"Soldiers outside door, 'when the war is over'" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | HRC/OliveSchreinerLetters/OS-JohnHodgson/98 |
| Archive | Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Wednesday 6 December 1916 |
| Address From | Dawson Place Mansions, Pembridge Square, London |
| Address To | |
| Who To | John Hodgson |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscript Collections. The date has been written on in an unknown hand. Schreiner was resident at Dawson Place Mansions from early October to late December 1916.
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1Wednesday
2
3Dear Mr Hodgson
4
5On Sunday I am practically never in; I always to g my brothers. Mrs
6Solomon writes to me in great delight that you are going to write an
7article in the Statesman about Platje. She seems to think you are
8deeply in sympathy with his view. I hope this is so. I know you would
9never make use of any thing Mrs Platje or Mrs Solomon to whom I
10intro-duced you said, against them. After next Monday my address will be
1119 Adam Street
12Portman Sq.
13
14I have only go a tiny bedroom there & go out for my meals But if any
15one comes to see me we could go out to a tea room
16
17Olive Schreiner
18
2
3Dear Mr Hodgson
4
5On Sunday I am practically never in; I always to g my brothers. Mrs
6Solomon writes to me in great delight that you are going to write an
7article in the Statesman about Platje. She seems to think you are
8deeply in sympathy with his view. I hope this is so. I know you would
9never make use of any thing Mrs Platje or Mrs Solomon to whom I
10intro-duced you said, against them. After next Monday my address will be
1119 Adam Street
12Portman Sq.
13
14I have only go a tiny bedroom there & go out for my meals But if any
15one comes to see me we could go out to a tea room
16
17Olive Schreiner
18
Notation
A laudatory article on racial policy in South Africa in the New Statesman in December 1916 concluded under the heading of "General Botha's Native Policy" that "Given these conditions, we may hope that South Africa will enter upon a period of great industrial and social development, for the inauguration of which, upon humane and statesmanlike foundations, the whole Empire will owe thanks to General Botha." New Statesman 16 December 1916 vol 7 no 182 pp.561-562. Hodgson's response was in the form of a letter signed with a non de plume; it meant well but also revealed ideas likely to be unpalatable to Schreiner: "The native cries: 'We do not ask for social equality between white and black; only the right to make a living in the open market; only the right to develop and improve ourselves.' And also the whites in South Africa probably cannot - with safety to themselves - grant in its fulness even this simple request, it should not be beyond the wit of man to devise a safe policy which is less harsh than that so recently inaugurated." See Lawrence Hodgson New Statesman 30 December 1917, vol 7 no 195, pp.300-2.
A laudatory article on racial policy in South Africa in the New Statesman in December 1916 concluded under the heading of "General Botha's Native Policy" that "Given these conditions, we may hope that South Africa will enter upon a period of great industrial and social development, for the inauguration of which, upon humane and statesmanlike foundations, the whole Empire will owe thanks to General Botha." New Statesman 16 December 1916 vol 7 no 182 pp.561-562. Hodgson's response was in the form of a letter signed with a non de plume; it meant well but also revealed ideas likely to be unpalatable to Schreiner: "The native cries: 'We do not ask for social equality between white and black; only the right to make a living in the open market; only the right to develop and improve ourselves.' And also the whites in South Africa probably cannot - with safety to themselves - grant in its fulness even this simple request, it should not be beyond the wit of man to devise a safe policy which is less harsh than that so recently inaugurated." See Lawrence Hodgson New Statesman 30 December 1917, vol 7 no 195, pp.300-2.