Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

6.

not the guts & initiative to make a decision & allow them to come here. There is quite enough suffering & sudden death in the world today, without our so called ruling classes contributing to it with their peculiar mixture of idleness, snobishness, & ineffectuality.

I had a very sweet letter from your ma three days ago (dated Jan 8~ - & your last one is Dec 30~. it is infuriating) - she told me how well & pretty you looked. & she was [enrolling?] Maxie. I like her letters very much - they are so much more interesting & human than my own mother's. I have also had from her a Xmas number of the sporting & Dramski which, at 2/6, is a big waste of money - & a very pleasant calendar. She was telling me that you & I must take an interest in our local politics after the war. & that this would be the stepping stone to greater things. I suppose you have been talking to her, darling. In any case, I quite agree. & I hope to goodness we can do something. I know that I feel extremely strongly, & even violently, about things at the moment. And far more than wanting to see [shot?], Hitler & Mussolini & their Japanese counterpart - I want to shoot Baldwin, & Simon, & Chamberlain, if the miserable man were still alive. Those men, & many others with them, are undoubtedly responsible for the fact that Germany was ever allowed to get to a position to begin this war. And it was not a case of making mistakes - it was down right dishonesty & selfishness, coupled with the usual [admixture?] of idleness, snobishness & uneffectuality. And you & I

7./ millions of people like us allowed such men to lead us to where we are today. It is perhaps as well that countless people today are too politically unconscious to realize that the loss of their husbands + sons + fathers in the last war, was quite in vain, because they themselves have allowed the present situation to come to pass. I feel tolerably certain that the big mistake made by you + I (in particular, because you + I are better than most other people) in that we have far too much respect + even reverence for the people in high places. Whereas, in reality, they are just very ordinary bloody people with those particular faults mentioned above + who have acquired the habit of ruling + I know very well that my contact such as it has been, with my superiors in the army , has assisted me to this view. Really, I think now that our whole system of Government is all wrong - but I do not feel like trying to make myself clear, a difficult job in any case at the moment. What other news have I ? Really none, my darling. I have written myself into a better mood, thank God. but there is so little to tell you. I should like to think of something funny, in order to make you laugh, but there has been nothing really. I think I will now read childhood Boyhood + Youth in bed + finish this tomorrow. that book has a further advantage, as you wrote such a dear inscription on the fly leaf. Kisses my darling - XXX H.

8.

Sunday - 1 March. I was thinking yesterday about our new home - somewhere in Yorkshire. You know how verandah conscious I have always been - & so our new house must have verandahs, both downstairs & up. I think that to have our bedroom windows opening onto a verandah would be lovely. & on fine nights we could just push our bed out & sleep in the open air - & the same from Maxie's room. And the roof of the house would be flat, or partly flat, & containing a studio for you. with long windows opening out onto the flat part, so that you could work outside on fine days.

[Drawing of a home laid out as described: open air, studio, verandah, Bedroom, and verandah.]

The plan on the left has nothing to do with scales or architecture & does not show the rest of the house. It is just to illustrate what I mean.

What do you think, darling?

It is not supposed to be a big house - the only good sized rooms will be the lounge & our bedroom - a smaller one for Maxie - another room for a maid. Two little rooms for guests. The garden will be just big enough to have a lawn of [illegible], some flowers, & some vegetables. And I have a hope that there will be some trees around - at least facing our bedroom verandah, so that we can be outside & not have to worry about

9./ people with telescopes on moonlit nights. Somebody is going to have to build this house, of course, + it is so difficult to know how thigs will be after the war. I wonder are you willing to live near enough to the works. For me to ask Peter to build a house for us. That would really mean a mile or two from the works, up towards Howarth- or else in the semi-country on the ridge between the works + Shipley. It is completely + entirely up to you, because you have to spend much more time there than I have - + you are the one who will want to go here + there by day. But there is probably no need to exercise our minds much about this at the present stage. And so much depends on so many things prior of building- the general social structure - + also what you + I will be aiming for exactly. But I like to think + talk about our future home. The news is really very difficult to follow at the moment- up + down in the F.E.- up + down in Lybia- but very good from Russia. I have a strong feeling that Russia will defeat Germany this year- with or without our assistance. I only hope that we shall be able to help. I know it is a very tall order, but I am certain that Russia is capable of doing it + that she will not do any waiting - + that at the present rate, it

10./ cannot last more than another six months. If that can happen , then Japan should be easy meat. I think that it is tremendously encouraging that Sir S. Cripps now has an important job in the War Cabinet. He is 100% incorruptible, + the fact of him being in the W. Cabinet will never make him change his spots. I feel very impatient, you know, sittting on my bottom in this place. I wish to God I could have a more important job-but these all seem to be reserved for the Regular Army. If I do come home, I wonder what they will do with me. I shall work v. hard for the Area Commander and/or Col.G. to make out a good report on me + send it on ahead of me. I should hate to finish up in charge of some outlandish part or railway station- when I feel so strongly the urge to be useful + to get something done. But the main thing is to get home. It is now March- + the reply will come this month. I must now catch this morning's post. I have , so far, been having a lazy Sunday morning. Do please give Marie my best love + kisses + tell him I think he looks lovely in his photographs + I think of him very much. And all my love to you darling heart. I think of you all the same, no less. Sweet darling, XXX Harry