Your letter turned up early this time, dashing across the Atlantic in the Berengaria at a dizzy speed. I gather that the reason for the irregular mails is that they are put into all sorts of boats & come across the final stage; some cross in 5 days, some in 10. The Yank mails are about the last thing on earth & are run on the same system. There are speedy boats crossing every week, so it's about time the NZ govt woke up & insisted on something a bit. It might mean a vote or two more for Coates at the next election. But then he is to be bumped out anyhow. I see old Guthrie has kicked the bucket, so I suppose you have had another scramble for the vacant chain, & that Coates has put in some ghastly dud ; or more likely is still thinking it over & can't find anyone bad enough for the job, his party presents such a galaxy of stupidities. I was sorry to read of your singular way of having a bath, but I trust you are jakealoo now; fair dinkum you're a distressful sort of person. No doubt you needed a good rest after struggling so hard to get Keithles off your hands, but I dare say you only had to ask for it to get it, & that there was no need to go to such hectic measures. Still I suppose you know your own business best, & it is not for me to give you advice on the conduct of life. As for Ern, well I always reckoned he was a bit weak in the brain, & it was a perpetual wonder to me, & remains so, that he didn't fall all over himself & the country long ago; I don't reckon any bloke has a right to walk all over N.Z. a country with feet like that. A damper to himself & all his companions. Of course it's one way of getting your name into the papers but my advice to Ern is if he must get publicity to follow my ex- ample & become a great man. It's slower but less painful in the end; at least physically; of course the mental strain varies for different people. Harold Holt on reading the scare paragraph in the paper describing the business seemed a bit worried about the reputation the V.U.C. Tramping Club must be getting for itself what with search parties & doctors & birds like Ern wandering about; but he is a bit naive yet & doesn't realise that it is the character of all human institu- tions to degenerate & even to go to the deminition bow-wows. With the men who made the thing scattered all over the world, it's all you can expect. Still no doubt Ern enjoyed the notoriety & the psych-lab. held a new thrill for the flappers for a few days. I hear a couple of other blokes got lost in the Tararuas about the same time; seems to have been a hard time for trampers lately. Some of them seem to have such darn little sense, even apart from exceptional ec- centrics like old Sammy. Well, well, you've got to look at it philosophically, I suppose. Blast Ern & his blooming thesis, while I am on the subject of weak intellects. I don't know whether I shall get his article abstracted for this Also it seems a bit drastic as a way of getting rid of your swag. Why not say frankly you're fed up with carrying it & load it on to some other poor cow? mail. It seems pretty fair bunk, anyhow, the Yank who wrote it seeming to be a pretty complete victim to propa- ganda himself. Most Yanks seem to be.

Both of you seem to have got rather wide of what my thesis is — it is on neither on Jamaica or New Foundland, or rather on both of them & a lot more, being a study of Colonial Governor's Instructions 1786–1854 as an investigation into British colonial policy from the loss of the old Empire to the appearance of Responsible Government. It is about the whole blooming empire, including N.Z. Hong Kong, & the niggers of Ashantee (I believe, but I haven't come to them yet) You had better file this for reference; or somebody will be asking you some body day & you will get into a fierce argu- ment about it. Not that I suppose it will convey much to anyone, but it sounds all right. I am glad to hear that Stephen is getting a bit more mobile on his pins. Also thank you for the articles. Daddy mentions remitting for Tchekov; you'd better work out how much I owe you for various things, wedding-present etc before sending any cash home. It's very pleasing to read that Frannie is winning cripes! has won all hearts. You might tell her to start on mine mine next. That I think concludes my notes on your letter.

