BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [2 MAY 1917]
BRACERS 19161. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<London>
Wed. night late1^, 2

My Colette,

I do love your so profoundly — I must send you one word of tender thoughts before I go to bed. This time of separation seems long — but I am not unhappy, because I feel very near you in spirit. I do care for you, you yourself — I want you to be great and wonderful, to grow and grow — I know you have it in you. You must never never feel you are selfish in telling me things that are on your mind — it is much more selfish not to, because then I worry over them and wonder what they are and feel shut out.

Private. There is a real chance of the Absolutists3 being let out of prison — Milner, Childs, Ld. H. Cecil, Bryce,4 etc are coming round to this view. Miss Marshall5 is the main cause — and yet, try as I will, I cannot like her — I wish I could.

Also one begins to feel Peace in the air — chiefly owning to U Boats.6 I feel convinced the fighting will be over by the autumn.

My dear dear Love, I love you more and more every day — I long to be with you — I wonder whether you will have succeeded in getting an engagement.

I have had 2 very long days — and last night I had a row with CEM which kept me awake most of the night. But hope, even a little of it, makes everything easy.

Goodnight my Soul. I send you all my heart and a thousand loving thoughts to surround you while you sleep.

B.

Please give my scrap-book7 to Miss Wrinch,8 who brings this.a

• 1

  [document] Document 200137.

• 2

  [date] Colette wrote “2 May 1917” on the letter.

• 3

  Absolutists Of the 16,000 conscientious objectors who refused to accept the dictates of conscription, at least 985, the absolutists, rejected any form of alternative service. They thereby broke the terms of the Military Service Acts and were forced to endure repeated terms of imprisonment.

• 4

  Milner, Childs, Ld. H. Cecil, Bryce Lord Milner (1954–1925) was one of the most determined opponents of pacifism in the Lloyd George coalition. Major General Sir Wyndham Childs (1876–1946) was Director of Personal Services, War Office, 1916–1919. Lord Henry Cecil (1869–1956) was a Member of Parliament and educationist. Lord Bryce (1938–1922) was a jurist, historian and politician, author of the Bryce Report (1915) into German atrocities.

• 5

  Miss Marshall Catherine Marshall (1880–1961). For further information on her, see BRACERS 19043, n.5. BR refers to her as “CEM” later in this letter.

• 6

  U Boats German submarines were under orders to sink any ship entering or leaving the ports of the enemies. The Times identified the U-Boat attacks as a serious threat on 27 April 1917; there were over 300 in operation.

• 7

  my scrap-book Scrapbook no. 3 of clippings and some letters in the RA with notations by Dorothy Wrinch.

• 8

  Miss Wrinch Dorothy Maud Wrinch (1894–1976), mathematician and theoretical biologist.

Textual Notes

• a

  Please give my scrap-book … who brings this. The post script note is written at the top of this letter.