1947 August - September

^{August, Sept. French children at HGS. Salt baths for sciatica. Another crisis. Miners strike. Clouded Yellow year. Milk cuts. Automatic trans-Atlantic flight. Sugar prices.}

^{Friday, August 1st}

^{Term ended. At Assembly I astonished the school by breaking into French: “Nous voyons avec grand plaisir nos amis francaise qui sont ici ce matin.” The French children are a mixed lot, some far older than ours and all rather unhealthy looking compared to ours, I thought. They are being taken to Oxford, London and Windsor.}

1947 July

1947 Nothing but insults from Russians. Workers better off. Begger's Opera. Future as a beer bung maker? Observer 3d.

^{Monday, July 7th}

^{The Russians first of all announced their arguments to the world, refused to agree to the Franco-British proposals and then walked out after threatening the Western Powers.}

1947 May-June

May - June. Dartington. Europe dying while politicians squabble. Plight of intelligentsia. Export rejects. German POW. Marshall's plan. Earthly pleasures.

Thursday, May 1^st

Tuesday was the day Hilary left for his first term at Dartington. Nora took him up to Paddington and he went off in a very crowded coach with a school party. He just missed seeing his cousin Myles, who stayed here last night with his mother on his way back to school. Myles though six months younger than Hilary is somewhat taller. He is, said Molly, a well brought up boy. Implication in her view Hilary could not be so described.

              Most of the holiday Hilary slept in an American army bivouac tent till it was blown down, when he dragged it wet and covered with grass into the sitting room.

              The Moscow Conference has broken down in total failure. Possibly the Russians, believing that soon the U.S.A. must collapse in economic slump and anarchy, are just following these obstructive delaying tactics of set purpose. It is difficult to know. They were offered four-party pact against Germany and a revised treaty with G.B., but in each case they used the offer to add other impossible demands and conditions, so that both projects collapsed. It looks as if we shall, or can, wait no longer. As Marshall says, while the doctors squabble, the patient, Europe, is dying, and we shall go ahead with the organization of a western Germany in co-operation with those who will co-operate.

Letter from Hilary at Dartington, dated April 30th, 1947 (spelling and grammar as written)

Dear mummy and daddy,

I hope you are well. I had quite a good journey down. We got here about four o'clock. Thank you for the letter card. I did not get to no any body on the train. But I have got quite a few friends now. I have discovered that you only go up 

into the middle school if your work is good. We had a french lesson this morning. We have been playing cricket. I did not wake up in the morning and wonder where I was. We are not allowed to go out by our selves until we are in the middle school. I enjoyed the pic-nic dinner. I have made up my mind to work hard and get into the middle school as quickly as I can. We did not stop at westbury so it is a good thing we did not go to westbury. Getting up and going to bed are quite different from long-dene. We get up at half past 7 and go  to bed at 8.00. But people who are over ten can read to half past. My cubicle is very nice. With my bed and table with draw, wardrobe with draws and a radiator. I was lovely to see the sea! We went up to the senior school to day. mrs grant is very nice, every body calls her mary.

With love

HILARY
P.S. Please send me some stamps. 

             

Saturday, May 10^th

              Last Sunday Hilary wrote saying he felt rather homesick and tired; everything was so different from Long Dene. He asked for his tent, so I sent it by rail. Yesterday had a more cheerful letter. He had been swimming and fishing for trout in the Dart, but they had only caught small ones. They also seem to have been playing a lot of cricket.

              Saw a good film, Odd Man Out; the first time I had been to the cinema for six months.

Monday, May 19^th

Having supper by the river with Mary, got stung by a horsefly (I think), felt an itching, so scratched and got some staphylococci (I think) in it, first a boil which by Thursday had developed into a disgustingly painful carbuncle discharging blood and pus. Went to doctor on Thursday as swelling spreading to rest of leg, but to-day inflammation more local.

              Fortunately bees did not decide to swarm when in this condition, but had meeting at Town Hall on development plan for schools on Wednesday night and this week have interview with maths men on Tuesday, sports on Wednesday and I had hoped to go down to Worthing on Thursday. Town Hall meeting had to compete with concert at the Congregational Church, so only got about 40 people.

              Ginger Lane came at weekend, but I was too lame to do anything by limp on terrace. Told me Keeper of Ceramics Dept (at Victoria & Albert Museum), Mr Honey, had started life as boy sorter in the Post Office, been moved to museum and worked his way up from bottom. Now second greatest authority on Chinese pottery.

              Hilary says he goes quite regularly to lessons and we have not had a letter for some time, which is a good sign.

              Ginger Lane, Like Margaret Burton, very bitter about plight of intelligentsia, forced to spend time on routine work of domestic service, while sections of the population devote themselves to dogs and pools, and unskilled labour demands wages that the middle class, impoverished and harassed, cannot possibly pay. Nora says she is beginning to think “the common man” is becoming a bit too common.

              Interesting to see Ginger Lane washing up, however, as an expert he handles the most utility of mugs as if it were Ming. He had been to the Potteries; apparently the hunger for coloured pottery is so great that the theft of pottery for export rivals doing wrong to girls as the most popular activity of the natives.

Sunday, June 1^st

Sports Day was on May 21^st, a lovely day, fine but not too hot, and several records broken. My leg was still very sore with a great black scab on, but got on fairly well. Had intended to go down to Worthing on Thursday, night, but finally went on Friday and arrived about 3.30. Stayed at the Grosvenor Hotel on sea front. Hotel not very full. Paid 1 guinea a day each and food not over much either for that. Worthing full of day visitors in cars, but not at all smart; hardly saw a fashionably dressed woman on the front all the time we were there. Air beautifully fresh and cool off the sea even at the hottest part of the day. A band in the evening in an enclosure which played third rate music, but only charged 6d for a deck chair and music. Went out on the Downs twice, to Chanctonbury Ring and behind Wittering.

