Item 213 - Letter from Bertrand Russell to Elizabeth Trevelyan

Deudraeth Castle Hotel, Portmeirion Peninsula, Penrhyndeudraeth, North Wales. - Thanks Elizabeth for her letter, but thinks she does not quite know the facts: that he and Dora have an agreement which give them equal rights in the children, and he has only asked that this continue, but Dora wants 'sole rights & complete custody'; she is petitioning for divorce and representing herself as a 'completely blameless wife', concealing the existence of Harriet and Roderick [her children with Griffin Barry]. Does not see why Elizabeth talks of both his and Dora's suffering: 'Does the tiger suffer when it kills the deer'?; Dora knows that if she deprives him of John and Kate, 'the whole of the rest of [his] life will be one of unbearable misery', and that to stop her doing so he will probably have to give up hope of divorce. This is very hard on Peter [Spence], 'who wants children, but not bastards', as he himself does. Asks if Elizabeth could let him know 'what version of the facts' she has heard.