BR TO KATHARINE TAIT, 29 SEPT. 1950
BRACERS 52629. ALS. McMaster. SLBR 2: #502
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by K. Blackwell

41 Queen’s Rd.
Richmond Surrey.
Sp. 29, 1950

Dear Kate

I am delighted to hear that you expect a child in March. I hope all will go well. I don’t think you will ever be sorry, in spite of the work and bother and anxiety. Even the finest car in the world is not as satisfying as a child.

It is quite true that every one in Australia bets on horse races. I even did myself, and won a few shillings! Everybody in Australia is determined for white Australia.1

About Asia: Robert Payne, as you say, is naive about Communists; he is a fool, but there is useful information in his book.2 My own view is this: the day of Western imperialism in Asia is past, but there is a new danger of Russian imperialism. If Asia is to be made aware of this danger, we of the West must make it obvious that we no longer threaten Asia’s independence. The British have done well in India, and in recognizing the communist government in China.3 If America and France could be induced to follow suit, and not to oppose land reform in Asia, S-E Asia would become a large neutral block. Nehru has the right ideas. China would adopt Titoism4 if the West did not stand for everything corrupt and reactionary in China. We ought to give up Hongkong — the French ought to abandon Indo-China.5 Malaya is difficult because it earns dollars, but I think an arrangement should be possible.6

I am glad you are getting reconciled to domesticity, particularly as you are likely to have such a dose of it. Do you remember the last line of a Chinese poem on the birth of a daughter: “My plan of retiring to the hills must now be postponed for fifteen years.”7

To return to Asia: my grounds are partly strategic. The most important thing is to protect W. Europe from Russian invasion, which requires concentration of forces. If there is war, we shall lose everything in Asia, so we had better surrender it voluntarily and get good will for doing so. Protecting W. Europe is the utmost we can hope to achieve.

I shall arrive in America on Oct. 23. Till Nov.1 my address there will be

℅ Dr. Schuck, Mount Hoyoke, South Hadley, Mass.

I leave here Oct. 22. It will be lovely to see you and there will be a great deal to talk about. Much love.

Yr aff
Diddy

• 1

  white Australia “White Australia” was an immigration policy designed to foster immigration but of whites only.

• 2

  Robert Payne … his book Robert Payne (1911–1983) was a British-born American author who had spent several years in Asia about which he wrote many books. The one Russell has in mind is probably The Revolt of Asia (1947), which is in his library. It is an enthusiastic account of what Payne sees as Asia’s transition from feudalism and colonialism to democratic socialism.

• 3

  The British … communist government in China. In October 1949 the communists had come to power in China. Britain recognized the new government in January 1950.

• 4

  China would adopt Titoism Joseph Tito had come to power in Yugoslavia at the end of the war. Although communist, his government was marked by a considerable degree of independence from Stalinist Russia. Russell was prescient in his prediction that China would likewise break away from Russian control. In 1950 China’s ties to Russia were still close.

• 5

  The French ought to abandon Indo-China. Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos had been French colonies since the nineteenth century. During the war they had been occupied by the Japanese and had achieved independence with the Japanese collapse in 1945. The French, however, quickly reoccupied Cambodia and Laos, but never managed to subdue Vietnam, for which they fought a long war (which America eventually took over).

• 6

  Malaya is difficult … arrangement should be possible. British control of Malaya was being threatened by a nationalist insurgency. Britain eventually achieved the sort of accommodation Russell hoped for by ceding independence to anti-communist nationalist forces.

• 7

  “My plan of retiring to the hills must now be postponed for fifteen years” “Golden Bells”, by the ninth-century poet Po Chû-l in Arthur Waley, A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (London: Allen & Unwin, 1918), p. 119.