The summer seems to be coming along with great strides now; the weather is warm, quite frequently sunny; I have discarded my overcoat & hat for quite three weeks (luckily I am not in Manchester); the sun comes in the window in the morning & it doesn't get dark till ½ past 9 at night. The dead-beats emerge from their holes & sun, themselves in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where I pass them every morning, a melancholy sight, & an amiable witness to the glory & might of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The opera is in full swing, there are two or three new plays coming on, the world is full of very pleasant people, the Republic of learning is full of laughter & song & tolerance & sweetness & light, & altogether life is not so bad. I have been able to buy a couple of books & am going down (or up) to the Cotswolds next weekend with Lorrie & perhaps Harold, being Whit- sun. Last Sunday D & I hopped on our faithful bikes (mine beginning to groan a bit as I go up hills) & rode down into Surrey, which in the part we were in is much like Kent, & indeed just over the border. It's not bad to get down a side road into a lane & turn out one's trusty swag to get at the grub & then lie under a hedge in the sun; the trouble is that the country is so thickly popu- lated that someone always comes ambling past in best Sunday clothes swinging a walking-stick or pushing a pram or taking the wife for a walk. You can't really get away from people. Still as far as it goes it's all right. We struck some more decent avenues & villages & got a good tea for a bob a/head at the Queen's Head, in the picturesque & perhaps historic village of Nutfield. Then we did a good 20 miles back to London in two hours, which wasn't bad considering the amount of traffic on the roads th & that we had to push up two long hills. You can go a good way on these roads without feeling tired. We didn't start till 11 & had a long loaf after lunch & yet we did 50 miles before dark. No altercations with cops this time.

The Sunday before we rode to Richmond & at the Bridge hired a boat for the day in conjunction with McGrath & a couple of Sydney architect cobbers of his. We rowed away up & away down again with considerable energy & mutual good advice, leaving one another on the bank at intervals (having got out to look over a fence to see what was on the other side) to walk a mile or so. So what with riding, walking & pulling it was a day not devoid of interest or exer- cise. It would be a great scheme to have a house on the river a few miles up from Richmond; we saw some good gardens with lawns coming down to the water & the family punt moored alongside. If I had cash that's where I live in London for the weekends in & in summer, with a bright little flat in the middle of things for the rest of the year. Still I suppose the river gets pretty crowded too later on — it's a pity some philanthropist can't devise a painless scheme for getting rid of about half the population at one go & cut down the birthrate for the other half. Then the remainder could lead a decent sensible happy life, & not be worried by the ceaseless intervention of their fellows in the view. You can hire camping boats; & I shouldn't mind spending a fortnight or so with a sleeping-bag & a Primas & a few books meandering round the upper reaches of the river. We are thinking of arranging a river picnic for the a our select seminar- group now; I mean the little crowd that exploits the hospitality of one another. We had a very cheerful evening at the girls' flat a week or so ago; & next Saturday de Keivriel does the host. Time after that we exploit the Rosses, when the wheel will have come full circle & it will be our turn again, unless the term comes to an end before that.

As for the opera, I have been to Fidelio & Der Rozenkavalier, of which I transmit the programmes. Fidelio has some great moments in it, but a lot of it is spoken, & in German that is not too comprehen- sible. The setting was not as gloomy as it looks in the programme ; the dungeon was suitably mouldy, but the prison-precincts generally were cheerful & hygienic & well-lighted. Der Rosenkavalier is a first rate thing, & I must see it again next year; full of col- our & movement & tunes & cheerfulness ; some glorious concerted singing in the last act, particularly a trio for three women's voices, & a joyous waltz ; a pleas- ant change in the way of a musical comedy. Beg pardon, comic opera. Op Or perhaps that's hardly the designation either. Anyhow it's good stuff. They have got through their orgy of German opera now & are bagging into Italian. Aida & Otello I must see, but I don't know what else. It will be a curse if if they do anything decent while I am away in July. I haven't been to any plays lately; but Ross & I are going to the Constant Nymph tomorrow night (it was one of the things I meant to go to first when I got here) & N. Playfair is putting on a Vincent Crummles entertainment at the Lyric this week. The Irish Players are doing another play of Sean O'Casey's & Riders to the Sea at the same time, & I believe there are one or two other things worth going to. I don't suppose I shall be reading much for a week or so. That bird Marais' book on N.Z. is out. I got a copy on appro from Bumpus but I haven't looked at it yet. The pages aren't cut, either, curse it. I don't think it's as good as my book would have been though; but of course that's asking a lot of a bloke.

