Henrietta Octavia Rowland Barnett to Jane Addams, May 9, 1921

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1 SOUTH SQUARE
HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB, N.W. 11

May 9th, 1921.

↑Dear & [honored] lady --↓

It was the greatest possible delight to me to receive your letter of April 22nd. this morning, and to learn that you are coming to England, and will land on the 11th June. I am sorry that you think you must go straight through to the Continent, but in any case you will land I suppose somewhere in England, and if it is possible I ↑will↓ come wherever you are, if only to get a glimpse of you. So please send me a letter as soon as you get this.

As to the Irish Commission and Bunker Hill, we will indeed talk when we [page 2] meet, and I am very grateful to you for showing me your motives, which of course, I imagined to be much as they are, and knew they were only for the promotion of unity. But it is a little difficult to explain about ↑your↓ people wishing to be friendly, and yet taking up that method. On the other hand, if you had succeeded in obtaining information more than England possessed, it would have been received with gratitude, for most of us who think, are horribly bothered at the reticence of the Government.

Can you stay on your way back from Vienna? You ought to meet certain people who would be [honored] to meet you, but we must give them timely notice. Of course, I shall be grateful to see Miss Smith and Dr Hamilton, [page 3] but with all due respect to them, to see them will be but a poor substitute to me for seeing you.

You cannot quite imagine what sort of reputation you have here among a few people. I was asked yesterday whether you were really all that was said of you, or whether it was a deliberate American fake! Can you imagine my "eloquence"?!! The idea rather was that the Americans who are accused of boasting had gone one better and had boasted of the spiritual power of their great woman. You see my dear dear friend, the spirit of frivolity has not forsaken me, and through it all I am,

Ever yours affectionately, ↑admiringly, devotedly & a hundred more things!↓

Henrietta O Barnett [signed]