BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 14 JAN. 1921
BRACERS 19724. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<Beijing>
14 Jan. 19211

My Darling Love

The Shirborn Ballads2 have just arrived. Thank you for them 1000 times — I have been reading some with great delight, and I love the book and the binding. It was good of you my Dearest. The book ought to have arrived for Xmas but there were so many Xmas parcels in the mail that they got delayed.

I hope you got the Xmas telegram3 I sent you. I have not yet been able to discover whether I can safely send home the Chinese cloak I got for you — if I can’t, it will have to wait till I come —

One nice thing here is that the Chinese give one a free hand in lecturing — one can lecture on any subject and profess any opinions — there is far more liberty altogether than in Europe. If it were not for the ties of affection, I could live here happily for the rest of my days. The Chinese are good-natured, full of laughter, and extraordinarily kind to Dora4 and me.

I have a seminar where I meet the better students, and it is great fun. They are gay as children — sceptical and intelligent, but lazy. — The situation in Japan grows very tense — they imprison socialists and break up their meetings, and now they have started Black Hundreds,5 as in Old Russia, to massacre them. I doubt if I shall be allowed to land there next July — In any case, everything looks like war between Japan and U.S.6 (U.S. in the wrong — simply bullying). If I can’t go to Japan I shall get home sooner.

Mails are very irregular — I get 4 letters from you in quick succession and then none for a good while.

My Heart’s Comrade,7 I love you now and always — no new happiness can drive you out of my inmost being. Bless you, my Beloved.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200725.

• 2

  The Shirborn Ballads Andrew Clark, ed., The Shirburn Ballads, 1585–1616 (Oxford: OUP, 1907), from a manuscript belonging to the Earl of Macclesfield, Shirburn Castle, Oxford. The book is inscribed: “BR from C.O’N. Christmas 1920” (RL, no. 457).

• 3

  Xmas telegram The telegram which was sent on 22 December arrived on Christmas Day (BRACERS 19718).

• 4

  Dora Dora Black (1894–1986). She and BR were married from 1921 until 1935. For further information on her, see BRACERS 19506, n.3.

• 5

  Black Hundreds These far-right groups flourished in Russia following the 1905 revolution.

• 6

  war between Japan and U.S. War was averted with the signing of a treaty by the United States, Britain and its three dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand), France and Japan, in Washington on 13 December 1921. All parties agreed to preserve peace and maintain existing rights in their Pacific Ocean regions.

• 7

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