Wednesday, June 4^th

Up the valley there is a German POW camp and to-day had a letter from the interpreter asking if some of the men could practice running on the sports track. Plint, the chairman of the House Committee, agreed, so to-night I went up to the camp. The interpreter turned out to be a charming young man from Rostock who had learnt English at a grammar school there. He explained that a few men wanted to run, but they could not run on the roads because they did not have any gym shoes. He was wearing wooden pattens, I noticed. When I left I shook hands with a German for the first time since Frau Paterna came here in 1938.

The last week we have had a heat wave with very high temperatures at night, but to-day it broke with wind and cloud and much cooler.

Sunday, June 8^th

On June 5^th Mr Marshall, Sec. of State, made a speech in which he suggested that the U.S.A. would underwrite a plan of reconstruction for Europe if the European nations would combine to work out one for themselves. He was against assistance on a piecemeal basis as a crisis developed here and there. I hope this opportunity can be taken and that this initiative will put an end to the controversies about federating European democracies as a balance to the power of the U.S.A.

Newspaper headline: “Travel comfort – More room to stand in new railway coaches”.

This week the Indian plan of the new viceroy, Mountbatten, and the Indian leaders announced. Partition into Pakistan and Hindustan to take place immediately and both to have dominion status. The Punjab and Bengal to be divided on the basis of population figures, subject to rectification later.

Thursday, June 12^th

Sciatica seems to be gaining ground on me and am very depressed that I have a return of it at the height of summer. What chance do I stand in the winter. Went up on the Downs yesterday afternoon with Mary and got to Lowbury Camp where we lay among the long grasses in the sun and wind and heard the peewits calling as they wheeled and tumbled over the ploughed land. Perhaps summer has already passed its peak. The pollen has been blown from the grass ears, the nightingale and the cuckoo are not heard as they were. The hay is being cut and the leaves are turning to a darker green.

              From Europe the news is not good at all. The Hungarian communists with the support of the Russians, who have shortly to withdraw their troops under the new treaty, have overthrown the coalition government, which has been in power since the election, by a coup d’etat. The premier, a member of the Peasant Party, has escaped. We have asked Mr Molotov for an explanation, but he has refused one and accused us of interference. The usual tactics, denial and counter charge, as in Persia, as in Germany, as in Bulgaria, etc, etc. The police state in action. We cannot go on like this indefinitely. There is talk of bringing the issue to the U.N.O. If so it will end it and we should be better off with the Russians out than in as far as I can see. At present we are wasting time and getting nowhere at all.

    J.B. Priestley is giving a series of short chats. Took as his topic this week 7d Teas, these teas and all the good things you could get in farmhouses before 1914 for 7d. I have had some of them, or even 6d teas, or eat as much as you could for 1/-. Prices now rising all the time. Went to see the matron of the nursing home on Monday for hernia operation, only to find that since last year the charges have gone up and three weeks in bed will cost me 39 guineas and then the surgeon’s fee in addition. What a way to spend your savings!

Saturday, June 14^th

              “The advent of death is like the coming of a great wind: no man knows whence it is or where it goes. Its visitation is often without reason and its action without intent the understanding may perceive. One thing alone it shews. By his death a man sets a seal upon his life and in the manner of his dying is revealed the strength of his spirit. For the spirit of man is formed in the secret places of his will and shaped by the private utterances of his desires. He himself knows not its ways or perceives the manner of its growth and in life few achieve the full expression of the spirit, compassed about as we are by the world and its implications. But if the spirit is set upon high things then in death it will be without fear, not as the foolish who know not solemnity, but with true courage, dignity and consideration.”

        Officer of Fleet Air Arm, killed July 7th, 1942

^{Sunday, June 15th}

              ^{Nora came back from a visit to Hilary at Dartington. She went by road and did the journey in about six hours, which was good going. Hilary seems to like his new school, but he is very critical of it and compares it with Long Dene. He is obviously finding the junior school work too easy and should be moved to the middle school as soon as possible.}

              ^{Nora bought me a very nice early 19th century chair, most comfortable with sensible back and arms.}         

^{Monday, June 16th}

^{We and the French are to hold talks on the plan of Mr Marshall to help Europe if Europe will put forward a scheme of economic rebuilding. The French have asked the Russians if they would like to exchange views on the subject.}

              ^{Stayed in the house all day with a second carbuncle on my leg – very painful and could hardly put my trousers on.}

    

 ^{Wednesday, June 18th}

^{Still indoors with carbuncle but must get to school to-morrow as staff away. Nora complaining about fruit. Gooseberries 3/6 a pound, then controlled to 9½ d, whereupon they all disappear as if by magic. Either you get fantastic prices, or controlled prices without the goods. You can take your choice. Both thinking of being vegetarians in the next ration period. More cheese and fats in exchange for no meat or bacon. N thinks that meat will be so bad in winter that it would be worth trying. We are raising a dozen cockerels at present.}

              ^{St Augustine’s catalogue of earthly pleasures: The comeliness of the body, the fair harmony of time, the brightness of light, sweet melodies of every kind, perfumes of flowers, ointments and spices, manna and honey, the delectableness of lovely limbs.}

