BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 31 JAN. 1921
BRACERS 19726. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

Peking.1
31 Jan. 1921.

My Darling

I got a letter from you 2 days ago written Dec. 16,2 telling me about C.A.3 I am very glad to hear about him, tho’ your news4 is not really good. I have written to him at intervals, and a little while ago I had one letter from him, but I am not sure that all my letters arrived — I think some of mine to you from the ship must have gone astray. C.A.’s letter was from the Sanatorium,5 and it was evident he was going through hell — It is dreadful. I don’t know who “George” is,6 who you say is with him.

Life here has grown into a routine — the Chinese feasts have diminished, and one has time for work. I write articles for the Japanese socialists,7 who are vigorous people terribly persecuted. The Japanese Government is awful — in Korea it is worse than we are in Ireland. I also work a great deal at Relativity, which I am lecturing on. — Some of the students have formed a seminar, which they call “Society for the Study of Russell’s Philosophy” — we gave them a party 2 nights ago, with Chinese lanterns all round the courtyard, and brasiers burning in the middle — about 30 came, young men and girls, all very jolly, and very nice people. I find them charming in every way, except that they are lazy and won’t do any work. The Chinese are quiet peaceablea people, much less fierce than Europeans, but the Europeans and Japs won’t allow them any peace. It looks like war between America and Japan,8 and also between Russia and Japan.9 In either case, I suppose they would fight on Chinese territory. The Chinese are extraordinarily nice to Dora10 and me — I get to like them more and more.

When we have time, we go to the Temple of Heaven, which is most exquisite — great courts surrounded by woods, leading up to a great circular temple with wonderful blue tiles on the roof — everything with the most perfect proportions, and an atmosphere of peace that makes one talk in a low voice so as not to disturb it. — I go on being very happy. They urge me to stay another year but I won’t do that — I don’t want to be longer away from you, and from friends and from intellectual stimulus. People here, even Europeans, all become easy-going and lotus-eating. No new books reach China, and Europeans keep the ideas they had when they came out. Students pick up new ideas superficially — they think they believe in Bolshevism, but they don’t know what it is. Out here its imperialist side is very visible. — Dearest, I am sorry if my letters when I first arrived were short and lifeless, I was so overwhelmed with work and new impressions that I got worn out, and for a month could do nothing but sleep. I love you always my Darling. Goodbye for now, I must get to work.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200727.

• 2

  letter from you 2 days ago written Dec. 16 See BRACERS 116433.

• 3

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.

• 4

  your news In her letter of 16 December (BRACERS 116433), Colette had written that Clifford Allen’s lung, although healed, was only half its normal size. His doctor was concerned that all his “troubles — heart, blood, weight — were much the same. He doesn’t seem able to pick up properly.”

• 5

  from the Sanatorium In her letter of 16 December (BRACERS 116433), Colette had written that Clifford Allen’s “time at the sanatorium was hell.” She provides more details in her Autobiography, After Ten Years (London: J. Cape, 1931, p. 149). Allen spent his days on a balcony listening to consumptives cough, spit, and die; his nights were sleepless; he was depressed and lonely. The Sanatorium was in Switzerland.

• 6

  don’t know who “George” is There is no mention of a “George” in Colette’s letter of 16 December 1920 (BRACERS 116433). The typed version indicates that Clifford Allen will be accompanied to Switzerland by his brother who is identified as W.G. Allen in a footnote. Walter Godfrey Allen was called Godfrey (Martin Gilbert, Plough My Own Furrow, London: Longmans, 1965). BR presumably misread her hand.

• 7

  Japanese socialists One of them was Sanehiko Yamamoto, president of the Kaizō Co. which published the monthly magazine Kaizō. It had been founded in 1919 and contained articles on a variety of topics: politics, economics, philosophy, literature, science and social affairs. Several letters from Yamamoto are in RA1 410. One of his letters (BRACERS 19717) ended up in Colette’s possession.

• 8

  war between America and Japan 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.

• 9

  between Russia and Japan These countries had already fought a war in 1904–05 over control of Korea and Manchuria which had been won by Japan. Despite the revolution in Russia, these territorial issues were still in play. The Nikolaievsk affair — the killing of Japanese soldier-prisoners in Eastern Siberia in May 1920 meant that relations between the two countries remained strained, although the war that BR predicted did not occur.

• 10

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

Textual Notes

• a

  peaceable corrected from peacable