Item 26 - Letter from E. M. Forster to Elizabeth Trevelyan

1 sheet

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Has been meaning to write and send the enclosed from [F. W.?] Ogilvie, who ‘also came and talked to me after my Broadcast - or rather listened to me, for I waxed quite lyrical. He is a darling, but weak, and the more friendly jogs he can receive the better’. Will try to ‘get up the statistics about German music’ and write to Ogilvie or see him. Meanwhile, thinks it important that ‘those who can speak with authority about music’, such as Bessie, should ‘send in their views’.

Advises her not to ‘worry over dear old R. V. W. [Ralph Vaughan Williams, who is a ‘complete goose as regards judgements.’, as illustrated by his acceptance of the Shakespeare Prize [awarded to him in 1937 by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, at the University of Hamburg]. Now he ‘waddles to the other extreme and cackles anti-Beethoven’. Forster saw him recently at a Refugee Tea and had a ‘very strong sense of his loveableness and goodness’. Looks forward to visiting Bessie next week; can easily get there and back ‘by feet and bus’.

Doesn’t think he quite agrees with Bessie about the war, but is ‘a feeble disagreer, and not argumentative’. Does think that ‘Hitler is a nasty nuisance who would start again if we made peace’, and would not only aim to take away their ‘money and possessions, which don’t spiritually matter’, but also ‘our right to say what we think and feel, which does matter, anyhow to me’. Knows the British government also takes this away, ‘but not to the same extent that Hitler would. The refugees are living examples of his mentality’, which is always before Forster. Has given up his flat, partly as it is in a ‘very bombable area [Bloomsbury]’ but also he can no longer afford it. Has taken another for half the price at Chiswick [9 Arlington Park Mansions], and hopes to move in soon. They are going on ‘quietly’ at West Hackhurst; his cousins [Percy Whichelo and his wife Dutchie] are ‘helpful’ in the house, and Agnes is ‘not over-worked’. Comments on ‘what lovely paper’ Bessie writes on; ‘even when there is a picture of a prison on it it is such a pretty prison’. Asks to be remembered to the Sturge Moores, and sends love to Bessie and Bob.