Transgressions: Installment XCIXV
April 1, 1939, Saturday?
I.R.A. bombings in various parts of London.?? This is the third or fourth day of such.
Watt in Fiona’s usual place at Welbeck Street, sitting in the armchair next to the fire; Fiona in his, standing beside it.? Watt had drawn a grid of lines on a piece of paper and was filling the spaces with letters.?
V.:? “Cross-word puzzle?”
Watt:? “Something like that.? One of Wittgenstein’s inventions.? He calls it a truth table.? His claim is that if you put down all possible combinations of “this is true” and “this is false” in regard to a particular statement, you can decide, mechanically, as it were, the relations among them.? Here for example:? TFFT means that if some statement, say p, is true, then another statement, call it q, is also true, and visa versa.”
Fiona:? “If the happy bride is present, then her devoted husband is present, and visa versa.”
Watt:? “Or any other pair of statements of that form.”
V.:? “Can your cross-word puzzle tell last year’s bride if her husband still loves her?”
Watt:? “I am quite sure you don’t need Wittgenstein’s help for that.”
Fiona, who had been leaning over Watt’s shoulder, running a finger down one of the columns of the truth table, slowly straightened up and turned to look first at V., then at me, but said nothing.
As we walked home I said:? “Of course I love you.”
“Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it.”
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April 2, 1939, Sunday
All the daffodils are out and there are many primroses in bloom.? Something of a scene with V., who in the end said that I mustn’t make too much of her attempts at witticisms.
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“One feels, when among your friends, a certain competition to be cynical, daring and so forth.”
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“Our friends,” I said.
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April 3, 1939, Monday
Jack says that yesterday Halifax tried to ruin his day by demanding a meeting at 12.? Halifax usually goes up to Yorkshire on Fridays.? When he doesn’t, he gets bored and thinks everyone else is also at loose ends.? Hence demands for Sunday meetings about nothing in particular.? I wonder how Jack usually spends his Sunday?? Church in the morning and long walks in the Park?
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Today Jack says he told Lord Brocket, head of the Anglo-German Fellowship, that he had best miss Hitler’s birthday celebration this year.? “Didn’t like it.? I had to mention the Secretary of State, whom the stupid ass should have known had given me my instructions.? He said he was going unless I threw him into prison.? Seems a splendid suggestion.”
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Jack says that Chamberlain is now in agreement with Halifax that the Germans plan to invade Poland, then Lithuania and the other Baltic states.? This would be followed by an alliance with Russia and an attempt to conquer the British Empire.? “They would have a good shot at it.”? He says that Churchill, in an attempt to arrange the pieces of the puzzle differently, is calling for an alliance between Britain and the Soviets.? Reasonable, but odd of Churchill, of all people, to suggest it.? “That is his advice on Mondays.? On Thursdays he advocates a German alliance against the Soviets.? Alternate Saturdays call for the usual Afghan punitive expedition.”
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April 5, 1939, Wednesday
Jack is exhausted, he said this morning, from negotiating with the Poles all day and deep into last night.? Beck, their dictator-without-proper-title, is being cooperative except when asked to promise not to invade countries yet more helpless than his own.? More of the same on schedule for today.
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The B.U.’s new slogan is “Who the heck cares for Beck?”? Mosley himself, playing the statesman, says that the alternatives are an Anglo-French-Russian alliance against Germany or an Anglo-German alliance, with Germany having a free hand in eastern Europe in return for disarmament in the west and African colonies, while Britain intensifies the development of its own Empire.? He favours the latter.? As do others, including, perhaps, the P.M.
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April 6, 1939, Thursday
Jack is tired and bitter after three days of Beck & Co.? “Why must we talk with such people?? Unwashed and perfumed savages.”? Livia, to the company at large:? “Jack has always prefers his savages either both washed and perfumed or neither.”
Lord Cecil said that he sees a possibility of an Anglo-Russian alliance against Germany and France (after a coup d’etat in Paris).? “We all have our dreams, don’t we?”
Jack said that Nevile Henderson is being called back from Berlin.
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Lord Cecil:? “Can we do that?? I thought he was on the other team.”
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Percy and Philip appeared after dinner, Philip carrying his cello, as Livia now has a standing order for at least a duet to close each Thursday evening.?
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Percy:? “We have been at a concert of music from the High Atlas.? Most extraordinary.? An entire tradition, centuries old, as formal and developed as our own and everything about it different from our way of doing things.”
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“What does it sound like?”
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“Philip managed to write down the string part and I scribbled something about the drum.? Livia, do you have a tom-tom?”?
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“No, not even a jack-jack these days.”
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Someone found a large metal pot, which Percy turned upside down and struck with the tips of his fingers, while Philip, who had changed the tuning of his cello, plucked its strings, producing a rather novel range of sounds.? Applause.