    ^{Another version of the Chinese saying a wife should be the three Cs, a good cook, a good companion and a good concubine. A French woman in a dance, a Dutch woman in the kitchen, an Italian in a window, an English woman at board, a Spaniard in bed.}

^{Saturday, June 21st}

^{Got so fed up with sciatica on Wednesday that decided to go up to London and consult a specialist again on possibility of trying to tackle this rather than hernia this holidays. Felt that to spend a lot of money then to find one self faced with another winter like last no fun at all and to be avoided if at all possible.}

              ^{Russians have not replied to invitation. Some think better not to have asked them. One M.P. said that when Mr Molotov is put on the spot, he kicks. Another pointed out that Russia has paralysed the U.N.O. by the veto, disregarded the Potsdam agreement, flouted and caused to be flouted all those values for which we fought in the war, but the immense power for evil did not come from her strength, but from the fact that Europe was divided and distracted almost to extinction.}

    ^{Speaking of Hungary, Mr Bevin said that opinions ought not to be called conspiracy. He had at that rate been engaged in conspiracy all his life.}

^{Sunday, June 22nd}

^{France is reported to have given a promise that she will act without Russia if necessary at this turning point in Europe’s history – the choice between new economic life and slow decay and death….. Very characteristic that the controlled Russian press had nothing to say about the Marshall offer as they had not been told what the official line was. Cannot say I am optimistic if the Russians do decide to come in. Nor of what effect this would have on U.S. opinion, where the plan is in some quarters supported because Russia is believed to be deliberately creating chaos in order to spread Communism in Europe…… The Central Development Authority could become the Federal Government of Europe. Some kind of economic integration must be brought about to cut across the old lines of national sovereignty, which are completely out of date and belong, as (H. G.)Wells always used to say, to the days of the horse and stage coach.}

              ^{But can we do it? The time is very short indeed and the opportunity fleeting. We are living at a moment like that of a battle when a decision must be reached quickly or the campaign will go down to defeat. This is the only certainty. I wish it was not, but the record of Russia since 1945 is bad and she controls Europe east of the Elbe-Adriatic line. Either full co-operation, or co-operation with those states who will work together in the West.}

              ^{Bees rather a menace and quite a number of children have been stung. Shall have to do something to make them fly up next year. Query, wire netting. Nora stung to-day and face very swollen.}

^{Monday, June 23rd.}

^{The Russians are coming to Paris on Friday. Hope this is a good thing…..}

^{Tuesday, June 24th}

^{Took day off and went to see Dr Stone in Wimpole Street. He advised to go to Droitwich rather than have the hernia operation…. Had lunch at Debenham & Freebody, no queue and much more pleasant that at Fortnum & Mason; had roast beef, new potatoes and peas, strawberry sundae and tea, over 6/-. Had hair cut and went off to see exhibition at British Museum … the best of their collection combed out and these exhibited in the one long Edward VII Gallery…. Then to (Lyons) Corner House at Tottenham Court Road where had excellent tea with strawberry flan and ice cream.}

^{Sunday, June 29th}

^{Molly down for weekend. Worked hard with bees and got well stung, but made three new colonies. Have booked hotel in Droitwich at 6 guineas for three weeks and hope this will be more pleasant than guest house with colonels in 1942.}

^{The Paris conference has started. Its sessions are secret, but it is believed the Russians are saying they must know more about the U.S. offer…. To succeed we need a complete change of Russian policy and don’t think we are likely to get it.}

1947 April

April. Timber shortage. Clothing coupons Irish style. Cousin Stephen Atkins with Burma report. Living dead Chairman of the governors. Miss Hunter back from Paris.

Tuesday, April 1^st

Noticed the first dandelion and celandine

1947 March

March. Thaw at last! Anglo-French alliance signed at Dunkirk. Fitting riding breeches. Henley, Wargrave flooded. School cedar blown down. Miss Hunter to Paris. Weiss family. Cultural import problem.

Sunday, March 2nd

Noticed to-day that the snowdrops in the Chestnut Walk are only just in bud, while in 1940, as I well remember, they were almost over by March 1^st. The nights are frosty, but the day temperatures are higher, so the snow is gradually disappearing - to reveal in some parts the ice underneath.

1947 February

February. Coldest winter; power cuts. Civilization cracking up. Worse than wartime. Potato shortage.

Saturday, Feb 1^st

A week of severe frost and snow here, in other parts heavy falls and drifts. Hilary wrote and said he had been learning to ski, but they were fed up with the cold.

1947 January

January. Shall we see 1930 standards again?  Deadman's dummy. Coal shortage, strikes. Doctor arrested. Canon Crosse. Professional woman's day.  Whalemeat.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Saturday, Jan 4^th

Molly came down to stay. Unfortunately we already had a women called Judith staying in the house finishing a portrait of Hilary – a rather odd and peculiar women whom I do not like. Yesterday had a visitor, the new assistant director, going round trying to infuse some hope and enthusiasm into the headmasters after so many years of neglect! Quite a nice chap – gave him a 1 lb jar of honey. Molly still on the lookout for a farm, but cousin Geoffrey Wilson at [?Altarnum, Cornwall] cannot get a tap or a sink put in house as no permit.

              Hilary taken to Maskelyn’s Magic in London, but trains disorganized by coal shortage and late getting home. Extensive train cuts announced this week because of it. Beginning to wonder whether we will ever recover to 1930 standards of living – 1914 we shall never see!

Monday, Jan 6^th

Portrait of Hilary finished, good but flat. The artist then fortunately went back to London, as when not painting she sat right over the fire and kept it off everyone else, so I called her Asbestos Jane.

