PLANNED ENVIRONMENT THERAPY TRUST ARCHIVE AND STUDY CENTRE CHURCH LANE, TODDINGTON, near CHELTENHAM, GLOS. GL54 5DQ, UK. Email: archive@pettarchiv.org.uk Transcription and Typing by Maureen Ward Web authoring by Craig Fees COLLECTION: Q-CAMPS ARCHIVES SA/Q/HM 12.1.7 Correspondence Primarily From Marjorie Franklin [MEF] to David Wills [WDW] 6.10.1936-30.11.1936 Note: Marjorie Franklin's handwriting is sometimes very difficult to decipher. The transcriptions are done with care, but with important points or for purposes of quotation the reader would be well advised to consult the originals. Where we have not been able to make a transcription at all we have enclosed the material between square brackets - e.g., "[ ]". We have not yet transcribed typed letters. Names of clients have been changed. ........................................................................................................................................................................................ SA/Q/HM 12.1.7 Letter MEF/WDW 6/X/36 Dear D.W. Rich kept his appointment with me today though the 40 minutes I could spare him was not as long as he wanted. Still he got a good deal in, I hope. He saw Dr. Gray this morning. Says about yesterday that he has never cycled in London before & it took him longer than he expected. Also that cycle was lent by Jim. He asked me to tell you what he said. This would take too long & probably not really meet his wishes. I said I would say enough to make it easier for him to talk to you. I also said, about the Perry incident, that I did not think your anger was likely to be lasting or that he need be afraid to return on account of it. He made one point over your treatment of that (assuming that his version of it is correct), viz . that the economic loss is not much compared either with the pilfering or the damage to the car. He says he overheard you saying about him, "He gets on my nerves", and that infuriated him. Oh, about the abusive letters to the S.O.S. He says most were written before he came to Q, though he did write again about 2 months ago. He wants you to know his side of the story which concerns their reception of him when he was at his most down & out tramping period. Says they turned him out at midnight & told him he was just lazy & could get work if he tried. He had not realised the London hostel would be an S.O.S. one. He "absolutely hates" that man. (It was not Payton, I think). He is full of grumbles but I think if the one point about his having enough oil for his lamp could possibly be managed so that he could read after dark, the air would be clearer for everybody all round! I think that a good deal of latent anger with society in general & about his own disabilities in particular are coming out & he is focussing them on the small grumbles & the discomforts & economics & that in some ways he is more of a person who can be treated with good results at the camp than before - if he can be tolerated & stays voluntarily. And is really as much so as many of the others. His talking against it will not be lessened if he leaves! I asked him directly if there was no one at the camp he liked, & he said he liked Minton. But when I suggested his talking to him more he asked me to tell you what he had been telling me. I could perhaps usefully say more but as regards immediate treatment would just suggest that before you leave tomorrow morning - if he has returned which is not quite certain. he may not come back till Wednesday - you spend about 3 minutes with him out of hearing of the others to say rather cordially that you had heard from me. That I had told you that he had asked me to write to you about his interview but that I hadn't had time to do more than mention the two points I had promised (S.O.S. & lamp oil) & thought it better for him to tell you what he wants to. "We must have another talk about things some time when I'm in less of a hurry." I would like him to know that I didn't report everything although asked - also it would be doing things for him he should do for himself. About the muddle over place of finance meeting - I've told Mrs. Grey & Evans that it is at Dr. Glaister's, so you needn't send telegraphic corrections! Ruth & your action has given all of us (to be accurate will give, but only Glaister & I have heard yet) renewed courage & hope. I had more nearly lost courage than I had since the start. Thank you. Yrs. MEF Typed part letter (p.3) with manuscript notes. for several reasons but may be inevitable. Concert, sounds good. I should think Ipswich the most hopeful. I wish I could do more, but I seem to have dried up for the time being as far as the power of interesting others is concerned. I am rather curious to know who the other Jewish member referred to in the notes on R.W. is. My brother would like to know about his goat and to have the bill sent to him when it is bought. I hope you have got into direct contact (by telephone, letters are no use) with Dr. Carroll to confirm arrangements for meeting on 8th, and the address. Agenda I cannot complete this as I don't know what other people concerned want on it, and chiefly because I