GRATITUDE WITH GRACE
Slit,—For over a year I have been receiving The Spectator. At first I accepted it simply as a blessing from heaven, like we had accepted the " bombs " with foodstuffs the British had dropped on us. For years I had not looked at a printed daily or weekly, and I had almost come to the point of hating my own language because it conveyed to me nothing but German lies. Then the fact of English being strictly pro- hibited (even the proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences, pub- Lsr.hed in English, had to turn to French or German ; a book I published in August, 1940, in English, stated in the preface that it was written in the " American " language—and they accepted it ; that is the fun of it) gradually lifted it, in our minds, to the state of a sacred language. Then came liberation, plenty of food and, we hoped, books and papers. Had not the Germans overwhelmed us with theirs? And would not the English do the same?
Well, they did not, and we might have known they would not. We were well aware of their mad modesty, their wish to let people shift for themselves, their regard for other people's feeling. We had greatly admired these excellent qualities in South Africa, but we did nol want them exercised on our own behalf. We had been poisoned with German war propaganda for five years, and what we required was a stiff dose of an antidote in the shape of good, all-round, unsparing, shameless Allied propaganda, with a good many barefaced lies. We had not counted on the food shortage being immediately relieved. That carried no dis- appointment with it. But we had counted on books, real English books, light in hand, on rough paper, dal f joined to the i, simple binding, with- out elaborate decorations—you know all the rest.
And in that dearth came the first Spectator. It has continued ever since. It was a great boon, and I am most grateful to whomsoever paid for the subscription. I read it from cover to cover every week, carrying it with me to read at odd moments. I even enjoy reviews of books, theatres and films I never read or see, some of the letters, most of the articles and all news of the week, Janus and Nicolson. But this ought to stop. I have no longer an excuse to accept this. I can pay my subscription at a bookseller's. I know they need it in Germany. We need no re-education here. We feel thoroughly uncontinental, and we abhor the name of Europe, which is tantamount to Germany and German- occupied land.
There is one thing I wish to add. I read of bookshops in this country full of American books and no English. I have no doubt the writer was correct. But this I want to say that the English were the first to help us with scientific literature, especially periodicals (even more im- portant than books). In some cases they sent us all the back volumes, from 5940 onward, although we had no sterling to pay for them, in July, 5945: With my heartfelt thanks to my unknown benefactor, and to you as the editor of all these good things.—Very sincerely yours,
N. H. SWELLENGREREL.
Instituut voor Tropische Hygiene, Amsterdam.
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