Transgressions: September, 1940

September 1, 1940, Sunday

Nadine:? “Haxton has a new student.”?

?

“Oh?”?

?

“Fellow called Guy.? Another fellow called Guy.? This one runs an outfit that spies on spies or some such thing.? Anyway, Haxton met him one evening at the Reform Club where he was part of a party with the other Guy—we really must give them different names—and he now takes him to the art salesrooms and they both spend time at Tomas Harris’s house.? Harris works for this Guy, don’t you know?? The Harris’s have a sort of spy and art collector salon at their home in Chesterfield Gardens in Mayfair.? They always have Champagne and treats.?? It is something like Welbeck Street, but dressed up, or at least usually clothed.? Victor Rothschild can be found there; various Spanish-speaking officers in unnamable units; Watt doing his puzzles in a corner; that fellow with a nickname from Kipling; Colin Agnew of Agnew’s, auctioneers, collectors, illustrators.”?

?

“And models, of course.”?

?

“Of course.”?

?

“And Rabensberg?”?

?

“Possibly.”

?

September 2, 1940, Sunday

People emerging from the Underground stations at dawn, like figures from a Stanley Spencer Resurrection.?

?

Livia and I sat on a bench in the Park in the hot sun for much of the afternoon, then we dined at Pruniers, at 7 sharp, to avoid the evening air-raids.? We sat on high stools against the counter and fed most expensively.

?

Later we walked through Savile Row and Conduit Street, where there is hardly a window-pane remaining intact.

?

September 4, 1940, Wednesday

Watt insisted on going with B ernal to the funeral of Sir J. J. Thomson in Westminster Abbey.

?

September 3, 1940

Roosevelt’s swap of fifty old destroyers for leases on old Caribbean bases announced.

?

September 5, 1940, Thursday

This is a record heat wave:? everyone talks about the heat, as one understands that they did twenty years ago, in similar circumstances, as if a cloudless late summer were a miracle in Britain, or an omen.? Perhaps it is.

?

Two German bombers crashed on Piccadilly in broad daylight and five Germans floated down in parachutes.

?

September 7, 1940, Saturday

“Cromwell” alert of imminent invasion, church bells rung across the southern counties.? Halifax on BBC, “invasion could come at any time.”?

Gounod’s Faust at Sadler’s Wells.

?

The German aircraft came over the East End of London about five o’clock this afternoon and began to bomb the Docks, burning the warehouses and timber yards.? There was a big air battle over London till about 6.30.? A.R.W. at 8:30 to 5.00 a.m.

?

Burgess’s story of his boat trip around the burning Docks:? rivers of molten spices, coffee.

?

September 8, 1940

The bombing started last night at 8:00 p.m. and continued without pause until 6:00 a.m.:? two or three bombs fell every five minutes.

?

The Docks and the East End are burning.? Hundreds of people have been killed, thousands injured and thousand made homeless.? Warwick Gardens devastated; the clocks and windows destroyed on St. Philip & St James’s Church.? Jack says the invasion is expected on the 12th or 13th.

?

According to Jack, Ambassador Kennedy is saying that Hitler will be in Buckingham Palace in two weeks.

Lord Cecil:? “It is the Ambassador’s habit to say such things, in person, on his telephone and in letters.? There are those who take note.? Also that he is using his position to enrich himself. He recently requisitioned priority cargo space to ship 200,000 cases of whiskey for his own importing company.”

September 9, 1940, Monday

For my report:

_????? The United States missions in Tallinn, Kaunas and Riga were closed yesterday and their personnel are, by and large, en route to Berlin or Moscow.

?

_????? Hull has asked for information concerning the military situation in Egypt and the Sudan, including force estimates and the like. Iraq has demanded of Britain, in return for its support, independence for Syria and Palestine with the latter including a fixed Jewish minority.? There is much anti-British feeling in Iraq, supported by the Mufti and German propaganda.?

?

_????? The Bulgarian Foreign Minister believes Italy will not invade Greece.

_????? The French Government has agreed to Japanese demands for transit and other facilities in Indo-China.? Pressure continues to be exerted by Thailand for the return of certain provinces.

September 10, 1940, Tuesday

While the Germans have been for three nights trying and failing to bomb Kings Cross, they have succeeded in destroying half of Argyll Street, also some shops in Grays Inn Road.? There is a vast pit, still smoking, at the top of Chancery Lane, where a great shop has been entirely destroyed.? The hotel opposite is just a shell.? In a wine shop, where there were no windows left, people were standing at the tables, drinking their wine.? There are heaps of blue green glass in the road where men were breaking off fragments left in the frames.? There is a continual sound of glass falling . . .

?

A note from Nadine:? “I haven’t been to London this week as, fortunately, Lord Rothschild has made available his Home Farm at Tring to those in this office who wish to have a night’s sleep away from London.”

?

Rumors about Rab Butler going to Rome to initiate peace talks through Mussolini.

?

September 11, 1940, Wednesday

Last night was clear with the moon rising over Westminster and an impressive fireworks display:? searchlights, bursting shells, the light of distant fires accompanied by the sound of enemy aircraft overhead. Thick smoke rose from the Embankment where bombs had fallen on Dolphin Square.? Many houses in Berkeley Square have been destroyed.

