14 Beacon Hill, N.7. - The people here do not want a maid after all, so he cannot help Frau Beyschley's niece personally; neither can Sandra. Ronald Chapman in Oxford, whom Joan [Allen] knows may want a maid so he has sent on details. Is glad to have Angela Lavelli's new address at the Hotel de Buci: cannot help her, but has sent on her letter to Stephen Waley, who now has his doctorate. Had prospect of going to Washington to take up a semi-permanent role as personal assistant to Sir James Grigg, but his superiors at the Treasury judged him indispensable. Waley wanted him to go and try again for the Civil Service exam in November, but he will continue at the Treasury and take the exam in the normal way: perhaps he should have pushed for Washington, but neither the place nor Grigg appealed.
100 Weston Rd, Gloucester. - He and Teetee have been ill for a week: apologises for not replying sooner. It is a great honour to have Trevelyan's "Oedipus Coloneus" inscribed to him and Teetee: she deserves it, having started Greek at age fifty and gone from Mark's Gospel to Acts to Book IV of the "Odyssey"; he himself has not, unless buying Dioscorides' "De Materia Medica" and Müller's "Geographi Graeci Minores" counts. When Teetee comes to visit, Trevelyan should start her on Sophocles: she may find the "Antigone" easier than the "Coloneus". John has left for a round of visits, including to the Trevelyans and Joan Allen. He seems much matured and kindlier; is beginning to think of the future and re-read Horace; may be free of the army by summer. Sorry to hear of Miss Simpkins' heart strain. Is delighted to hear the news of the Röntgens: are they warm enough for the winter? Warmth is 'Angela Lavelli's desideratum in Paris'.
Thanks Trevelyan for his letter and what he has done to help her: it is a 'great moral path' for her, and she hopes that with the help of a heart 'as great and generous' as Trevelyan's, she will be able to 'remedy this misfortune'. She encloses her letter to [Maxim] Litwinof and also that to her little one [her daughter Olga]. Adds in a postscript that she is also enclosing her letter to 'the sister of Monsieur Fray' [Roger Fry's sister Ruth, general secretary of the Friends War Victims Relief Committee]: asks him to read it, and if he does not think it too foolish to give it to her; also to let her know the response as soon as possible. If there is no hope of sending a Quaker to search for her daughter, she will go herself immediately to Warsaw (she is applying for her passport) and perhaps there will be a way of getting to Kiev from there. Marchand despairs and does not want her to leave because she is so weak; she is made worse due to her 'torment' [of worry for her daughter]. She went to the Ukraninian mission [embassy?] again yesterday, and spoke there to a colonel who came from Kiev a month ago, who says that Kiev has become a 'totally dead city', and that everyone who can has left; the peasants no longer bring their produce as when they do the Bolsheviks requisition it and take it to Moscow; they take everything from 'unfortunate Ukraine', which is becoming increasingly poor. There are no trams or streetlights working; worse, there is no piped water, and those like her family who live a distance from the river are suffering terribly. People cannot get new clothes, or shoes; they go bare-footed with boards tied to their feet; lack of water means that there is much dirt and fever. The colonel said the 'atmosphere is so sad and overwhelming', and that he himself was maddened almost to suicide, but preferred to 'do even the lowest work here and eat only dry bread than to return there'. He travelled for a week in goods wagons, standing all the way, 'packed in like cattle' with ill, dirty, drunk and coarse people. She does not know if she can live knowing that her daughter is so much suffering there.
Marchand writes to Trevelyan on the back of Sonia Lewitska's letter: thanks him for everything he has done for Sonia: is very saddened by all that [Sonia has learned] . Had news this January from Mademoiselle [Angela] Lavelli. Asks how Trevelyan's family is. Has not seen [Francis] Birrell again.