1940 February
From LJT to Annette
Chinsurah
Bengal
Feb 1st 1940
My darling Annette,
There are two letters of yours to answer this week, the second one being about Fritz Kolb. I have to confess that I have not written to him yet, for I am completely at a loss to know how to set about helping him to get a temporary job, so that he could earn enough to pay his passage back to England. There are two reasons that make it so difficult. The first is his nationality, and the second that there are so few temporary jobs for Europeans out here. Most Europeans are brought out as specialists of some sort and all the sort of lesser billets are filled by Indians. The fact that I do not know what work he was doing before war broke out makes it more difficult still. However I will try to write to him to-day to tell him I have heard from you, and that though I have little hope of success in trying to get him a job, it will make the attempt more hopeful if he can tell me what he was doing in India before the war, and what his qualifications are. When I am in Calcutta I will try to see the Policeman who has been charge of the German arrests and internments, and find out from him whether anything is being done to help those Germans and Austrians who have been released. I cant believe that they are just being turned loose with no means of support. If he wants to get to England, the best thing would be if he could work his passage home in some capacity on a ship, but I ships have to be very careful about their crews, for fear of any sort of signalling to the enemy. However I will do what I can.
Would you mind forwarding the enclosed cheque for Miss Street’s farewell present? I don’t want to spend 1/4d in sending it by air, and if I send it by sea, Heaven knows how long it will take! I am posting to you seperately this week as Dad’s letters made the usual home envelope overweight.
I am interested to hear that you found you could get along on ice-skates after a fashion, from having roller skated. I had the reverse experience, for I learnt to skate on ice first. its strange that this great cold over Europe should coincide with the war. It must be pretty grim for the troops, and the R.A.F. and all the people at sea patrolling and submarine hunting, - - grimmer still I suppose in Germany, if the reports about shortage of fuel are true.
I am in the middle of Douglas Reed’s second book, “Disgrace Abounding”. In places it makes me feel almost sick with regret if the Tragedy of Errors he paints is a true one. He is anti-Chamberlain and thinks poorly of English politicians and Leaders, as well as the later developments of the great newspapers. He severed his won long connection with the Times, because he thought the paper had ceased to be honest about Foreign news. He is biased rather unduly in certain directions, but I think his books are wholesome reading for us all, and if you have not read them advise you to do so. I hope they will come out in the Pelican Edition before the season for reading them is past. Last night I was reading the chapter on the danger of having too many Jews in a country and allowing them freedom to hold posts and enter services of all sorts. It agrees very much with what Edward Groth was telling me about his fears of the result of the enormous influx of Jews into New York. When he was in America about a year ago, a friend of his who is (I think) something to do with the police dept. told him that in all the worst ramps and most disgusting “trades” there are always one or more Jews behind them. Its a disquieting thought! Douglas Reed seems to think that the decent Jews who have lived in England for hundreds of years, are different , but he has had much experience of the Continental Jews who change their Nationality and their alliegence almost as easily as we change our coats, and he thinks them a great danger!
Walter Jenkins says he has just read Gunther’s “Inside Asia”, and that it is packed with information, but that he makes some such appaling blunders about India, that one wonders whether much of what he writes of other is not similarly unreliable. As an instance he quoted an account of trouble on the Frontier started by the abduction of a young Hindu Girl, and said that the affair was made much more serious by the fact that the father of the girl would have received a good dowery for her. The facts are, of course, exactly opposite, and all over India a big dowery has to be given with a girl to get her married. It is one of the recognised weaknesses of the Indian social system, and one which reformers are always crying out about.
Best love to you, my dear
From
Mother
(note in pencil by LJT ‘Would you send the enclosed onto Auntie Hilda for me?’)
From LJT to Romey
Chinsurah, Bengal
Feb 1st, 1940
My darling Romey,
What a nasty experience for Brough getting stuck down an earth hole. I wonder whether she will learn by experience! I doubt if she will. The excitement of the hunt generally seems to overcome good sense in dogs. It can’t have been too nice an experience for you going out to search for the poor little animal on a cold winter evening in the dark.
Dad and I began to think that the pampered Maxie was getting a bit too fat, so we have cut down his food a little, and have been making the under-Sweeper play with him with his ball in the garden, before he takes him out for a walk. The walk, I fancy, is very slow and dignified, so I like to know that Max has done some brisk running first.
Uncle Harry writes that they will not want one of the pups, so I am going to give the one that comes by rights to the owners of the father, to the four year old daughter of our Military Intelligence Officer, Christine. She is a nice little girl, and often comes and plays in this garden, but it would be nice for her to have a pup, and then I shall see something of the little creature too.
I have written Miss Moller and to Miss Pierce to tell them that we are not coming home this spring, and I have said that as far as we know we shall want you to stay at school till Easter 1941, or possibly even till the summer. It’s impossible to be definite so far ahead in these days, especially as we do not yet know what you will be planning to do.
It is certainly awfully disappointing about coming home, but the comforts are that, as it has to be, Dad’s health seems really a great deal better, and that from the point of view of money, it will be a great gain. This is important in view of the fact that taxes to pay for the war are bound to be enormously heavy. A minor fact that makes up a little to me, is not having to leave this garden just when I have got it into nice order. This spring and rains will see a lot of growth in the flowering shrubs I put in last July.
I have been thinking a lot about Dicky (Richard) the last few days, and wondering how he likes himself in Blue-Jackets clothes, and what he is beginning on in his training.
Lately I have not been reading any of my science books, though there are two or three I got last year that I have not read yet. I have got so interested in Douglas Reed’s books about Europe after the so-called Great War, and almost up to the outbreak of this war. They have set me wanting to read more about Continental History during that period. I have got a book called ‘Mussolini’s Roman Empire’, in the Penguin Series, and I want to read Gunter’s “Inside Europe” again, to see how it looks in the light of present events.
Best love my darling,
From Mother
From LJT to Annette
Howrah Circuit House.
Calcutta
Bengal
Feb 8th 1940
My darling Annette,
Everyone is feeling a bit bothered because it is almost a fortnight since an Air Mail came in. There has been no sort of explaination in the papers, so we hope there has not been a disaster of any sort.
