BR TO MARY MURRAY, 24 MAY 1937
BRACERS 52398. ALS. Murray Papers, Bodleian
Proofread by A.G. Bone

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Telegraph House
Harting, Petersfield.
May 24, 1937

My dear Mary

Thank you very much for your friendly letter. I wish I could do the sort of thing for refugees that you tell me of, but I am prevented by poverty.

By an odd coincidence, some old letters of mine have just been returned to me, and in one dated 8 August 1915 I find this: “At Culham I heard a voice from the train calling ‘Bertie’, and there was Mary Murray. She tackled me at once about Gilbert’s pamphlet, and I thought it was no use lying. We had a very painful conversation and at one moment I thought we were going to become enemies for life. I have a very strong affection for her, and I should have minded dreadfully. But we smoothed it over and parted friends.”

I still have the same feelings, and do not at all want to lose old friendships — the worse the world grows, the more I value them.

Yours affectionately
B.R.