Ethel Cooper – November 1918
3.11.18
My dear Emmie,
The days seem endless, but only because each day is so crammed with events that it feels like a month – English troops are said to be in Vienna already, and anxious souls are hourly expecting to see bombs falling from Italian aeroplanes into Dresden and Leipzig! I have no experience of revolution, but the air feels thick with conspiracy.
There was a run on the banks yesterday – I am thankful that I decided to keep the £200 I got for my furniture in the house. I think it will be £250 by the time I have finished, but I have spent this week in the streets and not troubled about selling off the last few things yet.
Good night – perhaps my next letter will be written in times of peace –
10.11.18
My dear Emmie,
I have seen the red flag! I think long before this reaches you, you will have seen it too. It began last Monday – we read in the evening papers that the sailors in Kiel had risen, disarmed their officers, hoisted the red flag on all the ships, and that the Government had given in to practically all their demands. On Friday, I was on my way to lunch, and coming into one of the main streets saw a dense grey crowd coming towards me and at the head of it a great red flag. I must say I stood rooted, with my heart in my mouth. As you know I have waited for it for weeks, but when one first sees it, it takes one’s breath away. We got to the Volkshaus, the head quarters of the Social Democratic Party – then they picketed the streets, stopped the trams and took away the numbers and weapons from all soldiers and officers and police. We read that the Kaiser had abdicated. It was as if a weight had fallen from the people – one only heard one expression ‘Thank God – at last!’
Today is Sunday, and I was lunching….when the terms for the cessation of hostilities came out. People thought they were prepared for the worst, but anything as crushing as these terms they had not expected. I have not dared to speak to a German since, but one thing is clear to me – that everything must be accepted, and yet humanely speaking can’t be fulfilled.
I can get no information yet about getting away – I went to the police this morning, but found it in the hands of the Red Guard, and they had had no orders yet, and told me to wait for a few days.
17.11.18
My dear Emmie,
In the whirl of inner politics here, the outside world seems to have ceased to exist since last Sunday – war, capitulation, the signing of the terms for the cessation of hostilities last Monday – all that is scarcely mentioned – the one question is whether the bourgeois or the Independent-Socialist Party will get the majority, and whether, if the ‘independents’, as seems likely, remain in the majority, they will try to hold their power by force…
Every day or two I go to the police…to see if there is any order about leaving. All I have been able to hear yet, is that it is not necessary to report to the police any more…
I am restless – there are so many little things to do – people to call on, for instance – I have a list of 27 people to whom I ought to say good-bye, and I can’t begin to do such last things till I know when I can go – it is bound to be a scramble at the end.
24.11.18
My dear Emmie,
Think, this may be my last letter from here….Now my pass had gone to Berlin, and directly it has been ratified by the Dutch Legation there, I can leave on my own account.
Good night – I must get to bed – I hope next Sunday may see me at any [rate] on my way, if not in London.
1.12.18
My dear Emmie,
Another week of waiting for that pass to come back from Berlin, and still it is not here – I had every intention of going up to Berlin today, and trying to get it myself, but I find you have to get a police permit now to be allowed to buy a railway-ticket!
…we are only allowed to leave with M.200, and 100lb of luggage. I am giving my own money to a friend here, whose husband is in Stockholm – and he will send me a cheque on a London bank…
My pass has come. I can scarcely believe it after so long – I have taken it to the Soldiers’ Council to be signed, and directly it comes back I take the next train that goes in the direction of Holland.
Very much love to you all, and I wonder if this long series will ever get to you – I hope so, for they are my only hope of filling this long four years’ gap, and they have helped me through more than I realized till of late -.
Your loving,
Ethel