At last I have managed to have a chat with the head of the Bengal Police and with the Chief Secretary about Fritz Kolb, and both say that they think it will be difficult for him to get a job out here, and that he would be much wiser to take a passage to a neutral country. They both immediately asked whether he had made sure that he could get in to England, even if he could get a passage. I should have thought it was unlikely. I really will try to write to him to-day. I waited till I came into Calcutta when I was pretty sure I should meet these men, for they are both extremely busy people, and I did not want to bother them with letters if it could be avoided.
In the amature Review I went to the other night, there was an amusing skit, called “Fuhrerwhite and the Seven Little Twerps”. The Princess was Hitler, casting longing eyes at Prince Neighbouring States. The Wicked Queen I could not altogether fathom, but she used International Agreements as her spells. The Seven Little Twerps were cleverly got up in German uniforms, and made up to bear some resemblance to Hitler’s advisers. Their tunics, which reached nearly to their knees, disguised the fact that they were kneeling down and had false feet fastened on to their knees. It was cleverly done. When Fuhrer-white called for their help, a curtain pulled aside and there they were in a semicircle, looking most dwarfish. They did move forward a bit, but could not do more. The whole thing was really very funny, and witty. In fact there was a lot of wit all through the show, and some good stories. One was as follows – One man noticing an envelope on his friend’s table says “What’s the letter?” “Oh that” was the reply, “that’s from the Income tax people. I sent in my income tax returns, and as I saw that there were reductions made for the number of children, I claimed for one child. They have written back to say that as I am a bachelor they don’t understand this, and suppose it must be a typest’d error”.
I met Jean Hogg and her Husband, or perhaps I should say, Mr and Mrs Nimmo at a big cocktail party given by the Edgleys at Tollygunge yesterday. Jean was looking very pretty. I asked what news she had of Ian, but she said it was a long time since she heard anything. She and others, including the Edgley family asked after you and Richard. I am longing to hear from Dicky about the beginnings of his training, and I hope he will get some photos taken in his bluejackets clothes.
My friend Dr Biswas, has a nephew who has just passed in the I.C.S. and is up at Oxford doing his extra year. he asked if he might tell him to call on you, so I said yes. I don’t imagine you mind. He may be very nice. If he’s dull, you can easily drop him! Like an idiot, I have forgotten his name. It was one of the very ordinary Bengali names, I rather think it was Roy.
Hereh’s Dad back for lunch, so I’ll stop.
Best love
Mother
From LJT to Romey
The Circuit House
Howrah, Calcutta
Bengal, Feb 8th, 1940
My darling Romey,
There’s no letter to answer this week, for we have not had an Air Mail for nearly a fortnight. No one knows what has happened to cause such delay.
I had a chat with Mr. Gurner at the cocktail party last night and he says that the school they sent the girls to in North Wales when St Monica’s collapsed proved to be very rough, with a good deal of cheating and underhand dealing going on. The girls hated it to begin with, then when they got used to it, their father declares they found it rather fun. Mrs. Gurner, however, did not like it, and has moved them to Westonber, which is another of the schools run by the same trust or whatever they call it, that took over St Monica’s. It is rather more of a luxury school, Mr. Gurner thinks, judging from the bills for school uniform which he has received! How glad I am that you have not had to be jumped about like that.
You would love Wendy and Max’s pups! They are the fattest little blacky-brown sausages you can imagine! Wendy is proud, but not at all jealous and doesn’t in the least mind on handling them. I saw another very young pup yesterday. Louise Rankin’s brown dachshund made a misalliance with their Sealyham, Spot. Spot subsequently died. (They think he was poisoned, poor fellow) and the sweeper who was much attached to him, has been trying to find some likeness to his beloved Spot in the one pup that Diana has produced. Funnily enough in its present state it looks pure dachshund, but after gazing at it long and carefully, the Sweeper said, “Memsahib!” It has Spot’s feet! The soles of its little feet are pink instead of black!” It will be funny if that is the only mark of its cross-breeding.
It’s funny how much more difficult it is to write when there is no letter to answer. I mean, this sort of letter, when really all the news has gone into another. I’m feeling a bit stupid too, after several late nights.
Best love my darling,
From Mother
Family letter from LJT
The Circuit House
Howrah
Calcutta
Feb 8th 1940
My dears,
This has been rather a nasty week for Herbert, I am afraid. Howrah is a horrid, noisy, slummy, place, and the dirtiest I have ever been in. The big terminus, Howrah Station, is about a quarter of a mile from this house, and it carries, I believe, the heaviest goods traffic in the world. Then all down the river front are docks and factories, and for miles inland theres a wretched tangle of slums. Also I have never seen so many mosquitoes. This actual house, is evidently a favourite dwelling place for them, and as it is seldom used they are not often disturbed. By having clouds of gum-incense burnt both morning and at dusk, and by useing much flit, we have cleared the place a bit, and killed hundreds and hundreds of the little wretches, but they still come in swarms. It has not greatly mattered to me for I have not done much but sleep and breakfast here, but Herbert has been too tired to dine out of an evening, and has come back to be teased by them. I am glad we are going home to-morrow, for I think he is about at the end of his tether, and I am going to do my best to make him take a complete day off on Sunday, and try to put his work completely out of his head.
We came down here early last Saturday, in time for Herbert to change into his full-dress uniform, and be at his Durbar at 11 o’clock. Once a year the Commissioner of a Division has to hold a Durbar, at which he presents the titles and orders conferred by the Viceroy, on the various people in that Division. Last year the show was at Burdwan, but this place is more Central for the people from the out-districts to get to. The touring we have done this cold weather has been an advantage, for now we know so many of the people. Herbert made a good speech, though not quite so firey as the one he made last year. The Collectors were in from all the Districts, and I enjoyed seeing them again. The local man, a new-comer, called Chakravarty, and his wife entertained us, and the collectors from the other districts, to lunch, and by the time we got back here, Herbert was about done, and lay down and got an hours sleep. Later we went over to Calcutta (across the river) and had tea in the Saturday Club garden, and went to the 6 o’clock Pictures, to see “rulers of the Sea”. We chose it, not because we specially wanted to see it, but because we did not like the sound of anything else that was on, and it turned out to be not bad.
