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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box11/Fold1/Dated/21
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter DateSaturday March 1908
Address FromEastbergholt, Tamboer?s Kloof Road, Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape
Address To
Who ToJulia Solly nee Muspratt
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Project is grateful to Manuscripts and Archives, University of Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscripts and Archives Collections. The month and year have been written on this letter in an unknown hand.
1 Eastbergholt
2 Tamboer’s Kloof Rd
3 Saturday
4
5 Dear Mrs Solly
6
7 I wish you had been here on Thursday, the debate in the Upper-house
8was of course much more interesting than the papers say. I do hope
9you’ll be be able to come to the debate on Tuesday. If you can
10please come & lunch with me here. Mrs Purcell & Mrs de Villiers will
11be here too.
12
13 Yes, I think that move about the President only serving for two years
14would be good.
15
16 If at the meeting I resign my post as vice-president & propose Mrs
17Murray
would you second it.
18
19 I have just got Mrs Charles Molteno to join: will you send her a card.
20I have none here, or must I write to Miss Woods for one? I am not at
21all sur happy about the way our little society grows & works.
22
23 Mrs Macfadyen told me she "had put her foot down" on the little
24centres working in each place, & was determined that should not be. It
25is a very great mistake.
26
27 The most important thing I want to write to you about is this.
28
29 Our society cannot work as it should if we have not printed lists with
30the full addresses of all the members one of which must be given to
31each member. Suppose I want to get up meetings here or any one else,
32we have not the slightest idea who the members are! & can do nothing!
33At Matjesfontein for instance I got two or three members, & any of our
34members going there might get up an interesting meeting, but they
35would never know there were any members there. If we have the money to
36publish pamphlets we surely must have the money for this.
37
38 Our society ought now to number several hundreds; five or six at least,
39 instead of only about 200 as I think was stated at one meeting lately
40.Can we Not one in five of the people I know who are in favour of our
41society
woman’s having the vote have joined. If you will bring in
42your book with the addresses we can talk it over, & if there is no
43money for it, we might try to collect enough ^money^ ^I would^ give
44something myself). When people ask me who the members are I can only
45give the names of those I personally have got to join.
46
47 If Can we not get a large meeting with members of parliament on the
48platform before my husband brings the matter in in the Lower house as
49he intends to do. I will help to get members to come. I will try Sauer
50& Malan, but it will be difficult as they don’t like running against
51Merriman. Thanks so much for the cream cheese It was lovely.
52
53 I am so sorry you are not living in town. There is no house which is a
54centre where our women can gather. I think it was a tremendous mistake
55dropping the meetings during the summer. It is exactly at Kalk Bay &
56Somerset Strand where the people gather & have plenty of time that
57most work can be done.
58
59 Excuse great haste
60 Yours ever
61 Olive Schreiner
62
63^I see in this morning’s times a list of the delegates to the Loyal
64Ladies League at Johannesburg. Mrs Macfadyens name was not among those
65from Cape Colony. She distinctly told me she had been elected a
66delegate & her expenses were paid. Can you understand this. ^
67
68 It astonished me when she told me, because I’ve been told the league
69is strongly opposed to her!
70
Notation
The list of delegates in the Cape Times could not be found in any of the March 1908 issues of the newspaper.