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“Charles, are you planning to publish your piece for cello and kitchen pot?”? Jack.
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“Perhaps.? It is one path out of the dead-end music has reached here:? the beautiful style of the British school.? There is more to music than harmonious strings and boy choirs.? But here people will not listen to anything they haven’t known all their lives.? Berber music is thought a form of ethnography and therefore ruled out of order.? Then there is the bother about tone rows.? People think they are easier than writing in keys, but it is really much of a muchness, a game one plays with strict rules:? take each note of a tone row in turn, or play always within the eight note limitations of a particular key.? We happen to be more familiar with the latter.”
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Jack:? “Over my head, I’m afraid.”
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Livia:? “Except the boy choirs.”
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April 7, 1939, Good Friday
Italy has invaded Albania.? Jack says that there is nothing to be done except try to ensure the safety of British ships now in Italian harbours. ?He said that Churchill has turned Chartwell into a war-communications centre—telephones ringing, secretaries running hither and thither, maps spilling from tables onto the carpets.? “All very dramatic and significant, except that as far as I know, Winston is not one of His Majesty’s government.”
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April 8, 1939, Saturday
Jack was at a meeting at No. 10 this morning, where it was decided to extend the Polish guarantee to Greece and Turkey.? At lunch Lord Cecil murmured about people far away about whom we know nothing.? I am to draft a note on why the guarantees are necessary.
Watt’s Welbeck Street lecture this evening was on how everything is connected to everything else.? When he finished, Fiona said:? “Often, twice—once visible to the vulgar sort, then again, visible only to the initiate.”
Tessa:? “To the Chosen.”
Fiona:? “Careful, dear, hands that feed one.”
Tessa:? “Ties that bind.”
Then, rather unexpectedly, Watt focused on me.
“Writing about furniture?”
“When I must.”
“French royal pieces?”
“Many of them.”
“Expensive?”
“Quite.”
“You know that it was a set topic, a trope, in ancien regime writing, to describe a journey out of Paris during which one saw, in the distance, certain animals moving about in the dirt.? Drawing closer these were seen to be peasants.”
“Yes.”
“Hence the money needed to pay for that furniture.? Ninety, perhaps ninety-five percent of the population living in the mud, so that a few thousand might enjoy . . .”
“Boulle marquetry; Sèrves dinner sets.”
“Exactly.”
One forgets that Watt has political views.? He is usually careful, of late, to talk only about logical puzzles and such.
Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939
Rumours all day about an imminent attack on Corfu, which would mean war between Italy and the British Empire.
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April 10, 1939, Monday
Jack says the British Mediterranean Fleet is going to gather somewhere south of Malta.
Apparently the British war plans have been predicated on Italy allowing British warships to move through the Mediterranean to the Far East.? A hostile Italy could isolate the Fleet in its Mediterranean bases.? Jack says that, although it will be denied, the US is being asked to move its fleet to the Pacific as a substitute.? In the meantime, it appears that Musso is assuring Athens that he will not attack Corfu.
Telegram from Mother:? VERY PLEASED.
April 11, 1939, Tuesday
A preview of summer:? roasting hot with birds shouting and butterflies wandering silently about everywhere.
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We’re to sail for New York in five weeks time.
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Harrison has once again asked the PM to establish a Ministry of Supply and Chamberlain has once again refused.? Franklin has drafted a speech for Chamberlain in which attacks on Albania & Co. are referred to as “unfriendly acts.”? Jack is trying to make the wording a bit stronger, if only to reassure Greece and Turkey.?
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V.:? “Terribly unfriendly acts?? Not-at-all-friendly acts?”
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April 13, 1939, Thursday
Jack immediately on arrival at Livia’s began to complain about Poles and Roumanians. He said he spent all day yesterday and today and the night between going back and forth about the guarantee demanded by Roumania with French encouragement.? He said it was finally agreed to and announced by Chamberlain in the House early this afternoon.? The P.M. also announced that although Britain had no intention of occupying Corfu, he would “take a very grave view if anybody else occupied it”.??
Livia:? “Dear Jack, you are becoming even more boring than when we were still living under the same roof.? Can’t you become exhausted over some more interesting countries?? Brazil, let us say, or the East Indies?”
“It will be the East Indies soon enough,” Lord Cecil.? “Don’t know about Brazil.”
“Ducky says that Brazil is lovely.”
“Are you going there?”? Jack.
“No, dear.? Probably to the East Indies.”
“Didn’t you hear what Lord Cecil just said?”? Jack.
“Of course I heard him.? He said that it will be dangerous to go there after the Germans have finished making a meal of Poland and Roumania.? Ducky will arrange to have weekly bulletins sent to us from Bucharest.? I am sure you know the American Charges d'Affaires, don’t you Ducky.”
“Went to Yale with him.? Prissy even then.”