My poor Herbert was condemned to spend most of Sunday morning receiving official visitors, rather a dismal business, for most of them have complaints that other people have nicer appointments or more pay, and what can Herbert do about it? I, being the lucky one, spent a most pleasant morning in the Botanical Gardens with Dr Biswas. The gardens are on this side of the river, about twenty minutes drive away. Max and I went down at 9.30, and did not get back till 12.30, during which time we walked a long distance and looked at a large number of plants. In the afternoon we went to tea with Idris Matthews at Dum Dum Flying Club. There have been enormous alterations in the areodrome since Herbert was last there about a year or more ago, and I wanted him to see them. After tea on the lawn in front of the Club, we walked over to the big new Hanger and looked at all the planes and then Idris got permission to take us over the new offices and control ????(part of letter missing)
And a visit to China Town to buy a wedding present:- an amusing, but rather leisurely business. I have seen a lot of my friends by lunching, dining and teaing with different people each day, and by going to one or two big shows where half Calcutta was gathered to-gether, such as the Annual Meeting of the Asiatic Society, a large wedding, a big cocktail party at Tollygunge. One night I went to see the Review put on by the C.A.T.S. (Calcutta Amature Dramatic) “Now and Then”. The C.A.T.S. are an able lot of people, and have given the Tosh Sisters and Merle Oberon and others to the stage and screen. This show is excellent. I enjoyed it from beginning to end, though it was long, and starting at 9.30 did not finish till 12.45. I only just got home before the Howrah Bridge closed to road traffic, and opened to let the shipping through. Yesterday I saw Max and Wendy’s pups, and they are the stoutest and most engaging little parties. The bitch is the liveliest and I think the handsomest of the lot, but they are all very nice. I was sorry I could not take Max to visit them. I wonder whether Wendy would have been annoyed with him if he had gone near them.
To-day we go to the Government House Garden Party, and I am not going into Calcutta before that, as I must deal with my letters.
We had some cloudy days this week, and quite a bit of rain on Tuesday, - - the traditional Christmas Rains come a bit late. I wish there had been a heavier fall, for the sake of the gardens and for the country-side at large.
I am feeling definitely stupid this morning after several late nights and days so full that I have had no time to sit down quietly. I am not staying out to-night. I have begun to feel that a little longer in bed would be agreable.
There has been a strange dearth of news in the papers this week, from Europe, so our press has been giving much space to Indian politics, and the meeting between the viceroy and Mr Ghandi. The impasse seems to me as difficult as ever. Communal feeling does not seem to be fading in any way, in fact if anything it seems more lively than ever. I dont envy the people who are responsible for trying to deal with it.
Best love to you all
LJT
From LJT to Annette
Chinsurah
Feb 14th 1940
My darling Annette
I’ll be telling you about the poor Dad getting what we thought was flu and how, as he seemed on the mend, I went up to Burdwan on Monday and returned at 11 p.m. last night (Tuesday) to find the poor thing worse and not practically well again as I had expected – His liver seems to have gone all wrong – The doctor took a blood test down to Calcutta to-day to help in diagnosis – I am sitting beside Dad now – and he says to tell you that he holds the world’s record for belching! I rather think he seems a trifle better this evening – I do hope he is.
It was lovely to find the budget of letters from home waiting on my dressing table for me last night – Yours is the one almost entirely about skating – with a few words dropped in about the Ballet Rambert. Talk of skating always reminds me of my father, who had the reputation of being a very fine skater and was always keen that we should get any chances there were to learn. On three winters in succession when we lived at Enfield, we had a few days skating and I well remember my Father begging Aunt and myself off lessons, so that we might take advantage of the ice while it lasted. I wonder whether I could keep my feet on ice now –
Somewhere I was reading rather a favourable notice the Ballet Rambert, including a fairly long description of the “Lady into Fox” – Do you know I think I could scarcely bear to see it! I disliked the book so much – It gave me “the creeps” far more than any tale of ghosts or horrors I have ever come across. Dont you think its a tragic and horrible idea? I have brought back with me Gunthers “Inside Asia” – I’ve not had time to read much of it, and what I have read so far is all about Japan, so I have no way of testing whether it is correct or not, but its quite interesting – Its a huge book – I don’t know how long it will take me to get through it.
Dad has just said “What does Annette think of Germany now? I don’t know. I cant remember that you have voiced any comments. He also asks “Did that friend of hers marry the German?” - He means the girl who was in the same house with you in 1938, I think.
It was very tantalizing yesterday – i was sitting next the new Governor at lunch – as I did at most meals – and we were just getting into an interesting conversation about the Jews – and he was about to tell me various incidents connected with the Jews in Palestine, which he had come across during his years at Whip in the House of Commons – when the moment came to rise and drink the health of The King Emperor – and I never had a chance to get him back on to the subject again. its nice talking to people who have moved in some “great world” where important people pass to and fro and important things are done –
All over Bengal to-night drums are beating and bells ringing as the images of the Goddess of learning – Saraswati – riding on her Swan, are carried in procession from the place where they have been worshipped for the past 24 hours, to the Ganges or some other river or tank in which they are immersed.
15th Sorry – No time for more – or for letters to Romey and Dicky
Mother
Family letter from LJT
Chinsurah
Bengal
Feb 15th 1940.
