"A SAD HISTORY"
" Janus " will read carefully what I wrote in The Sunday Times on April 27th he will realise that there was no need for me to quote a coroner's remark about "a sad history." I was criticising the coroner's observations about "most people." This surely was a generalisation. If "Janus" likes to call me uncharitable, he must ; but I think it was clear that I was not criticising Mrs. Woolf. My contention was that no one person must be judged, especially in these days, to be "more sensitive" than another ; and what the coroner was reported to have said about "most people" might easily lead some at least to commit suicide to show how much they feel and care. In the eyes of many who smile and say they are all right and "carry on," we can see how they are enduring appalling sufferings and often intense loneliness. This is not a time to say unkind things or see wrong motives, but surely a time to help one another, and this is what I was trying to do.—Yours faithfully, KATHLEEN HICKS. The Old Palace, Lincoln.
[" Janus" writes: Mrs. Hicks states that she was not criticising Mrs. Woolf. Mrs. Woolf was reported as saying "I cannot carry on." Mrs. Hicks wrote "Where shall we all be if we listen to, and sympathise with, this sort of I cannot carry on.' "1
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