BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 17 MAR. 1948
BRACERS 19847. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Penralltgoch
Llan Ffestiniog
Merioneth1
17 March 1948

My dearest Colette

Thank you for your letter of March 2.2 I have now booked my passage3 by air, arriving May 21 and leaving May 31. I think I arrive about 6 p.m. but will let you know details later. I hope to crowd business into 3 or 4 days, and have the rest of the time free for you. Perhaps we could get away into the country4 the last week-end? I cannot tell you how intensely I look forward to being with you. One must hope the Russians will not occupy Sweden before that date.

I am in with everybody in this country who does things about refugees etc.5 The business in Czechoslovakia6 has opened people’s eyes, and opinion is immensely changed. I wonder whether you heard my broadcast in Swedish7 on the Communist Manifesto, by the B.B.C. In a moment of aberration, the Polish Ambassador8 invited me to a reception “To meet the Polish delegates to the Congress of Democratic Lawyers”. I replied:9

“Dear Sir: Your invitation puzzles me. As democracy is now illegal in Poland, and the leading democrats have been exiled, imprisoned, or liquidated, I presume the delegates you invite me to meet have been released from gaol for the occasion. If, however, you mean by ‘democracy’ a military dictatorship imposed by a minority, then I am not a ‘democrat’, and should be out of place at your gathering.”

You will be surprised to hear that I had no reply.

I hope you will manage to get a room near mine. There will be so many years to make up.

Don’t stay much longer in Sweden. If you do, the Russians will get you.

All my love, Colette Dearest.

Your
B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200853.

• 2

  your letter of March 2 BRACERS 113264.

• 3

  my passage To Sweden.

• 4

  get away into the country In her reply of 20 June 1948 (BRACERS 113273), Colette suggested going to Mariefred. They did go there, staying in a little inn at Gripsholm Castle by Mälar Lake (letter to Phyllis Urch, Aug. 1955).

• 5

  doing things about refugees etc. BR was a sponsor of British Aid for German Workers in 1948 and perhaps other such organizations, in addition to Save Europe Now since 1945.

• 6

  business in Czechoslovakia The Communists took power in Czechoslovakia in February 1948; the country became a satellite of the Soviet Union.

• 7

  my broadcast in Swedish Colette did hear him, writing to Phyllis Urch on 11 March 1948: “He was speaking on Swedish radio, from London, two nights ago.” His text may be related to “Det Marxistiska Giftet” (B&R C48.14; 52a in Papers 25, forthcoming).

• 8

  Polish Ambassador Henry Leon Strasburger (1887–1951) held the position from 1945 to 1949.

• 9

  I replied For BR’s separate (and longer) copy (or draft) of the reply, dated 27 February 1948, see BRACERS 63356.