?

Livia:? “We should have a quiet evening.? Victor Cazalet has moved his noisy lot down to their “Dorm” in the old Turkish baths deep in the bowels of the hotel.”

?

September 12, 1940, Thursday

The raid last night was beaten off by a new defensive tactic:? a continuous barrage of anti-aircraft fire accompanied by a blaze of weaving searchlight beams.

?

No sound of planes today—only the wind.

?

September 12, 1940, Friday

War:? Slow trains making unannounced and inexplicable stops between walled fields, no taxi at the station.? We finally found a local in the pub who was willing to drive us to Colby Park not, after all, knowing how to find it.? We arrived just after the party had sat down to dinner.? V. waved a greeting from the head-table.? We were seated at the last two vacant places.? The woman on my right was talking with the woman opposite her:

“I understand that your mother died recently.”

“Yes, a few months ago.? After a long illness.”

“So did mine!? Did she have a cancer?”

“Yes, unfortunately, she did.”

“So did mine!? Was it of the uterus?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, it was.”

“The uterus and not the ovaries?”

“Yes.”

“So did mine!? It was horrible.? I’ve told my doctor that if it happens to me I want to be taken out and shot!”

The lady on my left wanted to know which of “the happy couple” I knew.

“Both, actually.? The bride rather better.? The groom only in a professional capacity.”

“I understand that Commodore Gifford is very much what you Americans call a self-made gentleman.”

“Self-made man:? we don’t have gentlemen”

“Yes, of course, I’ve heard that.? His people belong to one of those sects—Dissenters, Muggletonians, Plymouth Brethren.? They all join together in one’s mind, don’t they?? These believe women shouldn’t be sent to school and should spend their lives covered from head to toe, like Muslim women in purdah.? I’m surprised that the Commodore has married a divorced woman.? No doubt she swore to be virgina intacta due to the incapability of her first husband.”

“No doubt.”?

“Do you always drink your wine so quickly?”

A man in the uniform of an Admiral rose to deliver the first speech.? He spoke of the War (“This great, still doubtful, struggle”), of Gifford’s vital role in it (“Those who serve far out of sight of both friend and foe”), paid a compliment to the Countess (“Her well-known family and her late lamented husband”) and resumed his place.? Two or three others spoke, for one side or another, then a man tightly buttoned into an old fashioned suit of black cloth stood, somehow conspicuously not holding a wine glass.

“Even in such mixed company as this we are in the Presence of the Lord, who spies out with far more efficiency than any merely human agency the secrets of our hearts.? And what, what, I ask, does he find there?? You know as well as do I what he finds hidden there:? sin.? Even the fairest form conceals the worm of sin, as the reddest, most tasty apple conceals the canker and the worm.? That is why we are taught to touch not any woman, not even the virgin bride, without fear of damnation.? It is in fear of damnation that we men approach marriage, doing so only out of necessity.? But I have known Commodore Gifford since his childhood.? He is familiar with my teaching.? I will speak then here for others.? The fair form even of the virgin bride is in itself a sin, and an occasion for sin, passed down to each woman from her mother Eve, from her aunt Lilith.? It is a sin for which each most unfortunately born as a female woman must take care to atone for each day of her life, as she must, if she is a truly Christian woman, take care that her life will be as short and as inconspicuous as compatible with her duty to produce a new generation, among which, with God’s grace, there may be one or two who are saved.? During that life, so fraught with peril for the one we refer to as the wife, it is the duty of the other, brought by her into peril of sin each moment, to govern her, to be an authority over her as—and I say this in full knowledge of its implications—as the Lord will be in authority over her when her life of sin and temptation to sin reaches its proper end.”

The clergyman left immediately after his sermon.? I was standing in the corridor, hesitating about whether to join Gifford and the other men after dinner, not at all sure what I would have to say to Gifford or to any of his sect (if any were there) when I found the Countess standing quite close to me.? I said, as one does, that I hoped V. would be happier with Gifford than evidently she had been with me.

“She is insistent.? There is nothing I can do.”

?

September 13, 1940, Saturday

?Buckingham Palace has been bombed.?

?

September 15, 1940

Jack:? “There will be an announcement to-day or tomorrow.”

A landmine exploded on the County Hall and the windows in Downing Street and those of the F. O. were shattered.

?

For my report:

It is said that the Germans have demanded a million head of cattle and about the same number of pigs from unoccupied France and that fifteen hundred carloads of potatoes have been shipped to Germany from the vicinity of Vichy.

The United States Minister in Rumania has sent a series of reports concerning anti-Semitism in Rumania, laws restricting access of Jews to various professions and violence against the Jews in the countryside and by Jews in Bessarabia as it was occupied by the Soviet Army.? He views the situation of the Jews in Rumania as becoming increasingly serious.? He has been told that Hitler plans to re-settle European Jews in Madagascar or Kenya.

?

The United States Minister in Egypt has sent Hull a comprehensive appraisal of the general military situation in Egypt and the Sudan and the naval situation in the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea, with force estimates on both sides, evaluations of equipment and intentions, all apparently obtained from British governmental and military sources.?