have not had a draft of the minutes of the July meeting and forget it. The following items should be included, however: Apologies Minutes of last meeting Arising out of the minutes Land (Statement by Mr. Thomson) Camp Chief's report Proposals for a Constitution for the internal government of Hawkspur Camp a) from the majority of the members and staff b) amendments or alternative proposals (if any) I promised R.W. that his thing will still be considered if he sends it in to me as promised - he sends it & has returned. Names of Officers elected by the Campers. Student Helpers: Report of discussion meeting at the camp. Curriculum and syllabus (lectures, reading, discussion, study leave) Resignation of Mr. McDonald and appointment of successor. Report of Selection & Training Sub-Committee I.S.T.D. Methods of obtaining new members Finance Financial Statements & lists of contributors from Asst. Hon. Treasurer for July and August. Financial Sub-committee Confirmation or amendment to minutes. Report of meetings in August and September Revised Budget Additional member (proposed by Mr. Rutter)? Mrs. Maclean Mrs. Grey Proposed meetings and entertainments Report of F.of Q.C. Correspondence Other business Date and place of next meetings. Add - Staff Quarters Perhaps some of these things could be in our hands first, if it isn't asking too much of the secretariat. Sudden haste as our only post - a car to the nearest p.o. - is just starting. Yrs, MEF Carboned note re: Q Camps Committee headed W.D.W., D.F.M., W.S. : Appointment of Mrs. Wills as Hon. Appeal Secretary : Details of donation of £50 from Mrs. Gould and others Note MEF/WDW 5/XI/36 Dear David Would you like Collins to be seen by Carroll next Thursday, supposing the vacancy on which I took an option a fortnight ago is not required for a new applicant? Collins would come up for discussion in due course in any case & it seems as if his case may in time raise problems, possibly affecting his remaining. So far no one on the committee has seen him psychiatrically. I shall need to have an answer by at latest first post Monday as on Monday if I have not filled the vacancy I must cancel it. I am sorry I shall not arrive before the tail end of the finance committee. Mr. Sowerby will be there after all. Yrs. sincerely M.E. Franklin Note 5/XI/36 James Kent As Dr. Carroll has not yet been able to deal with this I got the notes read to me on the telephone & on the strength of this report have authorised his being admitted to the camp to see how he gets on. I have informed Miss Perfect of this & she would like you, if you will, to address the letter about coming down to him but send it under cover of one to her. She would like him to go down either Monday or Tuesday if convenient & will see about his kit in the intervening time. These notes were taken down from the telephone. You will get them in neat form in due course from I.S.T.D. From the notes you will see that he is diagnosed as suffering from attacks of anxiety. I would suggest, if I may, that he does not sleep adjacent to Collins. As regards his physical condition - no one considers that he has any heart lesion. I have asked for a full medical report & descripton of the treatment he has had from the Westminster Hospital & before he has been long at the camp, & unless some other opinion has been given by Dr. Carroll, would advise his seeing Dr. Weller with all the notes in order to know if he should drink medicine or not. Dr. Edwards thinks he should smoke less. Apparently[?] long residence at the Westminster Hospital has left him with decayed teeth. MEF Later Dr. Carroll recommends for admission. He is to have mild doses of bromide, as advised by Dr. Edwards (per Dr. Weller, I presume) Carroll told Mrs Obermeyer there is money for 4 months only. (Enclosed pencilled notes) James Kent (Seen on Tuesday Nov. 3rd 1936) Dr. Edwards (physical) Symp of [ ] Nicotine marks + + Dental decay & acne We suggest, sedation, dental attention & reduction of tobacco consumption. --- Dr. James (psychiatric) I have a rapid exam of him. He has quite obvious anxious attacks with tachycardia[?] & palpitations. His condition has not been improved by thyroidectomy & he must keep up his iodine, or better in my opinion small doses of thyroid gland substance. He is capable of great improvement & I should like to see him given a chance of the camp & freed from hospital atmosphere. Intelligence not high, but say 85 - No [ ] taking is possible today anyway (2 attacks) the outstanding feature & the [ ] is on about obsessive work. Miss Drinkwater (Mental test) C.A. 23 M.A. 13 yrs. 8 months I.Q. 85 (C.A. taken as 16 yrs) 98 ( " " " 14 " ) He was tested on S. ... of B.S. test General intelligence he is below average but he is just within the average group of [ ] [ ] he should be fit for some type of semi-skilled or unskilled work. General remarks He looked puffed & slightly ill at ease during tests. Invariably[?] gives a wrong answer first & then corrects himself & gives the right answer. In a few instances this lowered his score. There was, however, a very definite breakdown after the 14. yr. old test & he succeeded