Item 92 - Letter from Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy to R. C. Trevelyan

1 item

28, Rue de la Tourelle, Boulogne sur Seine. - Thanks Trevelyan for his kind letters; does not know what he would do at this uncertain time if he did not have Trevelyan's 'affection and kindness enveloping... and guarding' him. Very grateful for the days he spent at the Shiffolds; asks Trevelyan to thank Mrs Trevelyan for him, as he cannot express himself adequately in a letter. Had a good crossing and found Rex [his dog] well. Has been looking after the old Indian he met in London, who has had 'three successive strokes of paralysis' and is in a bad state; he has a wife, just emerged from purdah, two illiterate servants, and two small children; he is now a little better and will be leaving for India at the beginning of next month. Suhrawardy is also helping another family of Indians, 'very fine, khaddar-clad, orthodox, gentle & fat', and Ellen [Vinaver?] jokes that he is the 'unpaid consul in Paris of Nationalist India'. Has had no time to look for flats, and cannot make any decisions, since Madame Germanova wishes to spend the three months she will be in France outside Paris, then he will go to India in October for at least three months. Is waiting for her husband [Kalitinsky] to return from Prague before he make a decision; meanwhile Rex is with Ellen and the flat is cold and empty without him. Does not know what will come of Gandhi's action [the Salt March to Dandi] but is moved to tears by it. Asks Trevelyan to write to say he has recovered from his accident, and tells him to take care when crossing roads and getting on buses. He failed, but Ellen passed, the test.

Pencil annotation dating the letter to 1930.