BRACERS Record Detail for 52399
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Written on letterhead of West Lodge, Downing College, with the notation "As from Telegraph House", which suggests BR was not staying long at Cambridge.
"C.A. lies in his throat." Spain has been very difficult for BR—"I know Spain"—but he remains a pacifist.
BR TO GILBERT MURRAY, 3 MAR. 1937
BRACERS 52399. ALS. Murray papers, Bodleian
Edited by W. Bruneau. Proofread by A.G. Bone
As from Telegraph House.
<letterhead>
The West Lodge,
Downing College,
Cambridge
3. 3. 37.
Dear Gilbert
Thank you for your letter. C.A. lies in his throat. The speech was against armaments, and it is nonsense to suggest that Tory Peers are against armaments.
Spain has turned many away from pacifism. I myself have found it very difficult, the more so as I know Spain, most of the places where the fighting has been, and the Spanish people, and I have the strongest possible feelings on the Spanish issue. I should certainly not find Czecho-Slovakia more difficult. And having remained a pacifist while the Germans were invading France and Belgium in 1914, I do not see why I should cease to be one if they do it again. The result of our having adopted the policy of war at that time is not so delectable as to make me wish to see it adopted again.
You feel “They ought to be stopped.” I feel that, if we set to work to stop them, we shall, in the process, become exactly like them, and the world will have gained nothing. Also, if we beat them, we shall produce in time some one as much worse than Hitler as he is worse than the Kaiser. In all this I see no hope for mankind.
Yours ever
B.R.