in no test above this level. Letter MEF/WDW 6/XI/36 Dear David The best solution that I can think of is for me to announce my resignation from the secretaryship at the next committee & offer to carry on, as a maximum period, till the end of February - 3 months from the official resignation - but expressing a strong hope that I shall not have to do that. It is going to be a great strain to do this work "under notice" & I do very much hope that I shall not have to undergo it. In addition to this personal factor it is inevitable that the work, during that period, will be less well done & that an interim without the cordial relationship which should prevail between the staff & the secretary will be a bad thing for Q. It is not the business of a retiring employee who has been a failure to nominate a successor & I shall make no suggestion at all. If you will suggest someone who would take over the work during my December holiday it would be a help & I would ask him or her now to do so without saying anything about later on, but it might enable the committee to release me earlier. The secretaryship of the S & T sub-committee presents greater difficulties as I doubt if Dr. Glaister would take it on, supposing the amount of work to increase as it should. Yet it is this work which (besides, in the past, interesting me most) if it is to be done properly implies the closest touch with the camp & I don't feel I can carry it on much longer. Do you know anyone? I should like you to meet Mrs. Hardcastle (the wife of Dr. Noel Hardcastle) who has just retired from being almoner at Greys. She is becoming increasingly interested in Q & I think might soon be approached as a possible member of our committee. She is a psychologist. She would do the work I have mentioned very much better than myself. Our interview on Tuesday revealed a depth of resentment on your part & extending over a length of time which came as a shock. I was exceedingly anxious not to act hostilely, but have never done a great deal of thinking about it. I think I have straightened things in my own mind. Some of your criticism was deserved, with regard to others I may one day give my own point of view. I will just say that you are not the only person who is worried by the small number of applicants, especially as compared with the applications that came before there was any propaganda for members & before we were ready to receive them, & also by the departures from the camp - though I think these have been confined to people we wanted to leave and ought not to have come. Anxiety sometimes makes one hypercritical. I see no reason at present for me to leave the committee. Yrs. sincerely M.E. Franklin P.S. Is there any possibility of a visit being paid to Mr. Burt, probation Officer in Durham, who wrote about two applicants on April 17th & more recently has not replied to letters? Or Mr. Kitsun in Bristol. I have just had a letter from the organiser, Care Department, Central Association for Mental Welfare asking if we could have a talk together as "we have so many young fellows who are not defective & who seem to me to come within your type of people". We are lunching together Monday. In the ordinary way, & unless instructed to the contrary, I shall during the next few weeks be devoting part of my time to following up contacts that might lead to members. This may involve visits to the camp from various people not all of whom are like Mr. Shaw's Dr. Squires & able at a short visit to see a great deal below the surface. (1) May I take it that visitors will be welcome after Wednesday? (2) Is there any preference as regards times of the day or days of the week? (Some will only be able to manage weekends. If they can manage a week day is it better?) (3) I take it that you prefer to be given a name & address & then invite a person down & make arrangements. Where this makes an additional complication & it seems to me desirable to fix a visit straight away & notify you that so & so will be coming at - on - do you permit this to be done? If you do, a rather full answer to question 2 would tend to diminish inconvenience. Please do not assume from the foregoing that I am planning an influx of swarms of visitors. (4) Did you intend to leave the plan of the site with me? If not where do you wish it sent? (5) I have marked this letter personal (& some others lately) as I am not sure how you arrange things when you are away. Are letters opened by whoever's in charge? Letter MEF/WDW 8/XI/36 Dear D.W. I am sorry that my article has caused Mr. Shaw to withdraw his offer to pay for a report. Probably if you put the matter to him he will reconsider it. I merely sent him one copy of pamphlet & revised leaflet with the minutes as I did to each of the committee, & without comment. You will let me have his letter back, won't you, as there are points in it I want for reference. Yrs. sincerely M.E. Franklin. Note MEF 10/XI/36 This letter (N.C.M.H.) is sent for your information. Please show it to Dr. Glaister & let me have it back early next week. An entirely unexpected & spontaneous bouquet from a committee comprising such imposing names does