sensitive and idealistic temperament of which priests and missionaries and teachers are made.
I must just remark on the magnificence of our dahlias. There’s a bed at the edge of the lawn, about 30 ft long, filled with dahlias of all colours. The rays of the sinking sun have just caught them so as to shine through the petals and light up the brilliant colours superbly – and they look lovely beyong words against the blue grey river and blue grey sky.
Dad has come out of his depression a bit – He has begun saying its no good worrying about anything, because everything has gone to pot, and that is generally a good sign and ushers in a period of comparative cheerfulness. He did a good bit of gardening yesterday, which is very good for him –
Best love, darling
From
Mum
P.S. I do wish I knew when your exam comes on! I’d like to be able to wish you well at the right moment.
From LJT to Romey
The Towers,
Cossipore, Calcutta
Jan 25th, 1937
My darling Rosemary,
What colours were Perkins kittens? Has she ever managed to have a lovely white one like herself? Charlotte, whom I encountered when out shopping the other morning, was vastly excited by the sight of a lady choosing silk, and all the time her tame mongoose was standing on her shoulder, gazing round at everything that was going on in the shop. They are amusing little tikes!
Some friends of Mr. Matthews came to lunch today. A few days ago some flying boats circled very low over their house on the river bank, before coming to anchor on the reach of the river just in front of them. Mrs. Kyrkebryce has a pet monkey, and she says the little creature almost went demented seeing these planes. The monkey rushed up on the verandah screaming and standing on her hind legs stretched her arms up towards the planes, as if begging her mistress to send them away. I wonder what she thought of them in her funny cunning monkey mind? It would be interesting if we could know whether monkeys really are dishonest and cunning, and dogs and horses as simple and straightforward as they seem. Of course, I have seen Mrs. Wrangham Hardy’s Tibetan spaniel do a bit of pure deception. He was digging a hole in the flower bed, when in the distance he saw his mistress coming. He deliberately stopped his digging, strolled away, and pretended to be quite absorbed in some ploy on the other side of the garden, till she had passed by and gone into the house. Then, just as deliberately, he returned to his digging.
The pair of Mynah birds, who look upon the lawn of this house as their special property, now expect a few donations of scraps of toast form our breakfast. If we forget to give it, they come quite near, ruffle up their feathers and say some very rude things to us! We haven’t succeeded in taming any squirrels yet. We don’t seem to have time.
Best love darling,
Love Mum
Family letter from LJT
The Towers
Cossipore
Calcutta.
Jan 26th 1937
My Dears,
I am writing my letters very early this week, for I have to be in Calcutta all day to-morrow, and again on Thursday. Lady Baden Powell is going to be in Calcutta from Feb 27th till March 3rd, and though I have given up my guide company, I have promised to help with the many arrangements for the Chief Guide’s visit. I am in charge of a sub-committee whose duty it will be to look after all the Guides who come in to Calcutta for the day for the big Provincial Rally on March 2nd, and we are having our first meeting to-morrow morning. I have promised to go to the Police sports in the afternoon, and then on to a cocktail party at the house of my charming American friends, Mr and Mrs Rankin. On Thursday I have to attend a meeting of the Hospitals Division of the Red Cross, at which we have to allot funds from grants from the Red Cross Funds, to hospitals all over Bengal. It always takes a long time. I shall lunch with Winsome, finish my mail and do some Himalayan Club work in Calcutta before a Himalayan Club Committee Meeting, and dinner with the Cookes, so I think it is just as well to get on with letters in good time dont you?