Cecil:? “Appropriate, therefore, for Bucharest.? The Roumanians are, as prissy, as prissy, as you put it, as they come—except when they are impaling their neighbors or relatives.”
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April 14, 1939, Friday
Lunch with Jack, who said that Halifax was going to Yorkshire and the PM to Checkers by mid-afternoon.? “Peace in our time, at least in the F.O.”
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Jack is worried that the announced sortie of the German Fleet may be to threaten, or actually attack, Portugal from the sea while the Italian and Spanish? move on her from Spain.?? Not an idle worry, as Italy now has 60,000 troops in Spain.
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This evening V. and I invited at the last moment to dine with the Kenneth Clarks.? (Someone having dropped out or an additional American being thought necessary to interpret for the Walter Lippmanns.)?? All the other guests above our station, both social and intellectual:?? Nicolson and the Julian Huxleys and Winston Churchill, as the guest of honor.?
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Lippmann said that Kennedy, the American Ambassador, thinks that war is inevitable and that Germany will win.? Churchill, his whisky-and-soda in one hand and his cigar in the other, delivered a speech as to the Commons.? Very eloquent, if a bit inappropriate for the setting.? One forgets how old he is.
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Later, K. said that the life of an aesthete is to be preferred, as under that heading there is always plenty to live for.? “One will never come to the end of the things one wants to see, or read all the poetry one wants to read; and if one did, one could go back again to the beginning, go back to the Arena Chapel after ten years, go back to the Velasquez Room at the Prado, re-read ‘Lycidas’ or Anthony and Cleopatra.? It is like money in a Swiss bank.”?
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?I drifted about the beautiful rooms, looking at the paintings and furniture, adding, as it were, to my own aesthetic bank balance.? Mrs. K., quite drunk, cornered me and—I suppose the word actually must be “hissed”—“Yank, keep your wife away from K.? He has enough county whores on his hands as it is.”? I said “I’m afraid I don’t understand you.”? To which, before turning her back on me:? “You should, or will.”?
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She must be mad, or? jealous of every younger woman who comes near K.
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April 15,1939, Saturday
Welbeck Street this evening, by myself, as V. was dining with her mother.? Haxton, Blunt and Watt talking about war.? “As it develops,” said Haxton, “It will have its pleasures.? Lord Rothschild will no doubt offer hospitality at Tring.”
Blunt:? “Opportunities for foreign adventure.”
Haxton:? “One hopes in places more interesting than Poland.”
“Perhaps the French will resurrect some of their chateaux billets for generals and their staffs.”
“Paris.”
A sigh shared by the company at large:? “Paris.”
Later, I found Watt sitting by himself at a small table with a sheet of his ruled paper and some coins.
“Winning?”
“Easy enough when matching pennies.? The problem is to generalize a notation.? If we write heads as 1 and tails as 10, placing one player’s outcomes in the rows and the other’s in the columns, then the result of the game can be described in a two by two matrix, matches being written as 1 and mismatches as 0.”
“Or with letters, a and b.”
“Yes, but the numbers are more useful, as they can fit into a general, let us say universal, system of computation, where all complex expressions are built up from 1 and 0, presence and absence.”
“Sorry to have interrupted.”
Fiona said that she had heard that my “former colleague” was working with Kenneth Clark.
“Gifford?”
Fiona:? “The person who mentioned it to me said that he seemed a useful sort—well-informed.? You seem surprised.? Hadn’t your wife said anything about him?”
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April 16, 1939, Sunday
V. in Norfolk
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April 18, 1939, Tuesday
Chamberlain has finally announced the establishment of a Ministry of Supply, but has refused Fonseca-Miller’s request for conscription.? Harrison has been heard to mutter about half loaves and half measures.? “A race in which at each stage we are allowed to cover only half the necessary distance.”
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April 19, 1939, Wednesday
The Russians, apparently having listened to Churchill, are proposing an alliance between themselves, France and Britain.? This is not being received with favor by the Prime Minister.? “Just mischief from the Reds,” says Jack.
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Lord Cecil says that it is a good sign, nonetheless, as Stalin has obviously done his sums and decided that the Western powers are as yet stronger than Germany.? The problem is that the Poles won’t allow the Red Army to cross their territory.? “Which makes it rather difficult for the Red Army to engage the Germans.”
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“Unless the Poles allow—one way or another—the German Army to cross their territory.”? Jack.
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“Likely eventually, but not useful.”
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Daladier has asked the British Government to introduce conscription, if only to counter German “Britain will fight to the last drop of French blood” propaganda.
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“Jack says you are going to America in a few weeks.”? Lord Cecil.
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“Yes.? Looking in on Mother.”
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“Might I beg a favour?”
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“Of course.”
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“I’ve been interested in the President’s economic recovery programme.”
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“The New Deal.”
