BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 6 JAN. 1921
BRACERS 19723. ALS. McMaster. SLBR 2: #343
Edited by S. Turcon and N. Griffin. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

Peking,1
6.1.21.

My Darling Love

4 letters2 from you came all together, from Cox Green, Batley and Newcastle. I was glad of them — yes, I ordered an engagement book for you. I wonder about Elizabeth’s book.3 I have heard nothing of it except from you. Do tell me more about poor Swinnerton4 — it sounds a sad business. How interesting about Louise Labbé.5 — My Dearest, you are good to me — all you say about new love is so generous, and so very different from the way I behaved — it makes me feel humble. The new love that I have found is very good — I share a great deal of my intellectual life with Dora and am very happy — but it does not replace you or dim you in my thoughts, because it belongs to a different region. I cannot tell you how constantly you are in my thoughts, or how I long for the time when we shall be together again — All this time, Lynton6 has been in my imagination till I almost fancied I heard the gulls. — Thank you very much for sending that nice review in the Manchester Guardian — the Times and Athenaeum were less nice.7 People who haven’t been to Russia (and most of those who have) cannot imagine the appalling tragedy of it — it makes most talk about Russia seem thin and frivolous. The leading Bolsheviks seemed to me totally indifferent to the sufferings of the people; that is why I hated them. I find myself still thinking that they are exactly as bad as Curzon8 and Winston,9 indeed hardly different. All that I have seen out here confirms me in that view. — The ballads10 you speak of have not yet come, but I suppose they will — thank you for them Beloved. — I see Herald and Nation — and there are good papers here — the Japan Chronicle better than any in Europe, very witty, and having exactly one’s own views. — I don’t think I shall write on China — it is a complex country, with an old civilization, very hard to fathom. In many ways I prefer the Chinese to Europeans — they are less fierce — their faults only injure China, not other nations.

I have a busy life — 3 courses of lectures, a Seminar, and odd lectures — for instance today I lecture on Religion.11 I like the students, though they don’t work hard and have not much brains. They are friendly and enthusiastic, and very open-minded. I hate most of the Europeans, because they are mostly diplomats or missionaries, both professionally engaged in trying to deceive the Chinese, with very little success. There is a man named R.F. Johnston12 whom I like very much — he wrote a delightful book on Buddhist China, which you would love. — I had a very unhappy letter from C.A. from Leysin13 — I hate to think of him so lonely and miserable. I would have telegraphed money to you to go to him if I had known that was what kept you — I get £200 a month from the Chinese, and £100 a month from the Japs for articles14 — so I am very well off. I try to save, but men come round with lovely Chinese things, and the money goes. Also of course furnishing cost a good deal. One lives in expectation of a revolution here, but it seems that revolutions make very little difference. There is less government in China than there ever was in Europe — it is delightful. All the gloomy things I wrote you the other day15 are true, but they are only one side of the picture. Chinese soldiers kill a few compatriots, others kill many foreigners, so Chinese soldiers are best. — The state of the world at large makes me very unhappy. Ever since I began to hate the Bolsheviks I have felt more than ever a stranger in this planet. The people one loves are the only real joy to be found. I feel civilization is going under and one’s work is futile. Beloved, my spirit clings to yours — love and kindness seem the only ultimate things — I fall back on them, and you have them more completely than any one I have ever known. Bless you my Heart’s Comrade.16

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200724.

• 2

  4 letters 10 and 11 November from Cox Green, Berks. (BRACERS 116424 and 116425), 17 November from Newcastle (BRACERS 116426), and 22 November from Batley Carr, Yorks (BRACERS 116427).

• 3

  Elizabeth’s book Elizabeth Russell (1866–1941), novelist. The book being referred to is In the Mountains (New York: Doubleday). Colette had written on 25 October (BRACERS 116722) from Ipswich that all the reviews she has seen were excellent.

• 4

  Swinnerton Frank Swinnerton (1884–1982), writer. In his letter of 6 Nov. 1920 (BRACERS 19712) BR wrote  that he was sorry about Swinnerton. Swinnerton had rented BR’s Bury Street flat in 1919. This may be a reference to his marriage of 7 September 1920 which appears to have gone bad almost immediately. His wife left him in 1921 and the couple divorced in 1923.

• 5

  about Louise Labbé Colette had written at length about the poet Labé (c.1522–1566) in the Cox Green letter of 11 November (BRACERS 116425).

• 6

  Lynton Lynton, Devon. BR and Colette spent Christmas at the Cottage Hotel there in 1918 and 1919 with Clifford Allen.

• 7

  nice review ... less niceThe Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (B&R A34) had been published on 4 November 1920. Reviews in The Times Literary Supplement, 18 Nov. 1920, p. 747 (by John Macdonell), and The Athenaeum, 19 Nov. 1920, p. 695 (by J.W.N. Sullivan), attacked it from the right and left, respectively. The Manchester Guardian (16 Nov.), however, praised it. Clippings are in RA.

• 8

  Curzon George Nathaniel, Marquess Curzon (1859–1925), a leading Tory politician, formerly Viceroy of India and currently Foreign Secretary.

• 9

  Winston Winston Churchill (1874–1965), then Minister of War, who advocated continued British intervention in Russia.

• 10

  The ballads Colette had written in her letter of 22 November 1920 (BRACERS 116427) that she was sending him a book. She was not able to remember the exact title and guessed “The Sherborne Ballads” when the typescript of her edited letter was prepared. It is The Shirburn Ballads, 1585–1616, edited by Andrew Clarke in 1907. The book is inscribed: “BR from C.O’N. Christmas 1920” (RL, no. 457).

• 11

  lecture on Religion  BR lectured to the Philosophy Research group on “The Essence and Effect of Religion”, Appendix VIII in Papers 15.

• 12

  R.F. Johnston Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874–1938), scholar, administrator, and traveller, the European tutor to the last emperor. He wrote several books on China, notably Buddhist China (London: J. Murray, 1913) criticizing the influence of Christian missionaries. BR had either forgotten that Colette had mentioned Johnston’s book in her letter of 11 September (BRACERS 116415) or perhaps did not receive that letter.

• 13

  C.A. from Leysin (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939), who had been in a sanatorium in Leysin but by Christmas had gone to Cannes with his brother. For information on him, see BRACERS 19406, n.7.

• 14

  from the Japs for for articles BR was publishing articles in the Japanese Kaizō.

• 15

  gloomy things I wrote you the other day BR’s letter of 24 Dec. 1920 (BRACERS 19719).

• 16

  Heart’s Comrade For information on the use of the term, see BRACERS 19145, n.12.