not look as if we were entirely disreputable. My mother knew nothing about it & is generally an absentee member. MEF The Duke of Kent is rather active on it - gave a presidential address. Typed & manuscript note MEF/WDW 10/11/36 : Re: enclosed notice of resignation It would be misleading to consider that I am prepared to work blindly or without the power to criticise or to have my criticism treated as being sympathetic & combined with good will. ( Enclosed typed & manuscript notice of resignation as Hon. Sec. The reason for my resignation is that Mr. Wills finds he is unable to carry on his work happily in association with myself. There is no one else at the present time who can take his place or with whom I am prepared to make an attempt to work. I hope you will give him all the backing in your power. Letter MEF/WDW 11/XI/36 Mr. Trusler mentioned Champion Russell as his chief friend & councillor & a source of financial aid for cases like the enclosed. He went to Uganda in August & is not expected back till February. Dear D.W. Mr. Trusler lunched with me today & I urged him to get into touch with you both to see the camp & to talk over with you one or two special cases who sound rather suitable (more so than enclosed). He struck me as the best type of young probation officer & has just got his first appointment after finishing the Home Office course. Heard of us through Mr. Minn. I have sent the original notes to Carroll & send you Mr. T's only carbon copy so that you should not have to work on urgent copy, or copy such long notes at all unless he is coming. If he comes notes will be required, under our present system, by Glaister & myself. If he is turned down the notes should be returned to T. Please let me know whether, from the notes, you feel inclined to give him a trial if Carroll recommends it? Mr. T. thinks a good deal of the recent law breaking was due to destitution & that he preferred prison to the workhouse. He is without a settlement. The Borstal was an Irish one & T. speaks of it as probably not good. Supplementary notes . Early history of very severe thrashings (for truancy) by the father often followed by another one from the elder brother - once hit back w. a stick, & then prosecuted. Never on probation. Instead of letting me know better to communicate direct with Carroll if you don't want this man on the notes alone. May I offer you my best wishes for the Exeter meeting which is the most important Q has yet held? I hope you will have a triumphant success & bring both money, friends & members. My father's (or rather your) letter appears in Daily Telegraph today. MEF Typed letter MEF/WDW 14/11/1936 : Antagonism between MEF and WDW : Proposed ways of dealing with this. : General news re: camp members I am startled to find that I have been guilty, absent- mindedly, of scribbling on your letters instead of putting my notes on separate sheets. If a clerk in my employ did that I should be furious but, unless she were otherwise slack & inefficient, I think I should not sack her without telling her of it at least once. Letter MEF/WDW 16/IX/36 Monday Dear David, I should like to have your opinion on this as a possible basis for discussion. I have not discussed it with anyone or carefully considered it myself so that I do not feel bound to adhere to it yet as my own view, but put it forward as a possible constructive basis - obviously needing modification. If we could produce anything on an agreed basis, signed by both, it would be an advance towards a working arrangement. I sent to Dan on Friday a letter from Dr. Carroll about Sanders for urgent copying asking to have it back by Monday as he is to be seen tomorrow. I also sent a note about Kent &, from the letter this morning, it appears that Dan thought both were Kent - or it has been overlooked among the other things in his envelope to me. Yrs. sincerely M.E. Franklin A late caller has made me miss the post, but in this case it was both a good excuse & justified as I really would like you to see what you think of him. He is returning to Cornwall Saturday but may be up again soon. I suggest deferring interview till we know more or till you have met him. He has donated 1. I am writing to Parsons to verify his statement & if it is true I conclude it would be all right for him to come down when you are there to chaperone him? He says he will let us see what he will write or say. He is ex-industrial school, ex-Borstal & ex-prison & says he entered crime because it was the family business but boasts of having eschewed the race course & gambling of his associates for the more reputable career of burglar. I enclose a few M.W. leaflets & have the rest to give you Sunday. John Collins's election very interesting. I wonder if it was traumatic to Hubert at all, as seemed to be anticipated. My father telephoned that 3 sums of £5 have come in since his appeal letters received by people this week. MEF Note MEF 17/XI/36 I will expect you Wymering Mans. at 3 p.m. Sunday if that is convenient. Mrs. Grey said she has never heard you so good as at Exeter. I didn't want you to take time over the letter because I did not want