p.

5.

race apart & above. And they must be prepared to win
the respect & confidence of the people & by ther work
& actions & help & sympathy - & not by means of living
a semi-regal life apart. We have been pretty badly
shown up in Malaya & Burma & India - the same
thing would happen here & in Egypt if the test were
ever to come.

Oh dear - I am becoming very very left, am I not, darling?
I wonder what you think about me.

You administered a rebuke in your last letter, because I had
told you that I had ticked off my offers on account of
their table manners. But you were sweet & wise, as you
always are, in making an excuse for me because of
my bloody life & so many things to get on my
nerves. This did have something to do with with it - &
although I thank you for making the excuse for me, I
do not entirely deserve it. And I must tell you, to
my own satisfaction, & I hope yours too that I seem
to be developing fairly rapidly & along the right
lines. Because, since then , & before your letter
came, I have blamed myself for that incident &
determined never to repeat it. And my new officer,
Laskou, does all these things which we think wrong
in England - & I have said nothing, & in fact,
they do not annoy me any more. You were
prefectly right to be a little horrified - & I am too,
when I think of it now. In fact, the soup spoon
jammed well into the mouth, & the knife & fork lying
wide open in a satisfield looking spread, are very
much to be preferred to somebody like Jessie's rather