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“Yes.? If you are utterly bored, you might work up a potted history of it for me.”
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“Pleasure.”?
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April 20, 1939, Thursday
A beautiful spring day:? in honour of Hitler’s birthday, no doubt.
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Jack says Lord Brocket has in fact gone to Berlin.
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Fonseca-Miller says that the decision to introduce conscription has been taken and will be announced Tuesday.?? Livia looked at the beautiful ceiling of her dining room for a moment, then asked Percy whether he preferred French or Italian music, “as, according to Jack, a marriage between those countries is being arranged by the PM.? Perhaps their music may also be stirred together in some great Midlands iron pot.”
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“Neither.”? Percy, as always serious about his métier.?? “For musicians of my generation there is only Vienna:? Schoenberg, his son Berg and his father Mahler.? Some mornings when I sit at my desk, trying to think of something even remotely connected to music which I can jot down, it occurs to me that all the music we write today is simply a commentary on Mahler.? The eighteenth and nineteenth century symphonic traditions come to an end in his work, as does, I often suspect, abstract music itself.? One sits at one’s writing table, gazing out the window, wondering where one goes from that great summary of an entire tradition?? And then one’s thoughts turn to Schoenberg, who has somehow played our musical tradition in reverse, building compositions worthy of Bach in their rigor on the basis of the most decadent possible suppression of abstract music in favor of lachrymose song.? It is as if a student of Renoir had begun painting in the spirit, if not the style, of Giotto.”
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“Cubism.”
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“Yes, I suppose; something like that.? Something astringent.? One begins to sketch out an immense Mahlerean symphony, a pastiche of Lizst, perhaps.? Then, shuddering, one thinks of Schoenberg’s tone rows and their purity.? Which is why, I imagine, I have written so much music for the films of the GPO.? Neither a reaction against Mahler nor competition with Schoenberg, but a matter of throwing down the gauntlet to Disney.”?
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“Are you making progress on the piece for cello and pot?”
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“As a matter of fact.”
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April 22, 1939, Saturday
The daffodils are nearly over, but the azaleas and magnolias are not yet out.
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Jack quite bothered by the Admiralty, who keep asking Halifax where they should put their Mediterranean ships, and as Halifax is in Yorkshire, that means they are asking Jack!? He finally told them to just send them all to Alexandria (which should be safe enough).? Jack says he is annoyed, but how could he in fact not be thrilled?
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V. in Norfolk.
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Welbeck Street:? Fiona (who apparently has had an accident—her left wrist is bandaged), has a portfolio of drawings by Austrian artists:? Kokoschka, Schatz, Oppenheimer, Klimt, Schiele and so forth.? Quite extraordinary if one likes that sort of thing, which I don’t.?
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“And how did you acquire these, as if I had to ask?”
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“He invested some years ago in the Dorotheum auction house.? As these are of little interest to the local authorities, they were sent him as a sort of stock premium.? Also some oils, which you would probably like even less.”
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“A man of wide interests.”
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“He believes in diversifying his investments along all dimensions.”
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April 25, 1939, Tuesday
Jack says that Harrison has drafted the PM’s statement about conscription.? Halifax has turned down the most recent Soviet proposals for an anti-German alliance.
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April 26, 1939, Wednesday
Conscription announcement:? 310,000 young men called up.? The Australian Prime Minister has let it be known that if Britain goes to war, Australia will follow.? The French are flirting with the Soviets on the basis of the latter’s proposal for a Triple Alliance.? I’ve written a bit more than a page on this for Jack to use one place or another.
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April 27, 1939, Thursday
Lilac coming out; daffodils about gone.
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Livia:? “Harrison and I saw Lord and Lady Halifax lunching quite alone at the Dorchester today.”
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Jack:? “My lord Halifax is very domestic, don’t you know?? Almost every day he lunches at the Savoy Grill, Le Normandie, the Dorchester or Quaglino’s with Lady Halifax and his daughter Mary.”
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Livia:? “An example to the nation of proper conjugal relations.”
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“Indeed.”
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Jack said that Chamberlain has told friends that Winston Churchill’s nomination to the Cabinet “would be a message of open warfare to Berlin.”
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“All the more reason for it.”? Lord Cecil.? “At the moment our policy must seem confusing in Berlin.? We are instituting conscription, but refusing, um, ah, to talk, to talk to the Russians, who are in intimate conversation with the French, our ally.? They might imagine that we, perfidious as ever, contemplate a lunge at Paris.”
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“Much to be said for that,” Jack.
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April 28, 1939, Friday
Very cold and dark with torrents of rain.
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Fiona and Burgess tête-á-tête in a corner at Welbeck Street.? The usual loud laughter accompanied by clouds of garlic from Guy.?
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Very late, Lord Rothschild at the piano playing Miss Otis Regrets.? N & J cuddling in a darkish corner of the room.
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