you to try to answer it at all. Still there are things in your reply I am glad to have had said. I am particularly interested in what you tell me about your methods. I was rather afraid that your abstaining from taking notice of deficiencies in others might lead to an explosion later on. You have, of course, given on other occasions more than enough tribute to me. You sounded & sound in your letters & interviews just passed, more scathing about my motives & present & future usefulness than you now remember. That's why I started blowing my own trumpet. The uncomfortable sense of obligation is a nuisance both sides & all round! (I mean I don't like people feeling it any more than they like it). But surely it's mutual as far as you are concerned - or really the balance is greatly on the side of your giving more, even as to actual £.s.d. besides everything else. I hope to fly to Budapest - wh. doesn't look as if Q had deflated me too much! You are right that I am an amateur in the sort of job I'm trying to do in working with you & in secretarial work at all. That may account for mistakes & also lack of confidence when I may sometimes be right! I don't expect that side of my work to go on very long, but there still does seem a need for it. I don't mean that Thomson's resignation was directly due to you. But he really failed to understand certain things & I wish he had seen some members when he went down to you with them. Your letter has made things seem much easier, but I don't think I had better take time now to answer fully. I send the draft I prepared last night, although it looks as if we may not have to call in a sub-committee to help a working arrangement. I would not suggest correspondence about it, unless you feel like it, as we can talk it over on Sunday. Camp Chief's report I think more important in your files, but at some later date if missing one does not re-appear we can make another copy. The missing Sanders letter was from Curran after he saw him again, following his talk with me, and was encouraging. Anxious to come, will pay 15/- a week. Told that it might lead to work but not promise at all. He is as much a member as helper, since he was a good deal disturbed by the physical disease. Letter not v. important but I would have liked Dr. Glaister to have had it. I'll tell you sometime what was wrong about those two cases. I was surprised myself at my anger till I realised that I had not consciously felt angry at what you had said or written to me! It seems a very small matter now, too small to write about. I don't like notes on my letters (I mean written on them) any more than you do! I didn't much like the F. of Q.C. one on the Mental Hygiene letter, but it was in the corner & in pencil. I like still less yours, in ink, right under the signature. Especially as it took me 5 minutes hard staring to read it. Sometime I have to devise a way of stopping Keeling, who has already resigned & resignation accepted, sending thousands of letters a day to the office, with a hundred requests for information in each. At least that is my impression of Mrs. Grey on the telephone, but I never was good at figures. She added a useful suggestion, however. Do you dislike him? I mean because of the delay in getting his commission estimated. If you do it is not material. Carroll is another of your admirers - & a better judge. MEF I can almost see those two women on your committee, but I think I know two male counterparts - fortunately I'm not an official on the committee concerned - although perhaps one is too lovable a person to be a counterpart. The other is certainly not lovable! Note MEF/WDW 17/XI/36 Dear D.W. Dr. Glaister recommends Sanders for admission, but forgot to get him to fill up the forms so perhaps you would do that when he comes. He can pay 15/- a week. Address Maida Vale Hospital, W.9. He seems a bit troubled at its not being a job & no doubt will bring that point up with you. He can come any time. Yrs. sincerely MEF Note MEF/WDW 18/XI/36 Dear D.W. Nothing new about Grant. Dr. Curran mentioned him & that the N.C.S.S. (local branch) are still debating whether they will pay for him or not & corresponding with Dr. Curran & his almoner about it. The only thing I remember asking you was to write encouragingly after his application to say it was accepted & hoped he would come as soon as financial side arranged. Rather to alleviate the waiting time & keep him still willing to come. Yrs. sincerely MEF Letter MEF/WDW 19/IX/36 Dear D.W. Thanks for letter - Mr. Mark Benney, Treovis, Upton X, Callington, Cornwall, who wrote the book of wh. you sent a cutting & who describes himself as "journalist and ex-criminal" came to see me & has just left after an interesting talk. He gives me to understand that he is expert on criminology to the B.B.C., the Spectator & the New Statesman, that he broadcast on "sides of life" as an ex-criminal last night (the same time as a Grith Pioneer man!) & that Mr. Parsons of the B.B.C. suggested he should visit Q Camps & bring them into a projected lecture on methods of Criminal Reform. I made the usual reservation re. journalistic articles (location & letting me see it) & explained that I couldn't authorise him to visit the camp without your permission. I know you have consented to my doing so Part note MEF 20/XI/36 ] Have acknowledged & sent the little leaflet & said I was asking you to reply more fully. I abstained from sending the Mental Welfare pamphlet as probably unsuitable. MEF Note MEF/WDW 23/IX/36 Dear D.W. I enclose the organisation draft wh. you left behind. Dr. Glaister can get to a finance committee at my flat on Thursday 3rd punctually at 7.45, but not earlier, so he would be glad if the committee would start without him as otherwise it might not be over by 8.30. He would also like to know that Mrs. Grey & Sowerby are coming & that there will be enough people to hold the committee. I suppose you will also invite Mr. Evans in case he is unreliable & comes when he says he can't - especially as his message to me was not official. I have to get the agenda & minutes done next weekend, if not before. Please may I have any suggestions for either, especially first. I shall be sending p.c. reminders before then & conclude I need not remind the 3 resident members that the next Q Camps committee is 8.30 p.m. at 23 Wymering Mans on Thursday Dec. 3rd. S. & T. discussion at Dr. Carroll's at 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday Dec. 1st - Chief cases, Grant & Collins. Mrs. Grey propounds suggestion of a snap of the camp (a good one that doesn't include a recognisable portrait of a member) to be sent to contributors & friends as a Xmas card. You will be interested to hear that the engagement between Leonard Vear & Mary Glaister B.Sc. is announced. He has got a job as manager of Crafts in Manchester at 3 a week. Yrs. MEF Note MEF/WDW 24/XI/36 Dear D.W. Can you explain this from Reynolds? In fact how a newspaper reporter got to the camp at all without the written undertaking re: disclosure of location & submitting MSS to you or me? Don't Dan & Smith know about that? Money through my father today amounts to £52/13/- (including 25 from Lord Leverhulme) w. is additional to £24 I paid in on Saturday. More accurately the bank says I have paid in £77/15/- since Friday of which all except Mr. Benny's 1 is per G.L.F. Is the window dressing & unimportant things like that tidy enough to send or bring influential visitors, especially in regard to getting members & overcoming prejudice? I am leaving you to nurse both Norman & Paterson, but have a few nurselings of my own. As regards the former I would be anxious to discover wh. of the many hypotheses as to his coldness is correct. With regard to his unfriendliness to the I.S.T.D, it is worth noting that, although it may have delayed, it has not prevented the I.S.T.D. getting cases from a number of magistrates & probation officers & even his own special earl (Lord Faversham) speaking at the I.S.T.D. dinner. But it may be the cause of the seminars not being overcrowded. There are also a few other things of note there. Dictators are a nuisance! The annual meeting of the Big Brothers (to wh. I am invited by the Lord Mayor to reply to Mr. John Brown) at the Guild Hall is on 17th at 3.30 & I am asking if you & Ruth can go instead. Dr. G. says that Sanders wished to make it clear that he might leave at any time for a paid job if one offered & didn't want the Camp to think he was letting them down if he did so. G. thought this was quite straightforward & could be accepted but if you can form a good enough opinion of the prospect of finding a better job for him later on, after training, it would be better for him & for us if he stays. I had planned a busy evening over Q, but have fallen to the lure of a doubtless very light comedy at the Savoy for wh. the secretary of the hospital has given me tickets & am taking Ruth. Yrs. MEF I am really awfully bucked about the Howard League lunch - you will be following in the footsteps of cabinet ministers, chief magistrates & so on (they don't often get refusals) & are the first choice, according to the minutes, for the New Year programme. The last lunch (October) they had Sir Alexander Maxwell (Home Office) a criminal statistician. I shall hear more about it at the H.L. executive on Friday, so you will have accepted by then, won't you? Note MEF 25/XI/36 For urgent copying please, but omitting part after marked bit at end of the letter to Mrs. McGrath. It seems to have been a useful lunch, if the boy is not M.D. We shall get our routine before the Q[ ] [ ] [ ] a waiting list forms! I think it safest to be impersonal about the psychiatrists who examine a) to avoid selection, b) a feeling of dissatisfaction if neither Carroll or Glaister see them, c) to avoid either of these being written to or telephoned to personally. All these things have happened. I now say that if particulars are sent to me I will arrange for them to be "considered by our selection committee" which will involve a personal interview in London. The Mental Welfare article was an exception (in consultation w. Glaister about giving the names). The Howard League lunch on Wednesday is probably the last before yours. Do you think, to get an idea of the