              Heath came up and told me of funeral superstitions in Henley – his grandfather died last week. The family mourners would not start as there were 9, an odd number, so one was the “deadman’s dummy”. He had to go up to another part of the town and fetch someone else to make 10. When they did start the neighbours rushed up and flung the front door open “to let out the spirit.”

Thursday, Jan 9^th

Got the remainder of the bees carried up to the field with the help of Molly and Donald Heath. A nice warm morning, but colder later. Donald came to tea and we had our usual argument about science, religion and the universe, to which Hilary listened wide-eyed, though what he made of it I don’t know.

              Strike of lorry drivers in London – an unofficial strike - so meat rations short next week.

              Molly thinking to teaching Poles English

Friday, Jan 10^th

Lunch with Mary. Molly left. Nora went up to London with Hilary and saw the much-praised French film, Les enfants du paradis, which she enjoyed very much. A severe white frost at first, then fog, then milder, then rain.

              Molly still looking for a farm in Gloucestershire or West Country. As God did not intend me to be a farmer with this rheumatism, I shall have to extend my bees and chickens (when I can get food again)

              Saw in our local press to-day that one of Henley’s doctors run in for conspiring to commit sodomy at Slough. Rather suspected that he was a homosexual, but think high time law was altered and homosexuals left alone.

Monday, Jan 13^th

Arthritic complaints so subject to the weather. Leg bad yesterday because, I think, of fall in barometer.

              School started to-day, but the painters are still in which makes things difficult. This afternoon old Canon Crosse, the new rector, ex-headmaster of Ardingley, came up to see me. Not an attractive man, rather like a great big blundering bumble bee. His great idea now is to infiltrate into school to teach scripture. Don’t want him at any price, but he is a persistent and insensitive person who will probably be a nuisance anyway. I have no time for the clergy of the Church of England, and have not had since St John’s, Leatherhead, days, of which this chap rather reminds me.

              Nora met Margaret Burton in town. As usual very cynical and disillusioned, still living with her friend in one room; says it does not matter how much you earn you still have to live in one room. Nora stood in a queue for ”damaged apples”. Day of professional woman done, pace Margaret, after earning living professional woman goes home to clean room.

Thursday, Jan 16^th

Warmer weather to-day and glass high. Bees flying in clouds on their new site, but I noticed that a few went back to their old site under the fir trees, particularly one hive, which was odd.              

    The strike of transport workers was called off to-day, but troops have been called in to work, and so men will not be able to start work till Saturday.

     A chap flew in a jet plane to-day from Paris to London in 20 minutes, the time it takes me to drive from Henley to Reading!

Monday, Jan 20^th

Found the first week at school, standing and teaching, very trying to my leg, which does not seem to be getting any better. Cyril Peach came over to tea with the little woman, Miss K. Brett, he is marrying at Easter. Whether he is marrying her for personal reasons or for business reasons I wondered. He is giving up his junior school at Reading, or rather it is giving him up in 1948. Miss Brett has a school for girls aged 5 – 10, so they are going into partnership and will take boys as well.

              Molly and I clipped the wings of a hen we thought roosting out as it rarely came to be fed with the rest, but nothing happened. It did not go in with the rest and disappeared, and we supposed it had died. But yesterday it turned up with four day-old chicks!

              Whale is being sold, though I don’t quite know where, and there is much discussion as to whether it should rightly be sold by butchers or fishmongers and whether you should use fish knives or not. It is supposed to have the texture of strong liver. “Strong “ in what sense?

Saturday, Jan 25^th

On Thursday evening Nora went to Exeter and on Friday she went to see Dartington School. The H.M. (Mr Currie) agreed to take Hilary next term and we shall close with the offer. While Nora away, went to over to M’s, says she loses about six books a week eaten by dogs!

              Had a traveller with an artificial leg to see me. Says he changes his socks once a month instead of weekly. Last saw him before the war, in which he lost the leg by one of our own shells at an A.A. site.

Sunday, Jan 26^th

Light fall of snow and bitter east wind. Did not venture out all day. Some talk in papers of reduction in income tax. Hope so, certainly some kick is needed or we shall never get the production which the government insists is so necessary. People are fed up; they want jam to-day.

              J. L. Garvin died last week. Always remember sitting in the J.C.R. at Keble reading his attacks on the Versailles Treaty. He was then at the height of his power.

              Russians are believed to be in a bad way. There appears to have been a very bad harvest in Ukraine and threat of famine there affecting a larger area than in 1921. The wretchedness of the Russians not due only to after effects of war. The leaders have played their cards with iron faces and fought every inch, but their recent change of front in relation to the democracies arises from their inability to prevent the truth of Russia’s need and exhaustion from coming out. Help is urgently needed from the West and their peoples must be prepared for this.

1946 December

December. Prize Day - Mayor's performance: no school could have a worse chairman. Price of geese. Painful leg. A funny sort of year. Steadily shabbier.

Sunday, Dec 1^st

Damp playing hell with my leg. Today was back to 1942 standard and saw Droitwich looming ahead of me – that miserable little town where I was so unhappy in that August. Copied out speech for prize day.

1946 - November

November. Americans are impossible. Poles popular. "Quite mad" Mrs Hichens. British zone in Germany. Monty's one dish too many.

Saturday, Nov 9^th

Conscription to be continued and is to last 18 months. It seems a pity they cannot make do with a year

1946 October

October. Britain in 3Ds. Few things better, most worse. Prize day returns. Goering evades hangman. Britain Can Make It. Peter Flemming - bogus and a snob. 

