BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 20 MAR. 1919
BRACERS 19457. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
The Manor House
Garsington
Oxford1^, 2
20.3.19

My Darling Love

Thank you so much for the book,3 which I love to have — and for your letter.4 O my Heart, I do love you — my sweet Angel, my lovely Dear — It is still cold and snowing hard, but the spring is coming, with laughter and little green leaves and the songs of birds — and happiness in the depths of the soul — and there is a breath of spring over the world too: Wilson5 is winning over the League of Nations,6 and the Germans are being fed,7 and the Bolsheviks have recaptured the Ukraine8 — and there is freedom coming for wage-earners, if Smillie9 gets his way as he probably will. And for my private happiness I have had a letter from Wittgenstein,10 of which I enclose a copy — please take it to Jacobs and Olroyd to be typed, telling them to be careful not to correct the spelling — I want to send it to various people to try and help him. Isn’t it a wonderful letter? I want six copies made of it. I don’t know their address now. Any typist will do.

I am busy reading Nikolai on the Biology of War11 — praiseworthy but dull.

Must stop. All my love, my Treasure — my heart is yours utterly.

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200445.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 34 Russell Chambers | Bury Str. | W.C.1. Pmk: GARSINGTON | MR 20 | 19 | OXFORD

• 3

  the book Since Colette’s letters are not extant for this period, the book cannot be identified.

• 4

  your letter Not extant.

• 5

  Wilson Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924), 28th president of the United States, 1913–21. Woodrow Wilson was the leading proponent in the founding of the League of Nations. He faced opposition inside the United States. Under his guidance a Covenant was signed on 28 June 1919 as Part 1 of the Treaty of Versailles. This led to its official founding on 20 January 1920. The United States never agreed to join the League.

• 6

  League of Nations With regard to food the Allies insisted that “payment for deliveries of foodstuffs shall first of all be made with the proceeds of German exports” (The Times, “Brussels Agreement. How Germany Will Pay for Food", 17 March 1919, p. 12.) Later in this column under the sub-heading “Feeding Central Europe”, it was noted “The Germans must hand over their ships if they wished to be fed.” Its failure to prevent many wars even before World War II led to its demise.

• 7

  Germans are being fed Too early: the blockade was lifted until 12 July, although Germany agreed to surrender its fleet on 14 March 1919.

• 8

  Bolsheviks have recaptured the Ukraine The Soviet offence against Ukraine was launched in January 1919. On 19 March The Times announced in “Red Army Losses” that the Bolshevists admit defeat along the front from Ekaterinoslav … [to] the region of the lower Donets" (p. 10). This did not mark the end of the conflict.

• 9

  Smillie Robert Smillie (1857–1940), trade unionist and politician. Since 1912 he had been President of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain, and was instrumental in getting many miners to switch their support from the Liberal Party to the Labour Party. In 1915 he became the president of the National Council against Conscription. The following year Smillie delivered BR’s speech on “Political Ideals” in Glasgow when BR was prevented by the Government from travelling to any coastal area. Smillie declined the position of food controller in Lloyd George’s cabinet.

• 10

  letter from Wittgenstein Presumably his letter of 13 March 1919 (BRACERS 58627) because there are five carbons of it, rather than his earlier letter of 10 March 1919 (BRACERS 58625). Both are published in B. McGuinness, ed., Wittgenstein in Cambridge (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), pp. 88–9.

• 11

  Nikolai on the Biology of War Georg Friedrich Nicolai (1874–1964), German physician and pacifist. His book The Biology of War (New York: Century, 1918) was translated into English from the German original of 1917. BR’s review appeared in The Athenaeum, 11 April 1919 (B&R C19.08; 2 in Papers 15).