Herbert and I dont often go out to Tolly now. Its seven miles South and we are seven miles north of Calcutta, so its a long way. However we did go out on Saturday afternoon. We had tea at G.B Gourlay’s chummery at Regent Park. The garden is looking very well, and lots of the shrubs I put in there a couple of years ago have grown into big well established trees and bushes. We had drinks with some more friends on our way into Calcutta, and then Herbert dropped me at the Saturday Club, where I changed and stayed to dinner with Mr Shrosbree, the Managing Director of the big cinema company in Calcutta. We went to see Elizabeth Bergner in “As You Like It”, but though I enjoyed it, I dont like her interpretation of Rosalind. She is too jumpy and highly strung. There were quite a number of things about the production I did not like too. I had none of the satisfied feeling that I had when I saw the film production of Romeo and Juliet. Shros and I went back to the Saturday Club for a drink and a dance or two after the cinema. He is full of plans for the future. He is just beginning to launch out now to catch the Indians who are becoming attracted to the cinema. I like hearing people talk, who have plans.
On Sunday morning I paid one of my occasional visits to Dr Law’s aviaries, taking a young man, Charles Crawford, who came to India in the Autumn, with Introductions to me from Edwin Kempson and General Bruce. Charles Crawford is a real bird-lover, and he enjoyed the beautiful aviaries enormously. We got back home about 11.30, and found Herbert still busy pruning back flowering shrubs, and Idris and a little German friend of ours who was staying the week-end, lounging under the trees by the river. We all joined them, and soon David Pilkington also arrived. We all reclined in long chairs, and talked or looked at books and papers. After lunch we returned to the Garden, and whatever the original intentions, we all of us fell asleep, and Anina Brandt and I had to wake up all the men in time to go over to the Flying Club at Dum Dum for tea. So I passed an idle but very pleasant Sunday. Its the sort of day that suits Herbert very well and does him good. He seems much better than he was last week - - not so tired, and much more cheerful.
I had a nice long day at home yesterday, and got through a lot of work. We had some people to dinner in the evening, and took them to some amature theatricals, got up by some of Idris’ officers and the equivalent of the N.C.O.s of whom there are a great many attached to the factory. They did the “Ghost Train”. It was not at all bad, and the noises off were really splendid, quite the cream of the production.
26.1.37 Idris came in yesterday evening, and wanted to discuss plans for some future entertaining, and we went on talking till it was time to go and change. We were dining with Percy Brown, and went on to a Ball in aid of the S.P.C.A. It was rather a nice party. Mrs Stanley, who is head of the Society out here, was there, and she is always very good company. She was Head of the Women Police during the War and after. She has many a good tale to tell, and being possessed of keen sense of humour, she makes the most of them. Another of the Guests was a Capt Watson who has just arrived out here to act as a sort of inspecting Secretary for the whole of India. The whole expense of his salary and travelling is being paid by a Mrs Cautauld, who lives in Essex. He tells me that for many years he was political Agent for the southern Essex Division, and knows the Ted Uptons, and lots of our old friends. He has promised to come out here one day soon, and have some more Essex talk. All this arose in rather a funny way. I saw on a scrap of paper on the table the names “Tolshunt D’Arcy” “Layer Marney” “Layer de la Haye”, and enquired who had been writing this. Capt Watson had been discussing place names with some one, and had produced this. Old Percy Brown came in for a good deal of ragging about Lady Haig, widow of Earl Haig, who as you may have noticed in the papers is flying round the world (or something equivalent) She had apparantly spent most of the day in the Victoria Memorial with P.B. She then went home to get some sleep, and P.B. had made an assignation to go and fetch her from her hotel at mid-night to come to the dance. We rather gathered that she did not intend to go to bed again before her plane was due to leave Dum Dum at 5 o’clock this morning, and we did not know whether P.B. was expected to entertain her all night! She duly arrived at the dance, and we all seemed to take turns in talking to her. She is a very emphatic old lady, rather fond of superlatives, and I should think possibly a little exhausting for very long at a time. She was very excited when she heard that Idris had a plane of his own. He has promised to take her for some flights over Calcutta, so that she can take some photographs, when she is on her homeward journey in November. She says she is going to spend longer in Calcutta on the way back. I dont know where sh is going to be in between whiles.
I am just finishing this off before breakfast, as I have to be out all day.
Best love to you all
LJT