Coaching

Thursday, February 10th., Royal Yacht Club, London.

Came to London yesterday. First good, clear frost of the winter. very sharp. Lunch at the Reform. Pinker came. Methuen joined us about alleged coming 'revolution' in price of novels. It seems that of the Council of the Publishers' Association, who had suggested it, only four published novels at all, and none published novels on any scale. Characteristic. We told him that the scheme of different prices would never work, and coached him as to what he should say at the grand meeting on Monday.

Sir Algernon Methuen Marshall Methuen, 1st Baronet (1856 – 1924), born Algernon Stedman, was an English publisher and teacher of Classics and French. He is best known for founding the publisher Methuen & Co. (later Methuen Publishing Ltd.).

Then to the W.A.R.C. offices. Difficulty with Lord X. as to my having put name of Queen Alexandra on posters for concert. I flatly disagreed with him, whereupon he said that I was logically right, and I drafted a letter for him to write to the Queen.

I hope you will allow me to place before your readers the pressing claims of the Wounded Allies Relief Committee, of which I have the honour to be Chairman. The original object of this Committee, which was inaugurated immediately on the outbreak of the war, was the placing of wounded Belgian soldiers in homes on the English sea-coast. The inevitable developments of this work soon showed themselves in the establishment of a register of the men's names, a post-office for such of their letters as could not be forwarded through ordinary channels, and later by the equipment of homes for the disabled. Nor does the Committee overlook the require- ments of the Belgian Army in the field, in the way of stores, motor-ambulances, and caravans fitted with hot baths and soup-kitchens. Very soon, moreover, it became apparent that Belgium was not the only ally with urgent needs. The sorely taxed medical resources of France and the typhus-ravaged cities of Serbia and Montenegro have in turn demanded attention—and have got it. The Committee now supports three hospitals in France, each treating well over a hundred cases weekly, and the French military authorities pay these institutions the compli- ment of sending to them the most severe cases. A typhoid hospital of a hundred beds is now being established at Kragnjevac, the headquarters of the Serbian Army, and, acting on the report of its own Sanitary Commission, the Committee will shortly despatch a typhus unit to Montenegro. In this rough outline of its activities I have not mentioned numerous and substantial money grants to various institutions for the wounded in Belgium and France and to the Serbian Red Cross. I trust, however, that I have given some notion of the far-reaching work of the Committee and of its interest to all those who regard the welfare of our allies as the natural concern of this, an Allied country which has not suffered invasion.

Letter to The Spectator dated May 15th., 1915

http://archive.spectator.co.uk/page/15th-may-1915/17

Additionally for February 10th., see 'A little licentiousness'

It contains a good idea - that of professional fornication for the love of god - and some excellent scenes. But it is notquite good enough, and much of its attraction depends on its extreme licentiousness. Indeed, you can see the author passing on from scene to scene, each exceeding the previous one in licentiousness, exactly in the manner of a mere bawdy book. I did not read by any means all the middle part of it. Still it is a book to examine.