Saturday, Oct 5^th

Some wit returning from the East said that to judge from the hoardings the govt was offering three things, Diphtheria, VD and Death on the Roads.

1946 September

September. Quagmire walking. Weather worst since 1879. Youth hostels. Gleaning barley. Donald Heath to Sheffield. Shopping: either can't get or can't afford. Stalin on co-existence. Third Programme.

Sunday, Sept 1^st

Spent an hour on the moor in morning but soggy and wet, heavy showers in afternoon and dreadfully wet.

1946 July, August

July-August. Bread rationing. Mankind may be obsolete. Goslings 1gn each. Bread for housewives.  French visitor. Summer school on India. Cuckmere Haven. Squatters.

Wednesday, July 3rd

Sat up on Sunday night to listen to the atomic bomb, which was broadcast from Pacific over U.S. radio but heard nothing except atomic policies. The tendency at first was to minimize the effect of the bomb but it is clear that the was devastating on signal equipment and that fleet would have been rendered deaf, dumb and blind by the explosion.

            Petrol coupons found in attaché case!

Friday, July 5^th

Fierce and noisy debate on bread rationing. Main argument of Food Minister was risk of delay in replacing supplies owing to American labour conditions, etc, during August and September now all our reserves have been diverted to famine relief in Germany, Europe, India. Cannot take risk on small margin.…. 70lb sack of oatmeal just arrived for chickens so hope shall be able to keep some pullets at any rate through winter, now meal ration reduced from 5 to 2lb a month. Am hoping to dry grass and acorns and collect beech mast as well.

              Been reading Lewis Munford’s Condition of Man and Admiral Jones’ letters from Portsmouth during war years, former learned and profound, latter very racy and crisp. Churchill being offered tea by his wife replied "My doctors will not allow me anything non-alcoholic between breakfast and dinner”.

Saturday, July 6^th

Atomic bomb killed 80,000 people at Hiroshima, nearly three times as many as killed in all air raids on London – “indiscriminate bombing”! It is estimated that the bombs over London would kill 50,000 and destroy 3 sq miles of buildings. It was not a question of whether the battleships at Bikini were obsolete, but whether mankind will become obsolete.

Tuesday, July 9^th

Went on river at Wargrave and through Shiplake lock. Thought this better than going on river at Henley as still convalescent and don’t intend to go back until next week anyway. Why have appendicitis is you can’t have a month’s holiday on the strength of it?

              After a great effort the invitations to the Peace Conference have at last been sent out. Molotov stone walling to the bitter end…. object to prevent by rules of procedure any amendments by the small powers of big power decisions - in so far as they have reached any.

Wednesday, July 10^th

Went today by car to see goslings. Anyway to have six at 1 guinea each. Had lunch and tea in beech woods near Fawley. Lovely summer day.

              Been reading Enemy Coast Guard Ahead by Gibson, the man who breached the Ruhr dams. An excellent account of the planning and execution of this and the great raids on Berlin 1943 and 1944. Unfortunately he would go back to bombers after the dams and lost his life when conducting a raid as Master Bomber.

              The problem of Germany has not been dealt with yet….. The Russians will not and have made no attempt to implement the Potsdam Agreement by which Germany to be treated as one economic unit. So in order to keep Germany in the west alive at all (and only just) we have had to pay out 50 million pounds and the Americans 150 mill. dollars. We have to ration bread to feed the western Germans while from the food producing part of Germany in the east nothing is transferred. It looks as though the Russians intend to use this as squeeze and blackmail – the threat of complete breakdown and disorder which may give them the chance to organize a communist Germany….. He who sups with the devil needs a long spoon. We seem to have got ourselves into a proper jam.

              Move to get housewives classified with manual workers on bread rationing scheme, and so they jolly well ought to be.

Tuesday, July 16^th

The American loan has gone through (the House of Representatives). Most people are glad because it means the possibility of an expansion of our purchases, but much gnashing of teeth by the imperial preference Tories, “selling out the Empire” and so on. One of the first results of the loan is an increase in the petrol ration, at present six gallons, by 50%. However as my last outer cover split on Thursday I am running without a spare wheel and not much chance of getting a second hand cover. Petrol will not in the end be much use without tyres. All tyres are supposed to be going on our export cars.

Churchill has visited Metz to meet General Giraud. He remarked when he landed at the airfield: “We have kept the rendezvous” – made in N. Africa in 1943. The great man drove through the city and addressed the guests at a banquet in the Town Hall. This he insisted on doing in his peculiar brand of French. However, it was a great success as it introduced a conversational or choric element to the speech, as when the speaker was at a loss for a word the audience supplied it.

Thursday, July 18^th

Bakers said yesterday they couldn’t work the scheme for bread rationing, but today they seem to have come round. Debate on order imposing rationing in Commons tonight. Churchill said unnecessary, using sledge hammer to crack an empty nut. By September crisis would be over anyway. Very difficult to make out the whole thing. Read an article that German farmers still holding back wheat and grain from cities for animal feed, so we are, according to this argument, feeding the German cities by cutting our livestock in order that German farmers can keep theirs.

Ten years ago the Spanish civil war started. Really in fact the beginning of the war which was started in 1939, and Franco still in power.

Friday, July 19^th

Had a visiting French student for an exchange to lunch – a nice boy from the Massif Central, fairish and grey-eyed. Reading English at university (Clermont Ferrand) and hopes to teach it. Gave him two copies of the King’s letter to children on Victory Day, at which very pleased.