Which reminds me. I bowled into Laski's to meet a cove L said might give me a job some day, going out to Australia as govt archivist. He didn't turn up, but I had some very informative conversation with Laski, who had just finished reading my thesis. He said Why don't you publish it? I said it wasn't good enough & wanting wanted revising etc.; but he reck- oned it was good stuff & told me to send it across to a bloke called Professor I.B. Fay, Smith College, in the States, who ran a series for which this was just the right length; my thing he said was a prize compared to the stuff they he generally published. I said I would, but was a bit apprehensive of to treat Newton in the matter, he being my Director of Studies & a bit of a stickler for etiquette. However he was in a very beaming temper at my interview yesterday afternoon, & I broached the matter which he received quite favourably. So as Laski told me to use his name the blooming thing has a chance of being published yet, which will mean a bit of publicity, & leg up for a job, I hope. I believe you get about 50 free copies to spray around. Still we shall see. Newton reckons I could get a job easy as pie in the States when I have finished here, but I don't know that that's abso- lutely accurate. I wouldn't mind putting in a couple of years, though. However that's a good way off yet. Getting the thesis published separately, if it is published, will be better than having it stuck in the Proceedings of the N.Z. Institute, which was my original ambition. Well, well, N.Z. never knows what it has lost till it's too late.

Harold Holt turned up a ten days ago from the States, looking much the same as usual, & informing me I hadn't changed a bit, which ought to cheer you, unless you expected me to have improved a great deal. He put in about a year working in California as a lumber hand & then roamed over the country by a roundabout way working East, acquiring a knowledge of Chicago & other modern efficient godless & therefore doomed cities on the way. He is now looking at the sights here & making up his mind what to do next. He is an excellent fellow & a very reliable tramper with a fund of resource in need of which the club apparently stands badly in need at the present time; but not having a great fund of general ideas & not being a reader he is rather a heavy weight to entertain. However it was very pleasant to see his genial mug come through the gate at Waterloo, where I went on the off-chance of meeting him. He cherishes an immense admiration for Alan, having worked in the same office with him, & apparently having an artistic soul. One or two of the cartoons you sent over weren't bad; the University debate one & some of the drawings in the marriage one were quite good. What he wants to do now I should think is to come over here for another spell & do himself properly. Unless he too has fallen by the wayside & been picked up by some girl.

I see that the N.Z. govt, going mad as usual at the mere mention of the word Communist, has banned Communist literature. I have a jolly good mind to send out a parcel of the stuff to Daddy, just to get a good old row going. But I suppose he would deliver it up to the cops like a lamb & pay a good stiff fine & a bit more to keep his name out of the papers. God! that govt does make me sick. As for the fools here, they blow open & drill open safes & God knows what & kick up enough to start another war, & publish a white paper to show what horrible inroads Communist propaganda is making on the heart of the Empire, & lo! & behold! it boils down to the drunken adventures of three or four beery sailors on a Rus Soviet line of steamers who get sacked for refusing to do their work. Pathetic nonsense. No one doubts the existence of stupid Commun- ist tomfoolery, but the stupid — (fill in to taste) tomfoolery of this govt is a thing that which must be seen at close quarters to be believed. Jinx Jix seems to be an amiable muddle-headed unbalanced scaremonger, & Birkenhead a ferocious & clever blackguard; & these are the people who run their party. Baldwin & Steel-Maitland were against the I.O. Bill; but the thing goes merrily through with changing mechanical majorities, in hardly so fatuous a shape as it first appeared, but still stupid & vicious enough. If they'd only get on t with something that really needed doing! And here you get NZ & Canada rushing in & making fools of themselves — why in blazes can't they get on with the business of the world? However perhaps that's a bit too much to ask of any fool that has a chance to mark time & make a stupid noise. It is very depressing though.

On this gloomy note I shall close. Give my love to Auntie, who I hope is bearing up bravely & all other aunts & relatives, nephews, nieces, grand- daughters & godsons etc. I trust Auntie Win is enjoy- ing her usual health & resilient spirits. I don't think I have any message for Frannie this time.