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| Lord Beaverbrook |
I was summoned by Beaverbrook yesterday. He was in bed, bandaged, depressed, having been told by the doctor in the morning that he had septic poisoning. This results from an operation he has had for some unspecified (at least to me) condition. Of course he has had to resign as Minister of Information and I am de facto holding the fort. I said that I would go if he did, fearing the terrible politicking which afflicts every aspect of governmental work. It is all about personal status and prestige, so it seems to me. Any good achieved seems more or less accidental, arising because it happens to be useful to one of the actors in the drama. I doubt that I could contrive a plot from this experience which anybody would find credible. But I may try one of these days. Somebody once told me that "everything is material", and they were right.
When Lady B. and Needham, B's Secretary at the Ministry, had left the room, he began to smoke and to talk intimately, and said: "You know, Arnold, my life has been all crises. I was worth 5 millions when I was 27. And now this is a new crisis and it is the worst." However, he cheered up.
Bonar Law came in and was very courteous and cautious to me. He said that his sister had been a very great and constant admirer of mine, but since "The Pretty Lady" she had done with me. Quite why she should have been so upset I felt it inopportune to enquire. In any case, I am unconcerned. It seems to me that "Pretty Lady" is rather tame by current standards. The sensual appeal is now really marked everywhere, in both speech and action, on the stage. Adultery everywhere pictured as desirable, and copulation generally ditto. Actresses play courtesan parts (small ones, often without words but with gestures) with gusto. I suppose in years to come when historians are writing about our times they will see the slackening of morals as a consequence of the war.
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