My Dears,
For the moment everything else is thrown into the shade as far as my attention is concerned, by the fact that Herbert is ill. He developed a slight temperature last Wednesday night, but as it was normal again in the morning (the day on which I wrote my last letter to you) he went to inspect the Howrah Offices. He came back looking tired and out of sorts at lunch time, and taking his temperature, I found it to be 100, so of course I would not let him go to the Government House Garden Party, but persuaded him to go to bed instead. As he had no other symptoms than slight headache and temperature and general feeling of misery, we thought it was flu of which there is a good deal about in Calcutta at the moment. We were coming home anyhow on Friday evening, so I brought him home after lunch instead. The doctor came in to see him and agreed that it was probably flu, but said he would not be fit to leave early on Monday morning for Burdwan, where we were due to stay with the Maharaja during Their Excellencies visit. I wired to the Maharaja saying I would not go either unless my presence was specially desired, to which he replied asking me to go if possible. Seeing that Herbert seemed so mildly indisposed, I went off quite happily at 8.45 a.m. on Monday, and had a most interesting and amusing two days at Burdwan, getting back here at 11 p-m- on Tuesday, to be greeted with the news that Herbert was not so well. He was awake when I arrived, and said that Col Murray, who took over from our other doctor, Capt Lossing on Monday, was a bit worried about him, for various symptoms had developed showing severe derangement of the liver. he had an uncomfortable night on Tuesday, but I am glad to say he improved as the day went on, and had a fairly good night last night. The doctor is much better pleased with him this morning, and thinks he can safely say that he is suffering from a “jaundiced condition due to an internal chill”. We had rather feared that it might prove to be something a good deal more severe. As it is Col Murray says it will be at least a week before he is fit to get up and lead at all a normal life, and that then he would like him to take ten days leave, and go for a holiday for ten days or so to Shillong or some such place. I had to write to all sorts of people yesterday informing them that we should not be able to be present during the Governor’s visits to Bankura and Midnapore next week. Its disappointing from every point of view, but the thing that matters most is that is that Herbert is having another set-back in health. The special point of view from which I am sorry that he will not be with the Governor on this weeks tour through Bankura and Midnapore, is that one is in close personal contact with a Governor on an occasion like that, and it would have been an unrivaled opportunity to interest Sir John Herbert in the great Rural Reconstruction scheme, and get him to understand something of what it means.
In spite of my attention being focussed very much on Herbert and his wants and affairs concerned with the various changes of plan, I must tell you about the visit to Burdwan. Sir John and the Lady Mary Herbert our new Governor and his wife, were paying a private visit to the Maharaja of Burdwan, and he asked Herbert and myself to go and stay at the Palace t the same time. I suspected that he might rather want me to be there, for his wife, who never really dragged herself out of orthodoxy, retire to their house at Benares some years ago, and has become completely immersed in religion. The Maharaj Kumar’s wife, had been brought up in purdah in the Punjab till she married him some ten years ago, and though she has come out most awfully well, she is still very naive and one does not quite know what she will do next. I have known her ever since she was married. The other Kumar is still unmarried. I think he felt that another woman in the party would be helpful. I drove up to Burdwan arriving at the palace about half an hour before Their Excellencies were due. The body-guard as well as lost of police were all drawn up to meet them, and the Maharaja’s five elephants with their heads beautifully painted and the state howdahs on their backs were also lined up and looked magnificent. A salute of twenty one guns was fired, and the thousands of pigeons added greatly to the effect of the salute, by rising with a whir of wings each time a gun went off. Lady Mary, and her friend Miss Herbert who is paying them a visit, went for a ride on one of the elephants just round the Palace grounds, and then we all dispersed to our rooms till cocktail time before lunch. Their Excellencies had the state apartments on the third floor of the main block of the Palace. I had a suite of apartments on the upper floor of the guest house, consisting of no less than two large bedrooms, a dressing room, two bath rooms, a sitting room, a dining-room and an anti-room, and a special chaprassi and bearer were detailed to look after me. On my dressing table were arranged a bottle of eau-de-Cologne, a tin of dusting powder, a bottle of Larola and a pot of hazeline cream, as well as a tin of Cigarettes. There was also a charming little everlasting calendar with a base of white onyx and the top part in silver, with “From Burdwan” and the date on it in the Maharaja’s hand writing. The interesting thing about all these arrangements is that every detail is watched over by the Maharaja himself, although he has vast estates to manage, and is much involved in Public Work of all sorts. He is a wonderful host even when people less exalted than Governors are his guests.
We had a nice informal lunch of just the party in the house. Their Exes had the Military Secretary, the Assistant Private Secretary and a couple of A.D.Cs with them, as well as Miss Hill. Of the Burdwan family there were the Maharaja, his two sons and his daughter-in-law. His brother-in-law who is in command of the body-guard, and acts as a sort of general manager in the Palace, I think, A son-in-law, also a member of the old Maharani’s family, and lastly the Maharaja’s little English Private Secretary Miss Pitts. Both Sir John and the Lady Mary are most charming and quite informal. Sir John is rather quiet and gentle. He used to be a Government Whip in the House of Commons. Lady Mary is a jolly looking dark eyed woman full of vitality and full of fun, and obviously seeing the funny side of everything. (I don’t know whether this is altogether an advantage for one in her position!) Talk went merrily at lunch and during the coffee-drinking time afterwards, and then we had three quarters of an hour for a little rest, before assembling for a photo to be taken at 3.15, and then going off for a visit to the Maharajas new dairy farm, followed by a visit to his “Garden of Meditation”, where he has three shrines, on the borders of a small lake, dedicated to the Hindu Trinity, to the Lord Shiva, and the third to the memory of budhas on the one side, and to one of the great early teachers of Hinduism on the other. The Maharaja says he has put them to-gether, for in spite of the fact that Budhha is supposed by orthodox Hindus to be an iconoclast, he believes his teaching to be in essence that of Hinduism before it was overlaid with tradition. The shrines, built of red Sandstone rather in the manner of some of the buildings at Futtipore Sikri, stand on three side of the lake, and on the fourth there is a raised platform under a tree, on which to sit for meditation. The whole is surrounded by a garden planted with rose trees and jasmine, with a few big trees to give shade, and enclosed in a high wall, on which at intervals the famous Sanskrit slokas are done in bas relief, so that one can sit beneath the tree, and casting ones eyes round, read ones Holy book without the bother of having it in ones hand. A short further drive in the cars, and we arrived at the Pleasure Gardens, Zoo, and country guest house, where we were to have tea. We walked through the gardens and the Zoo, and had tea peacefully