Saturday, July 20^th

Took chair at W.E.A. summer school on India. About 30 present. Last time June 29^th, 1940. Before tea W.E.A. tutor on mistake we made in allowing communal voting in India, for it led straight to the development of the Moslem League and the present impasse. We should, he thought, have encouraged the National Congress as a democratic body embracing all religions and communities. Hoped we would not repeat the same mistake in Malaya, Ceylon, E. Africa. Generally rather pessimistic. After tea, Pulinwood, B.A. Bombay, very charming and sympathetic speech, full of hope for future of India. An Indian Christian from Travancore.

Sunday, July 21^st

Timothy Auty down for weekend, bought me a sponge from Rome, but dark in colour. Back from tour in Jeep (45 m.p.h., six gears) from Belgrade, Sarejevo, Dalmatian coast and back to Belgrade. Nearly all villages burnt out because houses of wood, great hunger, but people working like beavers, on land, on roads, on houses. U.N.R.A. supplying flour, grain, seeds, also some steamrollers for roads. Italy one of the better countries for food now, Yugoslavia bad, distressing accounts of rickety children she saw in Sarajevo clinic; but Austria worst of all.

Bank Holiday Monday, Aug 5^th

Term ended on Thursday and I went over to help Mary clean walls of her flat on Friday. Bought an anti-gas oilskin for 6s 9d – no coupons – enormous trousers and short coat; hope it will do to keep warm out camping and on Dartmoor..... Hilary very excited by prospect of going camping on Wednesday, but have had great trouble getting a tyre for the spare wheel. In the end found one at Maidenhead but had to pay £3-5-0 for it second hand, so that by the time have bought tyres, sleeping bags and ground sheets, would have paid one to stay at a good hotel!

Thursday, Aug 22^nd

Returned with Hilary yesterday after a fortnight’s camping at Cuckmere Haven. A lovely site within 100 yards of the sea, but 1½ miles from milk and bread and ¼ mile from water. The weather was bad, two gales when one hardly slept at all, and so hours of continuous rain. Out of 14 days 4 days sunshine. However, with exception of broken guy rope on the stores tent they stood up to everything well.

              John Guinness and family came down three times from Wilmington and Hilary enjoyed bathing with John’s daughter Lindis and Anna Brock. He stood up to all the trials and difficulties with weather manfully and thoroughly enjoyed the holiday. Had a great satisfaction in contending successfully with the elements and cooking and preparing meals. For doing the former I developed a low neolithic cunning, sleeping with the matches next to my skin to keep them dry and so on. Hilary kept shrimps and crabs in a bottle under his bed at night “in case they got wet”. He remarked of the grasshoppers which started at night time, “they are tuning their violins”. It was a fire-builders paradise because of the enormous quantities of driftwood after the storms. We used to go on what I called a flotsam and jetsam walk to see what we could find             

During this time we heard no news, listened to no wireless, read no newspapers, went to bed when it got dark, got up when it got light – the delights of the primitive life. Only heard when we returned of H. G. Wells death.

[Ed. We were almost the only campers on this enormous site – when I saw it again years later you could hardly see the grass for the caravans and villa tents - but while we camped on the flat there was a couple camped on the hill to the east of the estuary and according to family legend, they referred to the rain-sodden Diarist and son as “That poor man down on the marsh”. Among the flotsam and jetsam we found a meteorite about the size of a big fist under the cliff and a string of glass floats used by fishermen at that time to keep nets afloat. The family still has the floats; the meteorite has disappeared.]

Sunday, Aug 25^th

International situation seems deteriorating. Timothy, down for weekend, says UNRA being wound up because Americans are not in mood for international co-operation on relief and prefer to deal with demands for help themselves on their merits. Seems likely they will take a tougher line. They are strengthening their fleet in the Med. And are for the first time a Mediterranean naval power. Where the Atlantic powers of the West meet the Russian land power of the East is the line of mountains bordering the Adriatic and there in the Straits lie the American cruisers. Some say we cannot go on long like this and there will be either a showdown or war.

              It looks as if the Russians are going to occupy East Germany indefinitely, for they are taking over German plants and transferring the workers to Soviet employment. American feeling has been much inflamed by the shooting down of American planes by the Yugoslavs and there are angry press comments.

              The Paris conference drags on but has made little progress…. Tragic that when we need a settlement so badly the Paris meeting has been used simply to make propaganda and speeches. The Big Three have never met informally. The latest effort by the Russians has been to put up the Ukraine to renew the attack on Greece. In fact some one said the Russians use the U.N.O. as a punch bag; bring up some problem and you get a sharp comeback in the form of a propaganda attack somewhere else.

              Hardly any honey but what there was I began to take off. A rotten year in the garden – and the geese ate the young purple sprouting plants; put in some more but very late.

Monday, Aug 26^th

India now has its own government but Moslem League refuses to co-operate. Terrific riots, looting, killing and arson have broken out in Calcutta, and thus there is a possibility that northern India, where there are Moslems in large numbers, is on the verge of civil war….

Wednesday, Aug 28^th

Squatters have now occupied empty camps. It has taken them a long time to do so. They are not to be evicted where there is adequate water and sanitary accommodation but some will be charged rent and the local authority made responsible

    An excellent talk by Harold Nicolson on Russia and the Russians. The Russians suspicious of us and hostile because 1) their Marxist doctrine tells them there must be a war between capitalism (U.S.A) and communism and 2) in that war we shall side with the U.S.A. and be used as an advanced base for an attack on Russia. 3) Many know little about our war effort and what they do know does not outweigh the policy we followed from 1919 to Munich. They feel desperately not only the physical destruction but also the destruction of their life’s work by which they succeeded in raising living standards and are now thrown back again to begin once more. Hence their determination to protect themselves by a wide and deep fence from the West. Their feeling that we are going back on what we promised at Yalta, Teheran, Potsdam.

