1 De Aar
2 July 29th 1912
3
4 Dear old Man
5
6 Thank you very much for the pictures. I like the one doubly where you
7& I show because I am holding your arm. I’m so glad you have got
8away for a little time to Mossel River; I hope your stay will be
9longer than one week. You must need rest.
10
11 I think it is many years since I boiled over with rage at any thing as
12at Rubusana’s daring to tell white women their place was the home,
13& voting against our being allowed to join the Provincial Council. My
14mouth is in future forever shut when I am arguing with the women who
15state that because the Kaffir is black has wool instead of hair, is
16much unlike us in other physical matters & has ages of savagery behind
17unreadable him, where we have civilization his place is the Kraal &
18the field of manual labour. If the mere difference of her sexual
19function & size makes her unfit for being the equal of the white man,
20what of the native, one step removed from savagery! If the place of a
21woman is in the heavy physical drudgery of domestic labour – which
22"the home" means to all but the handful of wealthy women with over
23£400 a year which means they can employ other women to work for them,
24then as as Cresswell would say "the place for the Kaffir is his Kraal".
25 But enough.
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27 Alles ten besten. Dear, you don’t know how much I love you & feel the
28world is not empty for me while you are in it. Villa Flandre & its
29folk & the dear ones in England fill a bigger place in my thought than
30you can understand. I was very surprised to hear Ursie was going to
31take up medicine: Alice Corthorn’s letter to me a month ago said she
32was
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34 ^certainly going to take up nursing. I am so anxious to hear her plans.
35Except two picture post cards I have not heard from her since I was in
36town at Xmas time.^
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