and pleasantly on the upper balcony of the Guest House, looking over a big lake, in which the fish come to be fed at a call. We got back to the palace about 5-45 and Miss Hill, Col Hugo and I decided we wanted some exercise, so we went off for a walk, and got back in good time for a leisurely bath an change before the big formal dinner. We must have been a party of 50 or so, including all the station officials, and various Indian notabilities from different parts of Burdwan district. The little Budhu Rani as the Maharaj Kumar’s wife is called, was wearing some of the family jewels for the first time. She had an enormous necklace of emeralds and diamonds, a wide affair to go across the top of her head, above the thick coils of her plaits, made in diamonds in a pattern of lotus flowers, and diamond ear “caps”, really they were a light openwork of diamonds exactly the shape of the ear, with a fringe of pearls and diamonds. These were only fastened on with a thin gold bar behind the top of the ear, and the little lady was terrified that they would fall off! The big reception rooms in the palace are rather in the Windsor Castle or Chatsworth style. We assembled in what I think is the prettiest of the drawing-rooms. It is all in white marble or very palest grey, with about a dozen crystal changeliers hanging from the ceiling, and the furniture is Louis xvth upholstered with brocade of a soft blue. We ate off silver plate, and there were many peices of gold plate on the table. After dinner we went down to a big room that had been turned into a theatre, and there we were given a most excellent programme of Indian dancing and music. There were two Indian male dancers, two Jarvanese men and two Javanese girls, some of them professionals and some amatures. One of the Jarvanese men, for instance, is studying for his law degree in Calcutta, but apparantly all Javanese dance from the time they can walk. It was a most varied and interesting programme. The Maharaja had entrusted the arranging of it to his son-in-law, who is a regular balletomane of Indian dancing. The Maharaja pretended to be rather shocked when he heard that there were two girls coming, sticking to the old idea that only disreputable women dance in India, but Mr Mehere assured him that these girls came of perfectly respectable families. The party finished just after midnight, and I was quite ready for bed, for I had been up extra early to see to Herbert’s comfort before I left home. We were up early again the next morning, and left the Palace at 7.30 to visit the “108 temples” about a couple of miles from Burdwan. H.E., the two Kumars and some of the staff slipped away for an incognito ride from the far side of the temples. You see when it is known that H.E. is going anywhere, the whole route has to be guarded by police. Lady Mary, the maharaja, Miss Hill and myself drove home and went to see the image of the goddess of learning with her swan, which had been prepared for her special puja that day, and which would be taken in procession and immersed in the Ganges or some other river the next day. It was in a sort of marble Hall open on three sides, and before it were huge silver dishes containing food, which was shortly to be distributed to the poor. We all assembled for breakfast at 8.30, except the Maharaja, who had to be present at the giving of the food. At ten Lady Mary went to the Hospital, and I went along too. We got back about 10-45 and then had to change into some more dressy clothes, and go to the laying of the Foundation stone of a new college for which the Maharaja has put up a lot of money. The Prime Minister came up from Calcutta, and Walter Jenkins, who had had a good deal to do with the plans and arrangements. There were speeches and so on, but we got back half an hour ahead to time, and while Lady Mary, Miss Hill and I and one or two of the staff were having drinks up on the porch balcony, Miss Hill saw one of the bicycle rickshaws, which have become so popular lately. She lent over and said to the younger Kumar who happened to be just below that she would love to try riding one. “Come on”, he said, and he ejected the coolie, and tried getting on himself, and with slight practice managed to control the machine. Lady Mary was entranced and insisted that we should all go down and try. Col Higo, the Military Secretary, proved to be frightfully good at it, and then Lady M got on herself, to the huge delight and almost constanation of the large collection of motordrivers, chaprassis, guards and other who were standing about in the compound. When she got off she insisted on my trying. Its the most absurd feeling. because if you do as you do when turning a corner on a bicycle, the machine goes exactly the way you don’t expect! There was a big lunch party, at which I sat between the governor and the chief minister, whose table manners seem to have improved slightly of late years. The afternoon was taken up by a garden party given by the gentlemen of the town, and after tea Lady Mary, Miss Hill and I, accompanied by the son-in-law, went out for a walk, and had a long and most interesting talk about Indian dancing. The Governor’s party were leaving by special train after dinner, and the arrangement had been that Herbert and I should leave directly they had gone. After a quiet dinner, they said goodbye, and departed. I turned to the Maharaja to make my adieus, and he expressed the greatest amazement “But my dear child” he said (Its something to be called a child at the age of 46) “You don’t think I am going to let you drive 50 miles home alone at this time of night”. I said I was afraid he would have to for Herbert was expecting me, and after a bit of argument and assuring him that I was not the least nervous, I won my way, and went off. I had a lovely run home down an empty road, and was in the house by 11 o’clock. You can imagine how thankful I was I had come when I found Herbert feeling so ill. at 9 o’clock the next morning, the Kumar rang up from Burdwan for his father to ask whether I had arrived without any mishap, and I told him Herbert was not so well. In the middle of the afternoon, the Maharaja himself turned up, to enquire how Herbert was. He was motoring to Calcutta and turned aside the extra mile to our house to find out, which was extremely nice of him.
And now I have to finish this off, and apologise if it is disjointed, but I have been constantly disturbed by being called to the telephone and a dozen other things. I have no time even to read this through. It will have to go mistakes and all. I have to thank the family as well as Margaret, Gwen Petrie and Susie for letters We have had three Air Mails and a Sea Mail all in this week. Sad to say I have no time for the individual letters to the family this week. I’m sorry, but there has been so much to do yesterday and to-day.
We hope that Herbert will be up in a week or ten days, and will then take a short holiday.
I hope your intensly cold weather has stopped. It must have been pretty awful to cope with.
Best love
LJT
From LJT to Romey
Chinsurah Bengal
Feb 20th, 1940
My Darling Romey,
You have not been well treated in the way of letters the last week or two. I’m sorry! I had thought I was going to have a nice lot of time last week, but actually I had very little, for I was up and down the whole time attending to Dad. I had really been very anxious about him, until we got the result of the blood test last Wednesday, for from some of his symptoms the doctor had a fear he might be in for enteric! Mercifully it is not that, and I really think that he is mending steadily now, though not very rapidly. He is much less yellow, more cheerful, and his appetite is beginning to come back a little. He has been finding it extremely difficult to eat. Thank goodness he has a nice comfortable house to be ill in, and a good doctor to look after him! I hope in a few more days he will be well enough to go away to Ranchi. We can drive up there by car, breaking journey at Asansol for a night enroute.
