1 Hanover
2 June 24 / 05
3
4 My dear Laddie
5
6 I don’t suppose you will want to be troubled with letters on your
7wanderings. You will only want to get away from anything that smells
8of pen, ink & paper. But sitting here at my desk in my little study
9tonight my thoughts turn to you-ward. I hope Nauheim has really done
10you good; the & change will I know temporarily have set you up, but I
11hope Nauheim may do more. I fancy you will have to leave off smoking
12in all but the most moderate way, & if one has to smoke to order it
13may be easier to drop it altogether.
14
15 Dear old Emma was so delighted with your visit. I hope you will be
16able to go again. One wishes so one one could do more for her. I have
17never yet been able to face Fred’s death, it caught me right across
18the heart.
19
20 //I have been ^back^ here for a week now. Am feeling stronger for my
21stay in Cape Town, & am trying to write a bit. I must. But the very
22pressure of necessity makes writing poor.
23
24 Cron is very busy. He leaves on the 1st for de Aar for ten days, & I &
25my little Kaffir will have the house to ourselves with the meerkats &
26Ollie. Give my love to my boy Oliver. I wish I were there to go about
27the Art Galleries & Museums with him. What a fine time we should have.
28
29 Things were rather lively at the end of the session in Cape Town.
30(Private) Some men in the know think the Progressives will go out next
31session. That about six of our men will go over to them & 12 of theirs
32come over to us giving us the majority. For me, politics interest me
33very little at present one way or another. The apostolic days are
34passed, & the day of politics pure & simple have arrived, & party
35politics except at those rare times when the fate of a nation seems to
36depend on them, are most highly distasteful to me.
37
38 There is a good deal of bitterness in our party Sauer & his following
39being very bitter against Malan who as the future leader they fear.
40Malan is a man for whom I have the profoundest respect & the deepest
41faith. He is the coming great man of South Africa in the years when we
42old folks have passed away – unless success spoils him as it does so
43many of the sons of men; but I do not think it will be so in his case.
44(This is all private)
45
46 I unreadable
47
48 It would give great pleasure to my friend Alice Corthorn if you & the
49boy could look her up Her address is
50 Dr Corthorn
51 30 St Mary Abbotts Terrace
52 Kensington W
53
54 I saw our folk at Lyndall three times before I left. Fan was looking
55wonderfully better again. Ursula is becoming a very wonderful child; I
56would not wonder at her being or doing anything. Dot, my beautiful,
57sweet child always gives me a great ache at my heart. It would take a
58long letter to explain to you all I feel. I wish she could
59
60^get away to a larger atmosphere in Europe, not simply to see sights
61but to live among men & women who might draw out her rare & beautiful
62possibilities. Good bye dear Laddie. Write & tell your lonely little
63sister how you are. For my life is very lonely passing the life of
64average men & women, & my thoughts turn very much to you ward. ^
65
66 Olive
67
68 ^Cron sends his love.^