audience, you would like to change your mind & come as my guest? I suppose this would mean starting back for the camp about 2.45 or 3 p.m. instead of 1 a.m.! You will no doubt have heard of the [ ] thriller I took Ruth to, having been told by the donor of the tickets that it was "light comedy"! Yrs MEF I got into touch w. Dr. Carroll on Monday & he said he would at once explain that Sanders can leave for the Camp. Typed letter MEF/WDW 26/11/36 : Possible applicants : Financial details Letter MEF/WDW 27/XI/36 Dear D.W. Notepaper - I think we ought to keep Hill Hall Common & I like some of the types & I like the colour, but there seems to be too much variety in types & too much jumping about in arrangement. H.L. Lunch Of course it's all right & sensible to forego it under the circumstances. I hope you will have a weekend. anyway, you are not the next - Gerald [ ] speaks on Jan. 29th. Selection Committee - There is no secret about the membership & I used to speak of the arrangement just as you did, & still do sometimes. I've become more general as a rule lately for the various reasons mentioned & also because Carroll is seeing (for I.S.T.D. as well as Q) fewer cases personally than he did. I didn't want him to think, from copy of letter, that we had said that he would personally see him. Holidays . I shall be spending the weekend 5th - 6th or 7th at Forrest School & early the next week go abroad till probably the end of the month. I can have letters & reports about Q that are not urgent but shall not have a typewriter with me! Dr. Glaister will be pro.tem. convenor of S. & T. committee with Mrs. Obermeyer's help. Can you do anything else that may turn up, referring to him if you wish, or to anyone else of the committee? G.J.F.'s crop today is Geoffrey Montague £5/5/- N.M. Rothschild & Sons £10/10/- Greaves, Dreyfus & Co. £5/5/- £21 Yrs MEF It looks as if my father's efforts will carry us over the interim while the strengthened F. of Q.C. & its branches is maturing. Letter MEF/WDW 30/XI/36 Dear D.W. You asked me to tell you something about visitors (important ones) 1) Dr. Ruck of L.C.C. P.A.C. will be paying a surprise visit one day quite soon. (I asked him to avoid tomorrow & Thursday if possible) with a view to their using the camp (through C.A.M.W.) for a particular case & subsequently for others. Says it sounds suitable, but they never send anyone to a place they haven't seen. I regard this as a very important visitor indeed. I had some correspondence w. him about a year ago which he remembered & quoted! I appealed to him on the strength of a book he had written & his reply was that he had visited Grith Fyrd to inspect professionally, & a panegyric on that & its good effect on two neurotics he had sent "what do you need to start another canmp when G.F. do all that is required? Anyway why Q? G.F. men were calling it 'the Q camp for Queer people' & what about Q boats?" To show there was no ill will he enclosed 1, to give to Grith Fyrd & not Q! My reply was to the effect that as G.F. refused to take the kind of men Q was for, what were we to do about it? Anyway, I do very much hope he will strike lucky when he motors down. He will understand if things are really explained to him & may recognise Ron & Dan, anyway like to meet them. Could you tell the others, including students, about him in case you are away? 2) Please may I have the visit card of the probation officer from Tilbury who lunched with me - T --[sic] 3) Also Mr. Maurice Keyser's letter back. He is (besides a banker) Hon. Sec. of the Jewish Board of Guardians. Hence also most important to us re; members & payment for them. The Jewish community consider that they support their own poor & hence the J.B.G. (although entirely voluntary & working without a professional appeal secretary) corresponds to a P.A.C. body. If Wells came it would be through them. 4) What is the time of the finance committee? Sowerby can't come. Please notify Rutter, in case he can. 5) Arrangement for applicants . Enquiries until & including Dec. 8th & from Jan 1st onwards to me at Wimpole St. Dec. 9th - Dec. 31st to Dr. Glaister at Northumberland House, Green Lanes, N.4. 6) I am having all Q letters sent there (so marked on envelopes) & asking him to send the few that are not about applicants to you. May I please have them all when I return. Glaister, Shaw & Minton when they have locummed have also let me have carbons of their replies, but that is as you like. It makes it easier to take up the threads of correspondence if you do, of course. 7) Letters not marked Q will be sent (unless Wimpole Street muddle things) to Wymering Mansions & thence forwarded to me. They should have foreign postage. 8) Please offer any corrections you wish to minutes. I am asking Sowerby to correct financial items, but find I have a rather fainter recollection than usual of the committee generally & cannot find full notes, or didn't make them. I am leaving you to explain the items on agenda about contact betw. committee & camp - i.e. rota. Yrs. sincerely MEF Letter Stores Section, London & North East Railway/WDW Dec 18th 1936 : Quote for supply of crossing timbers.