Saturday, Aug 31^st

Off to explore Youth Hostels (with M). Lunch at Exeter then off by one of the most crowded trains I have ever been in to Brent. There we set off for Brentmoor House up a lovely moorland valley. The house was on the moor by a torrent in the narrow valley and the sides were thick with rhododendron and pine. The food was terrific, masses of bangers and sausage meat rissoles and potatoes and dried peas. As we got near the hostel it started to rain.

1946 May, June

May and June. "Moth-eaten lion". Strachey adds variety to food. Victory Day in Henley  drowned out. Russians expect revolution. Appendix - nursing home life. "We are not good enough". Detergents. Bikini atoll.

Thursday, May 16^th

              Have neglected the Diary for three weeks, but so much to do. In addition to garden have taken a W.E.A. course in art appreciation at Burnham, not very easy and bad room and a lot of boys in addition to the usual W.E.A. women.

1946 April

April. Sports day in peace (and sunshine). Exmouth, Dartmoor. Jack Potter on Malaya. Beekeeping.

Monday, April 1^st

Boat Race Day on Saturday and to my great satisfaction Oxford won it. Moving to listen to the news and that this was the second “peace” boat race I had experienced – the last in 1920 (or was it 1919?). Anyway made you feel good to think that there was another normal event of peace restored again, and as popular as ever.

1946 March

March. "Iron curtain".  "We'll all be dead in a few minutes". Eric C, Phyllis A, Margaret Burton, Vernon Mills. Starving in peacetime. Independence for India.

Friday, March 1^st

              Papers full of food situation, famine in India and near-famine in British zone of Germany. The Russians have done themselves no good and their behaviour has hardened American opinion. “What a tragedy,” says Nora. “How short sighted,” think I, “for the sake of propaganda points to alienate their allies and go some way to wrecking the chance of co-operation.”

1946 February

February. Disgraceful Russians. World food shortage. Flu epidemic. Fats ration cut. Fed up with ration books. Coal crisis. How the shipping war was won in 1941.

Saturday, Feb 2^nd

Bevin made a forthright speech in the Security Council and asked them to give a verdict on the Russian charge one way or another. "Have we been contributing to, or endangering, the peace of the world?”

1946 January

January. To be a farmer. United Nations - "We must, we will succeed". First cases before Security Council.  At school, two boilers at last. Nationalization of steel.

Tuesday, Jan 1^st

Molly and Ruth arrived and after supper discussed the possibilities of a farm. Ruth very dumb indeed, had not realized how stupid she was.

1945 December

December. Train strike, dock strike.  Lady Periam. US loan. Conditions in Germany. Fruits of victory. Chicken standard.  Year of deliverance.

Sunday, Dec 2nd

Nora went up to London to stay and then go down to Long Dene. There was a gas strike so no lighting, you were not allowed by the conductors to stand up on the buses, the tea shop refused to take any money which involved change and there were no oranges because of the dock strike! When she arrived the guests were huddled round a gas fire which was only just alight.

1945 November

November. London hotels. Russian football team. Tom Wheeler home. How poor we are. Churchill on his defeat. Nuremburg trials.

Tuesday, Nov 6th

Many bangs last night (Guy Fawkes Night) but no rockets that I saw. Went to London for weekend and had a towel with me, which in mysterious way made to vanish. Suspect stolen by chambermaid. You bring your own towels and then they are pinched! What a life!

1945 October

October. Fred Andersen on Italy. Henry V film. Letter from Jack Potter. Victory tea parties. Phyllis Auty on Paris. Income tax cut. New rearmament race?  Clifford at school again.

Friday, Oct 5th

Fred Andersen, back from Italy and out of the R.A.F., turned up to lunch on Tuesday. As Nora said, conversation after so long with men only was rather unusual.

1945 - September

September. Arnheim family. Battle of Britain Day. Bader. Henry V censored in US. Mountjoy on Italy. Koestler. Bust up with Russians. Keynes in Washington. Italians at the V. & A.

Sunday, Sept 9th

Hilary had George Arnheim* to stay. Mr Arnheim, a Jewish lawyer who escaped through Danzig, now has a Secotine (glue) business. Mrs Arnheim came to England in a cargo boat a month before George was born then got knocked down by a car that skidded onto the pavement.

1945 - August

August. First peacetime ice. Holidays a nightmare. Atomic energy harnessed. Hiroshima blotted out. Cowpat Hall. VJ Day on Southampton Water. Clothes rationing again.

Thursday, August 2nd

Hilary and Molly went to the baths this morning; in the afternoon we went on the river and saw Hilary swim, dive and turn somersaults under water. We took a kettle and had a fire and made tea.

Petain being tried in Paris, when he is not asleep.....

Everyone trying to go for a holiday and the result is appaling crowding and confusion at the London stations.

 

Saturday, August 4th

Went up to London, for another visit to the National Gallery, where spent most time with the primitives. Bought a flysheet for tent at a most amusing shop in Panton Street where I feel Victorian chaps must have bought kit for their big game hunting when their suits had been rejected. Went to the Marble Halls for lunch and my first peacetime ice. It was quite nice but neither the flavour nor the texture of the real ice cream de luxe of 1939! However that will come in time!