Thank you for your letters of the 20th and 27th Jan. We have had a nice lot of letters in the past ten days, for so many were held up on account of the bad weather when I suppose the aeroplanes could not fly. It must have been odd having to adjust life in England to such cold and snowy conditions, and not too pleasant. I was sorry to hear from Annette that the afternoon she tried to take you skating was not a success, owing to trouble with boots and skates, and also the weather turned so horrid, that it was not pleasant. She seems to have been getting quite a bit of skating and to have been enjoying it very much. It certainly was nice that you got so much riding last holidays, and did not have to consider the expense! You must be an able horsewoman by now.
You speak in your last letter on the subject of perhaps leaving school at the end of this summer term. I don’t think it would be a good thing. If you could have gone to a good place like Madame Blok in Paris for a year it might have been different, but I don’t think there is any question of sending you abroad under present war conditions, and as you have no other special training in view, it will be much better for you to stay at school. I know yours is the age at which one does feel like spreading ones wings a bit and getting into a somewhat wider life, but it is equally true that the last year at school when you are seventeen, is the most valuable one from the point of view of education. You are learning something real then, and getting a training in using your own brain. I think one reason why one meets more stupid women than men is, that on the whole, women leave school earlier than men, or if men leave early they go into some job, where they still have to learn and learn to use their own judgment. If you stay at school long enough to get the habit of using your brain for real thinking, the probability is that the habit will stick, and instead of reading countless novels and seeing countless cinemas, and never being able to appreciate or criticize them intelligently, you will be able to bring your brain to bear on whatever comes before you. You will naturally grow the ability to use it in all sorts of ways, especially in trying to understand something of the problems that confront your own country, and the world. It is so important that the public, which is made up of people like you and me, should be capable of grasping these things in some degree.
There are also the problems of one’s own life, because as time goes on we all have lots of those to settle whether our circumstances are happy or difficult. It is a tremendous score to be able to use one’s own judgment, and not be dependent on someone else to make up one’s mind. That may not on the surface seem closely connected with learning to use one’s brain well, but I think it is. One has got to be able to marshal the facts of a case from different points of view, consider them, and come to a balanced judgment.
Honestly, many people are incapable of holding more than one fact at a time in their minds, or should I be more accurate and say “conscious intelligences?” Therefore I do think it would be wise for you to stay at school till the end of next Easter Term at least. I am sorry if you feel that all your friends will be going, and that you will be left a sort of “odd man out”, but I can’t help feeling that it may be a help to your House to have an older hand to help run things. Why not talk the matter over with Miss Pierce some time? Last week at Burdwan I mentioned to Walter Jenkins that you were keen to leave school, and gave him some of your reasons. He said it was so closely like his younger daughter’s attitude two years ago, but she made up her mind to agree with her parents and stay the extra year at school before going up to Cambridge, and things settled down well, and she enjoyed the last year quite as much, if not more that the previous ones.
From Mother
Family letter from LJT
Chinsurah
Bengal
Feb 21st 1940
My Dears,
There is not very much to write about this week, for I have just been here in the house looking after Herbert, and have not seen many people. Herbert bothered us rather by having a little setback on Sunday morning, but thank-goodness it did not last long, and he was better again in the evening, and has made fairly steady, though very slow progress since. There has been a definite improvement the last two days. The doctor having looked at his tongue this morning, said “Begorrah! You could almost eat your dinner off that Tongue”. He reclined on a couch on the verandah for about an hour after tea last night, but has not attempted to get up and dress yet, so I fancy it will be still a few days before he is fit to attempt the long motor drive to Ranchi. It has been getting rather hot here the last two days, so it will be nice to get him away to some cooler place. Ranchi is up on the Chota Nagpur Plateau at an altitude of about 2,000 ft, so will be quite a bit cooler than it is up here.
Rather fortunately the Haldars from Bankura, cannot come here till next week, so there is no difficulty about fitting another family into the house. Mr Haldar will act as Commissioner while Herbert is on leave. He signed the papers giving over charge to him on Monday afternoon. Up to that time there had been a little work of opening letters, which I then had to take to the Confidential Clerk downstairs, with directions as to what was to be done, and later present the typed letters to Herbert to sign, so I am glad that that is done with.
To-day I have been a good deal disturbed, for the Doctor stayed talking about the Hospital here, for some time. Then a young couple arrived to stay for a few days. Mr Palmer is going to act as Collector of Hooghly (our home District) for a month, while Mr Bannerji, the Collector is on leave, and as the Bannerji family are not going, that house is not available for the Palmers, and the inspectress of schools is in the Circuit House till Saturday, so I said I could have them here for a few days if they did not mind being left pretty much to themselves. They are accompanied by their two dachshunds, which is rather fun for Max. The dogs all met in the garden. There was a great deal of smelling round, very slight raising of hair along the backs of the two dogs, while the little bitch waggled round very pleased with herself, and after a little they all became friends. Max and Pluto have been playing to-gether.
Having settled the Palmers into their rooms and given them a drink, I spent a few minutes with Herbert, and was just putting the paper into the typewriter to begin this letter when Mr Rogers, the young Sub-Divisional Officer, from Serampore, turned up, and stayed talking till 12.30, and then by the time I had given Herbert drinks and taken his temperature, and made a couple of telephone calls to Calcutta, it was lunch time. So the time goes!
This week has given me more time for sewing and reading than I have had for some time, for those are things I can do when sitting in Herbert’s room, and I have also been reading at meals. I had just borrowed Gunther’s “Inside Asia”, which is a big book and packed with in-formation. How much of it is accurate it is hard to say, but its interesting reading all the same. Its always difficult to keep Herbert in books when he is ill. One friend brought a dozen books from Calcutta for him on Saturday, but he was soon through them. A few days ago I went up to Dunlops and borrowed from their library, and also from a man there who gets a lot of books from Home. Mrs. Stanley sent a parcel of paper “shockers” yesterday, and my dear little Louise Ranken has sent a very big parcel of books to-day, so he is well set up for the moment, but he goes through books very quickly.