Chungking continues to be heavily bombed by the Japanese.

?

September 17, 1940, Tuesday

Halifax’s announcement of the cease-fire to the House.?

?

Jack:? “Afterwards Members went about, chatting vivaciously, each recounting his own adventures in the Blitz:? many had had bombs in their houses or in their gardens.? No one wanted to talk about the cease-fire and what might follow.”

?

Cecil:? “Hess has been brought to Chequers.”

?

September 18, 1940, Wednesday

Gifford:? “We don’t want you talking with that Goldgrubber woman.”

?

“Sorry?”

?

“She uses some other name—Martin, isn’t it?? Miss Nadine Martin.”

?

“Why shouldn’t I talk with Nadine?? I’ve been talking with her for years.”

?

“Take it as a friendly piece of advice.? It isn’t good to be associated with her.? We’re looking into the stories she puts about and they don’t hold water.? She isn’t a British subject—Austrian or Roumanian or one of those countries where her tribe settled.? She’s wormed her way into a position of trust, as those people do—at her desk early; last to leave; that sort of thing.? Probably goes through the files after everyone else is gone in the evening.? Well, I’m warning you:? stay clear.? You’ll probably be asked to file a report on your contacts with her.? Where did you meet her?”

?

“Florence.? Long before the war.”

?

“I don’t have to do this, but I am warning you, as someone you might consider a friend, don’t tell anyone about your golden Italian days with her and her set and if she tries to see you, have the ’flu.”

?

September 19, 1940, Thursday

A gale & rain

?

Fiona:? “You're all just fucking queers aren't you? At least Guy's out in the open

about it.”

?

September 20, 1940

A German/Japanese anti-US alliance has been announced.? Rab Butler has flown to Berlin.

?

Beethoven’s Trio, Opus 9, Number 3.? Cello in the rear middle, violinist to his right, violist to his left.? The cellist, mouth slightly open, looks toward the violinist, she brings her bow to the strings; they begin.? The violinist’s style is violently physical, as if she were wrestling with the instrument that had somehow become embedded in her neck.? She stares at the music, as if horrified by what she sees there.? The cellist reads his, eyebrows arched, registering slight surprise at each measure.? The violist is expressionless, nearly immobile.? That habit of string players of exercising the fingers of the left and just above the strings when not playing.

?

September 21, 1940

Indian Summer and it is quite difficult to sleep in this perfect quiet after the nights of incessant bombs.

?

For my report:

The United States Ambassador in the Soviet Union has reported on a trip he has taken through Siberia.? He saw extensive military activity on the Soviet-Manchurian border and many airfields along the railroad line.? He thought the trans-Siberian railroad poorly maintained and only partially double-tracked and the farm and grazing enterprises poorly looked to, especially in the East.? He says that the Soviets have changed their demands to Finland concerning nickel from the Petsamo mines, from an allocation of sixty percent for German to none.

?

The United States Chargé in France reports that a Japanese general flew down from Tokyo to Hanoi and presented demands including stationing of Japanese troops in Indo-China.? The Consul in Hanoi informed Hull that the demands included the occupation of Hanoi and Haiphong and an invasion threat timed for Sunday night September 22 at 10 p.m.

?

September 22, 1940

Halifax had told the Apostolic Delegate that he did not understand why the Pope should be concerned about the bombing of Rome, ‘while he did not seem to mind about the bombing of St Paul’s Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, Lambeth, hospitals, convents and a whole lot else.’”

?

September 24, 1940

Dined at the Reform Club with Watt and others.

?

September 26, 1940, Thursday

Dinner with Livia at the flat of one of her friends on the top of a house in Fitzroy Square.? A view out over the ruins—one expected a small, smartly dressed figure in the middle distance, gesturing toward one of the bombed-out buildings as in an eighteenth century Italian “veduta.”

?

Livia:? “This war, now this peace, is something to be endured, a calamity, I suppose, something else inflicted by the old gang.”

?

September 29, 1940

The Germans and Finns have signed an agreement allowing for the transit of German troops through Finland en route to Norway.

?

September 30, 1940

For my report:

Kennedy has sent a long cable to Hull, giving his sense of the situation in Great Britain. He says that if the United States were to go into the war now, it would be the United States alone against Germany, Italy and Japan.

On the other hand, the United States Ambassador in the Soviet Union has met with Molotov, in furtherance of the efforts to improve relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.? Both sides seem to be making strong efforts to remove areas of friction.? He mentioned in passing that the United States planned on having the most powerful Navy and Air Force in the world in two years.? He also mentions a conversation with a former member of the German embassy in Moscow to the effect that Germany might be at war with Russia by next spring.? The American Ambassador reported a conversation with Sir Stafford Cripps, in which the latter was extremely outspoken in his criticism of previous British diplomacy and of the current Government of England.

The United States Minister in Egypt reports that military activity on the Libya-Egypt border is minimal and that the Egyptian government is interested primarily in staying out of the war.

Haiphong has been bombed.?

#historicalfiction #WWII #Spies #London