My dear Miss Merriman:
My last letter brought my story up to Tuesday night, 10/26.
Before I continue my narrative let me give you my tentative itinerary.
Paris -- Nov. 1-6. To Berlin via Cologne, [Brussels], and Amsterdam. If possible I want to go on to Warsaw and from there to Vienna and Leipzig. I shall try to reach Geneva about Nov. 16. I shall try to get to Turin and possibly Rome for a day or two. I have made reservation for N.Y. on the SS Aquitania sailing from Cherbourg Dec. 4 -- due N.Y. 10 or 11.
I should like to stay longer at Geneva, but I do not believe I would be justified in so doing. The detailed reasons for my decision to make such a hasty trip through Germany and Austria and possibly also Poland and Czechoslovakia I shall explain when I return. Sufficient now to say that only the most pressing arguments of influential people here are responsible -- the argument in brief that 10,000,000 people may die this winter in those countries if the weather should be severe and if America aid should slacken. My friends urge that even the most hasty visit will enable me better to help prevent this later tragedy.
In the matter of finance. I shall probably need an additional $200 to get home. Please cable a draft for this amount to Geneva c/o Thomas Cook and Co. In case you, the Association, should be so straightened that there is not this amount to spare, have Miss Martin take that much from my personal account. She has a blank check which might be used. Please cable the draft as soon as you receive this, because I shall almost certainly need it before the third or fourth week in November. My Aquitania fare 2nd class is to be 35£ or about $125.
Wednesday I spent my morning at various consulates, etc. Before lunch I called on Miss [Fry], general sec'y of the Friends Relief organization in Europe. She almost pathetically pleaded that I go to Central Europe. She has offered to be of every assistance she can. She knows the Scattergoods of Philadelphia very well.
I had lunch with Miss Alexander who is here in the London School of Economics.
I had dinner at Lady Courtney's of [Penwith], a close friend of Miss Addams. In introducing me to the others she said I came with a note from Miss Addams, whose "suggestion is always a command." The others were Sir George Paish and Lady Paish and two men in London business and banking circles.
Today (Thursday) I went to the German Embassy, where I was promised every assistance in meeting the people I want to see in Berlin and elsewhere. Later I mailed all my letters of introduction for Paris people, so that next week I may see as many as possible in the few days I am to be there. [page 2]
This evening I have dinner at this Club and will hear Brailsford on Russia afterwards.
As the end draws near of my stay here in London I realize how much has to be left undone, though I have seen a surprising number of people of all sorts. On only one thing do all these people agree -- suspicion of, distrust of and a growing enmity towards France. It is amazing.
JAMES G. MCDONALD
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