Honestly I dont think there is anything to write a second page about this week. Comments on the War are futile. We are all most interested in the Altmark affair, and wondering what the repercussions are going to be. I dont in the least understand the election of a Mohammedan to the Presidency of the Congress. Herbert says its always an “arranged” election. (rest of letter typed by Joan Webb because missing from AMT’s set of letters) His view is that since there has been so much said lately about Congress not representing Muslim India, and Mr Jinnah, as Leader of the Muslim League, has not been so insistent that Congress is only speaking for a section of the people, the Congress authorities decided that it was time to put in a Muslim President. Yesterday the Maharaja of Burdwan rang up to enquire about Herbert, and I asked him what he thought about it. To which he replied that he was completely puzzled. He says that Abdul Kalem Azad is a fine scholar, and an upright Mohammedan, and he does not think he would simply lend himself to Hindu Congress Maneuvers.
I already mentioned Ghunter’s book, ‘Inside Asia’, and have been very interested in his impressions of Gandhi and Jawahalal Nehru, and his sketch of the history of the Congress, and of its organization. It’s rather wholesome for officials and their belongings to read the impressions of an outsider sometimes. Gunther is reasonably fair, I think, though he scarcely realizes the enormous difficulties of governing this country, or the apparent hopelessness of the materials with which the country has to work. He met and talked with a few of the outstanding men who are genuine, but I don’t suppose he came in contact with the great mass of the lesser politicians, or realized the extent of the dishonesty, self seeking and nepotism to which they are slaves.
My second page seems to be growing in spite of the fact that I said I had nothing to say. I do want to tell you a simple little tale that Mogul told to me at breakfast this morning. He says that the other day he heard the following conversation going on. The under-sweeper, a very humble little man, who I suspect of being a bit “simple”, was kneeling in front of the dog Max, and putting his hands together, and bowing towards the animal, he addressed him: “My big brother, please do not run away, because if you run away, then the Memsahib will be angry with me”. “Then”, said Mogul, “Maxie wagged his tail, inclined his head, and licked the sweeper’s hand, before sitting down. What a wise one! He understands all that is said.” Well, it’s nice that Max has such a reputation for intelligence, but I fear it is exaggerated. He has never shown the smallest inclination to run away!
Mrs. Palmer and I took the three dogs for a walk through the grounds of the old Bandal Circuit House last evening and explored the house, which the dogs thought the greatest fun! When I came back, I found the Collector, Mr Bannerji, and his wife had come to say goodbye before leaving for a month’s leave.
Did I tell you that our Doctor, Capt Lossing, left here on the 13th and that his place has been taken by Col Murray, whom we have known for many years in Calcutta? He is a nice man and a most capable Doctor. Moreover he is an extremely amusing man, born and educated in Dublin, with all the Irishman’s gift for telling a story well. All the same he says that nothing would induce him to go back to live in Ireland now. He is a far more interesting man than Capt Lossing, with a much wider range of interests. He is just back from six month’s leave in England, and it is interesting to hear his first-hand accounts of life at home under war conditions. At Lee-on-the Solent where he has a house, he says they suffered no great inconvenience. He came in to dinner last night, and I was able to leave him entertaining the Palmers while I attended to Herbert.
Here we are at the end of a page, so good-bye and best of love to you all.
LJT
From LJT to Annette
Chinsurah
Bengal
Feb 20th 1940
My darling Annette,
I start this letter with a vacant mind! Let’s see if any ideas come! Dad says write about the birds, but I don’t think you are particularly interested in birds. He has been watching the many birds in the silk cotton tree, which is in full bloom just now. Some of the birds come there to get the honey out of the great fleshy red blossoms, but more come to get the insects that come to get the honey. Dad has been watching from the verandah through field glasses, which is really rather fun. The tree is an object of great beauty. It stands on the river bank, and the blue-grey water makes a perfect background for the fiery red blossoms. The leaves are all gone, and the branches make a fine pattern, bearing the flowers.
During this time in bed Dad has been reading an enormous quantity of miscellaneous literature. he must have rushed through a score or more of detective novels, but when no murders were available he has read other things. Louise Ranken sent him out a parcel of books mostly about America in some way. There is one about the Spanish American War, (about which I know nothing!) and this induced Dad to give me an able lecture on the subject so now I have some inkling what it was all about. There are others about the early days of developing the West of America, and it gives one a bit of a shock to realize what incredible toughs many of the people were, and how murder was thought little of, and every man ruled by right of his skill with a gun. After hearing this sort of thing, its not surprising that the gangsters of Prohibition, appeared so quickly and so easily. One reads so much in the American Papers about all the efforts to clean up American Politics these days, so perhaps it is a sign that the country is growing out of the stage of school-boy hooliganism, into some sense of adult responsibility.
During the ten days we are in Ranchi, I think I shall give myself a complete holiday, and read and read whenever I feel inclined. Its a thing I don’t allow my self to do when I am at home, for if I did I should neglect so many other things that I feel it is my duty to do! “Inside Asia” has wetted my appetite to read more about the Jews and Palestine. It seems a subject that can so easily be twisted one way or another according to personal views, for such an excellent sounding case can be made out for either side. The Spanish War is rather the same. One needs such a wide knowledge to be able to form any sort of judgement about the rights and wrongs of it.
I wonder whether I have been influenced against Chamberlain by 1) Dad, and 2) Douglas Reed’s books. I was listening to his Birmingham speech over the wireless the night before last, and I must say, I thought he had a most unconvincing delivery. The way he takes his voice up a tone or two at the end of every sentence, gives a weak effect. I don’t quite know how to describe it. There is nothing that sounds robust about his speeches. They have an almost clerical goody-goodyness about them.
The Mrs Palmer who has been staying here, left Russia in 1919 and has never been back since. She has lived entirely with English people, and has been twice married to Englishmen, and yet she speaks English so badly that it is sometimes quite difficult to understand her. She knows the words, but her pronounciation is all over the shop. Is’nt it odd that anyone can fail to pick up the speech that they hear round them night and day, so to speak, for twenty years? She’s not a bad little thing, but one of those people who do not seem to think that there is any necessity to work if work is not forced upon you. She sleeps late in the morning, and feels distressed if she cannot have an hour or two’s sleep or rest in the afternoon, so as to be ready for doing nothing special in the evening! Funny how temperatments vary! I could not live like that for more than a brief while.