Sunday, Aug 5th

Last week there was an Antique Conference! Grocers still cannot deliver food. Ours [Ed: Mr Jones, Reading Road] can hire a van but cannot find anyone to drive it. Holidays this year are a nightmare. It it impossible to find accommodation, people are sleeping on beeches and in shelters after standing packed tight in the corridors of long distance trains. Ration coupons are supposed to be given up if you only have breakfast, so you have to queue for lunch and supper because you cannot buy things to eat in your rooms. No release of towels, table cloths, sheets or blankets has been made because, I suppose, a decent holiday after five years of war is just not considered important by the mandarins. Caterers are applying now for concessions for next summer!!

Dentists have been scarce for ages and appointments difficult to make, but now they are short of materials, especially small drills for children’s teeth. Most of ours before the war came from Germany via the U.S.A.!

Monday, August Bank Holiday

Heavy shower about seven with sunshine and a most lovely rainbow. The arc shone and sparkled and all the colours of the spectrum were clear. I called Hilary into my room to see it

To-night have received very extraordinary news, news which I feel may make the war seem of very minor importance. A tremendous step forward has been made in physical science. Atomic energy has been harnessed and the famous splitting of the atom has been accomplished by a pooling of British and American scientific brains. As long ago as 1942 plant was set up in the U.S.A. to produce an atomic bomb. Elaborate precautions were taken to prevent the secret leaking out and huge factories and laboratories were built. At the same time watch was kept on the Germans to see if they were following the same trail.

Now the bomb has been completed and dropped on a Japanese city after the ultimatum had been rejected and warning been given to the inhabitants. This frightful projectile has the force of 2000 of our largest R.A.F. ordinary H.E. bombs! No reconnaissance has been possible so far as dust and debris have not subsided.

One’s reactions are at present fearful. Are men fit to be trusted with such forces? The prime motive for this research is victory in war by the destruction of the enemies’ cities. Nora’s first thought was that nothing can justify the blotting out of an entire city. What would we have said, she asks, if the Germans had done this. Once the enemies of our civilization have been defeated will this knowledge be used constructively and will man be wise enough to turn from the false gods of national tribe worship to which so far they have been so ready to prostitute their scientific knowledge. Will the magnitude of this discovery make them rise to the measure of their responsibility to humanity?

Tuesday, Aug 7th

Went to Bursledon on the Hamble river for a fortnight [August 7 – 21], but it was not a very rewarding holiday. The district was very difficult to get about; lying between Portsmouth and Southampton, the buses were few and very overcrowded and generally in everything it was an area of congestion and scarcity

That was one snag. The other was the accommodation. It was a caravan belonging to Dorothy Wade. It stood in a corner of a field which it shared with 16 cows, hence my name for it – Cowpat Hall. The cooking arrangements were in a galley that stood 5ft high and sloped down to 4ft. You sat to cook, but it also contained the Elsan closet, here a very feminine arrangement as the roof permitted no standing for males above the height of Hilary. Nora christened it Miss Wade’s Domestic Battle School.

Hilary and I made an excursion to Cowes on August 14th. We saw the Queen Mary lying at anchor, her first visit to Southampton since 1939. She was taking on American troops for repatriation. Her peace red, cream and black had given way to a uniform light grey. Hilary was very excited at seeing her. On our way down Southampton Water we also saw an aircraft carrier, the seaplane station at Calshot, various R.A.F. speedboats, some of the drums that carried the oil pipeline to France and sections of the Mulberry Harbour, so we did not do so badly.

Wednesday, Aug 15th

The news that the Japs had accepted our terms was announced on the wireless at midnight last night. I had been asleep for an hour when I was awoken, but I am a very light sleeper, especially in the caravan, by some distant ships’ sirens, then one of the ships in the river rang its ship’s bell. In a minute or two pandemonium broke loose. All the sirens, bells, foghorns in the pool started up, a long bugle call was blown, there was shouting, singing and explosions as the M.T.B.s let off their rockets and Verey lights. I went out to Hilary who was half awake in his earwig (tent) but he took it all quite calmly. I suggested that we go down to the river to see the green, red and white flares, but he did not want to. The racket went on for about an hour with hardly a break, then it gradually died down....

to-day and to-morrow are public holidays. This morning the ships in the river were dressed with flags and at night illuminated. After dark bonfires were lit and we walked up with Hilary to Sarisbury Green, where there was a very fine one. Amplifiers have not added much to these celebrations. A very raucous petty officer was singing in one in an inharmonious bellow and there was canned music. At the jubilee of Queen Victoria the natives were, as for centuries, left to their own devices, and far better, too.

Everyone is pleased and delighted, but there is little excitement. I think the atomic bomb has made everyone uneasy. ”Well, that’s the end of the Japs,” said a newspaper editor when he heard the news; ”and of us.” ..... Our thoughts turning to the military and civilian prisoners in Japanese hands, and especially to Jack Potter in Java. He should soon be home, but in what shape, and fit to teach mathematics?

Friday, Aug 21st

Back from Southampton. Travelling difficult, not made easier by two white mice, Alert and All Clear, in a box. I called them "Blest pair of Sirens.”

Conditions in Japan are reported chaotic. Out of 12 heavy battleships, one is afloat, of 12 aircraft carriers, one; and 139 destroyers have been sunk.

We shall still be in rags! Our new 24 clothing coupons, which become available in September, are to be valid until May. Apparently the bottleneck is spinning, and spinners engaged in munitions are not anxious to go back in many cases.