Cooper, Ethel – October 1914

4.10.14

My dear Emmie,

… The aunts are writing… and begging me to go to them. But I shall stay here while there is plenty to do.

…I must go and get dinner and then make melon jam out of a huge pumpkin that I bought in the street yesterday. I am preserving all the fruit that I can now while it is cheap, for living is going to be very expensive in the winter, so people say.

11.10.14

My dear Emmie,

I have just been able to send you a letter by Jean – she leaves for England tomorrow morning… Why she has not gone before, I don’t quite know – this is no time for just paying pleasant visits. I hope she gets across alright – the mines are really dangerous now.

…The town is full of soldiers – they march through every day in masses…

Willy is still here, though he is on duty for most of his time – I have been knitting a lot and make him long woollen gloves, knee-warmers, and now a sort of combination cap and muffler. It is getting very cold, and those sorts of things make a great difference when they are camping out. All the letters from the front beg for them…

I have hopes of getting Mr Bennie out of prison next week, but things move very slowly there…

18.10.14

My dear Emmie,

I was just delighted last week at getting the letter you sent to me through Aunt Alice…

It interested me so much to hear about the men offering themselves so well, and money pouring in. Here the only sort of thing I see about the colonies is that England has bought the Japanese alliance through the promise of throwing open Australia to Japan, and that Australia is in a state of revolt in consequence – and of course one believes nothing of it…And the official statements are true unfortunately. Antwerp has fallen, Bruges and Ostende too, and there seems nothing now to keep Germany back from Dunkirk and Calais.

… I had hoped to get Mr Bennie out be now, but it is still hanging fire…

We are just off to [Ethel’s friend, Dr Knopf’s] Sanatorium to supper. The patients are all up on end since the war began – the general tension is bad for nervy people evidently, and of course they all have relations at the front.

28.10.14

My dear Emmie,

… I was very much pleased at getting Mr Bennie out of prison two day ago… he must report himself to the police twice a week. He is wishing that he could get away, for the University and every library is closed to foreigners now, but is isn’t possible to leave – he would only be arrested at the next town he stopped in.

I hear that Jean reached England safely…

On Saturday evening [Ethel’s musician friend Sandor] played in the Albert Halle for a Red Cross concert – he played a new Polonaise of [a mutual friend from Poland] Franio’s, and we were all a little nervous as to how it would be received – anything that is not rootedly German or Austrian is tabooed…