My dear Miss Addams: --
Many hearty greeting to you from over the sea. I have hoped long before this to have been in America, and to have had some chance to see you once more. Alas, the health of my wife, since a serious fall, has kept me in Europe, nor do I see any immediate chance of return at present.
I am writing to you at the request of a colleague of mine here in the University. Professor Raf Verhulst is ↑a↓ Flemish poet of more than local fame, and the literature, traditions and language of his native land are very dear to him. It is one of the ironies of the present situation that the clauses of the Versailles Treaty, aimed at protecting "small nationalities" are being shamefully forgotten in Belgium, and that the Flemish population is at the mercy of the power and money of the Walloon minority, who now almost openly proclaim their wish to have Belgium swallowed up in France, a proceeding that would imperil the peace of Europe. The autonomist Party in Belgium only demand the protection of the Flemish language, and the Flemish culture in schools and universities. They only ask what was promised them when they entered upon the War.
Would you find it consistent with your convictions to sign the enclosed appeal for amnesty for one who is almost certainly illegally, and certainly unjustly in prison, and whose life is now endangered by eight years of confinement?
With the love of all the years only increased as memory sweetens it, I remain, dear Miss Addams, your old friend and affectionate admirer,
October 31. 1927.
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