Lunch time is here, and makes a good time to end this
(Sorry! I don’t know what happened to the paper that it slipped like that.) Best love
Mother
From LJT to Rosemary
Chinsurah, Feb 26th, 1940
My darling Romey,
There is not much to write about this afternoon, for it is not long since I sent my last letter, but if I don’t write today, Heaven knows when I shall!
What has been interesting you in the way of books lately? At Christmas you seemed to get almost entirely books dealing with horses, so you should be very well up in horse-knowledge, but I imagine that you have been reading some fiction too. This book “Inside Asia” has so tickled my curiosity that I now want to read more about China, and also more about the Jews and Palestine. I know really so very little about China, and practically nothing about the problem of the Jews and Palestine, except that each side can make their point of view seem almost unanswerable. It is a bit like the problem of the Hindu and the Mohammedan out here, now famous as the Communal Problem. Neither side will give way at all. Both say they would make friends if only the English would go, but to us it seems that it is only the presence of the British in India, that prevents them being at one another’s throats. It is very, very hard to see where the answer lies.
Does Rosemary Earle talk much about her life out in China, and has she any impression of the great affairs that are going on in that unhappy country?
Lately I seem to have neglected science for politics and works affairs, though I have got three books, one on the Czechs, one on the Jews and one on Germany, to take away with me. I think I shall take Haeckel’s “Evolution of Man” too, for I shall take a real holiday while we are away, and read as much as I like. I was interested to hear in what order you like the Sciences. I think I should probably put them in the same sequence, if I had had the luck to study any of them seriously.
Max ought to get some nice walks up in Ranchi, for I think that walking will be our chief amusement, so he will be in good trim when I have to return him to Winsome. As a matter of fact, he looks very well now. I have cut down his food a little, for the cook was gradually giving him more and more and he was getting too fat. The mosquitoes are very bad now, and they bother Max of an evening, so he often goes off and gets under the mosquito net, and sleeps on his own little bed. We have a great big net, hanging from a frame, with the fan and the beds and bedside tables, and Maxie’s bed inside it. It is funny to see him nosing his way in or out.
It was nice to hear that you were hoping for so many visitors. I hope Aunt had a reasonably decent weekend as far as weather was concerned for her visits to you and to Joyce. I also wonder where you spent your school break. It is sad that poor Mrs. Petrie has had to give up “The Corner House”. It was such a dear little place, and seemed to suit her so well. She has had very bad luck one way and another.
People at the door, must go. Much love,
Mother
Family letter from LJT
Commissioner’s House
Chinsurah
Bengal
Feb 26th 1940
My Dears,
Its a short while only, since I wrote my last letter, but we are off to Ranchi the day after to-morrow, and to-morrow there will be packing, and arrangements to make about the house, so that I fear to leave writing my mail till then. Herbert has made good steady progress the last few days. The evening before last he came down into the garden after tea, took a short stroll, and sat out of doors for a while. Yesterday he dressed after breakfast, and wandered about the house, sitting sometimes in one room, sometimes in another, rested after lunch, but says he did not sleep, and after tea, he came down to the garden, and actually spent half an hour or so, snipping off “deads”, and wandering about. Soon after he sat down, the Mackenzie family who have been away on tour for the last twelve days, turned up, so Mr M. Sat and talked to H while I took mother and daughter round the garden. Finally Herbert suggested that he should come down to dinner, and he did not seem too tired by this adventure, so I feel he now well on the way to normal health again. We always laugh over Mr Mackenzie, for whatever one has done or seen or grown in ones garden, he has always done one better. We were delighted to hear last night that he has had jaundice four times, and that what Herbert has had is a mere nothing to what he has experienced! On one occasion he had to be given pills that would have moved an elephant, in order to make his bile ducts work! I often wonder whether his wife privately smiles at his tales, or whether she is mesmerised into believing them too.
Its nice to have been able to make our definite plans at last. We leave here by car on Wednesday and drive up to Asansol, 113 miles of good tar-mac road. We shall lunch on the way at a little rest house, and aim at reaching the Peeling’s House at Burnpore, just outside Asansol, between 2.30 and 3 o’clock, so that Herbert can have an afternoon sleep. Mr Peeling is the superintendent of the great Iron and Steel Works, and we stayed with him and his wife before Christmas, and like them very much. The following day we drive on to Ranchi, a distance of 140 miles, which I hope Herbert wont find too exhausting. We shall stop for lunch on the way. Its getting a little warm here now, but should be nice and cool in Ranchi. The thing we shall probably do there is to drive out short distances in the car, and then go for walks amongst the hills. Its a great country for waterfalls, and bathing pools, but I should imagine that bathing will not be allowed to Herbert just yet. If he picks up his strength in the time, we return here on the 11th March, Herbert’s birthday.
The Palmer’s went off after lunch on Saturday, back to their own house in Barrackpore, to finish up their packing, and they have just called in here now, on their way to the Circuit House, where they will take up their residence for the balance of the month which they have to spend here. Max was very proud and uppish with their brown dachshund, Pluto. The two of them looked so handsome, walking round and round one another, with tails waving, hair slightly raised along the back, and ears pricked, while each gave vent to abuse in the form of low rumbling growls. Having satisfied honour in this way, they then consented to come and sit at the feet of their respective owners!
News I have none, for I have just looked after Herbert, messed about in the house and garden, and not gone out at all. I have finished Gunther’s book “Inside Asia”. I enjoyed reading it, but I think the sections about China India are better done and more interesting that the latter part. It seems to me that he has tried to crowd too much into a small space at the end, though I must say I did find the account of Palestine interesting. I have now just started a book by Benita Hume, called “Imperial Twilight”. It is about the last Emperor and Empress of Austria-Hungry, Karl and Zita. I have read the two previous books written by Benita Hume, “Golden Fleece” about Franz Joseph and Elizabeth, and “Phantom Crown” about Maximillian and Carlotta of Mexico. I wont start a new page. Best love LJT