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Letter 11, 20th January 1936 IMG 0370

whether you think what I wrote indiscreet. But I was careful not to do so until the expiry of the year – for which you stipulated – from your time of taking up the Kathmandu Legation.

Material of the right kind for Maga is not as easy to come by as formerly, and we sometimes get anxious at Paternoster Row. The old imperial mindset of pre-war days seems to have given place to a sleepy and gutless acquiescence in what the backboneless peace-and-vote-hunting politicians can and do lay down as national policy: with an inevitable effect on the old sturdy stuff which used to come in so fast that George Blackwood had to keep it off with a stick. Nowadays he can shout for it, and not get it. However, we manage to keep up the old standard of values somehow.

Write when you can. It's long since I heard from you – a letter I mean: and I'd almost made up my mind to postpone sending this till after January 1st – in the sure

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hope that I would have been then able to prefix one more letter of the alphabet to your C.I.E. However – if and when that happens – it will be a further excuse for bothering you with a letter.

There’s little time – or mental energy – for further Maga articles, but I have some notes on our Dibang and Sissori journeys which, padded out with a certain amount of trimming, might work up into another jungle paper. Though some time hence. I suppose there's no chance of getting a Maga paper out of you? I wish you'd try to find time.

My wife and I have put Dorking up for sale, bodily, and have moved into a Town flat, here. Near her friends (Hampstead) and only half an hour from Paternoster Row. So address here in future, when you write. The change over from ten years of the best country life to Town surroundings has been more

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than a bit of a jolt. But worth it, even if it contradicts everything that I advised, in that book of what to do in retirement. It's nearly through its sixth 1,000 – so in a mild way, ranks as a “best seller” by purely booksellers’ arithmetic.

Best wishes to you both from us both. It’s too late to catch you with New Year greetings, I fear.


 * Yours very sincerely


 * L. A. Bethell

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Letter 11, 20th January 1936

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TELEGRAMS, MAGA, LONDON

TELEPHONE 10663 CENTRAL