“Orwell must have had some scheme for winning the war, or perhaps, as William Empson remembered, for organised guerrilla warfare if there were a German invasion. He received a short acknowledgment on 26 March 1942 from Tom Jones, C. H., Lloyd George’s famous Cabinet Secretary: “your memorandum will be read by the Secretary of State himself. It seems plain sense — too plain I suppose.” No trace of the memorandum or clue to its subject matter survives in either Orwell’s or Jones’ papers, and as Jones held no official position then and wrote from his private address it is not clear even which Secretary of State it was for, though presumably that for War.” Bernard Crick
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While researching for his biography of George Orwell, Bernard Crick wrote to Baroness White, the daughter of Thomas Jones C.H. (1870-1955) endeavouring to locate this letter. She “kindly searched her father’s papers in the National Library of Wales, but could not find Orwell’s original letter, nor any supporting papers”.
Last week, while scouring archives in Aberystwyth for completely unrelated reasons, I found it!
Orwell’s letter to Jones (24.3.1942). Published with the kind permission of Richard Blair
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Some of Crick’s questions are answered by reading Orwell’s paragraph to Jones. David Astor wanted an article for the Observer and Orwell was reluctant to risk alerting the Germans about the “inconceivably silly” situation where the last line of defence did not have cartridges for their rifles.
Why write to Jones though?
A detailed answer to this question will be explored in my next post but briefly, “T.J.” Jones had mentored Astor for more than decade and was an important confidant, especially in matters related to Astor’s plans for the Observer newspaper.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Jones as “civil servant and benefactor”. He served four very different prime ministers – David Lloyd George, Andrew Bonar Law, Stanley Baldwin and Ramsay MacDonald – from 1916-1930 and was considered “the liberal conscience” of these governments. After his resignation from the civil service, Jones “continued to move widely in political circles and was so regularly consulted on Welsh appointments and honours that he earned the sobriquet of the unofficial secretary of state for Wales”.
Jones, although no longer in an “official position” was extraordinarily well-connected and Orwell’s mention of Astor’s name in the opening sentence ensured the message would reach Sir James Grigg K.C.B. (1890–1964), the new Secretary of State for War. The letter is a grand example of going straight to the top or perhaps, it’s who, not what you know.
Orwell’s War-time Diary and BBC memoranda provide contextually important information about this obviously intolerable situation for the Home Guard. A few days after dispatching the letter to Jones, he mentions the issue in his diary (the same entry notes an “abusive letter from H. G. Wells” whom had called him “‘You shit’, among other things”):
“Surprise call-out of our Company of Home Guard a week or two back. It took 4½ hours to assemble the Company and dish out ammunition, and would have taken them another hour to get them into their battle positions. This mainly due to the bottleneck caused by refusing to distribute ammunition but making each man come to HQ to be issued with it there. Sent a memo on this to Dr Tom Jones, who has forwarded it direct to Sir Jas. Grigg. In my own unit I could not get such a memo even as far as the Company Commander—or at least, could not get it attended to.” Orwell, War-time Diary (27.3.1942)
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Orwell is top right next to his publisher, Fred Warburg.
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The Home Guard was genuinely important to Orwell. He joined on 12 June 1940 and was quickly promoted to sergeant, leading C Company in the 5th County of London Battalion. He gave lectures on “street fighting” and published a number of articles, including: “The Home Guard and You: George Orwell puts a personal question to ‘make believe democrats’—and real ones” (Tribune, 20 December 1940) and ‘Don’t Let Colonel Blimp Ruin the Home Guard’ (Evening Standard, 8 January 1941).
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It is hardly surprising that Astor would request such a piece about the Home Guard or that Orwell would be concerned about the enemy taking advantage of intelligence gleaned from a thoughtless article.
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Contextually, there may have been other political considerations for Orwell due to his employment as a Talks Producer at the BBC. Grigg’s wife, Lady Gertrude, conducted a weekly program for the BBC’s Eastern Service, ‘Women Generally Speaking’. Orwell was struggling to manage her incompetence and felt obliged to send a memorandum (which cannot be reliably dated) to his Director:
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I wonder if it would be possible for us to get Lady Grigg’s broadcasts somewhat more under our own control, as we have to bear the responsibility for them.
This morning everything went wrong that could have gone wrong. The talk had not been properly timed and was far too long. When I pointed out that it was too long and had better be cut I was told this had been timed to 12½ minutes. I then said that I would signal if it were going to over-run and had to be cut. After about two pages I saw that it must over-run considerably and prepared a cut and went in with this to Lady Grigg. She offered it to Sir James who refused to take it and cut it himself in transit, with the result that Lady Grigg’s closing announcement was cut out and there was a lot of rustling and whispering. In addition, Sir James referred to the sinking of H.M.S. “RENOWN” (instead of the REPULSE) at Singapore. This was in his own script and it had been copied from that into the censored script. He read from his own however.
I don’t, in most cases, see Lady Grigg’s scripts before transmission, as Tuesday is supposed to be my day off, and they are not usually in before then; I think it would be better if it were1 made a rule that Lady Grigg’s scripts were always in not later than Monday, and also that the Talks Producer could have some control over the way they’re put on.
We had trouble only a week or two ago as can be seen from the attached memo. On another occasion, when Miss Ellen Wilkinson was broadcasting she did not follow her script at all but almost composed a fresh talk on the spot. I know, of course, that eminent speakers have to be given more latitude but it is difficult for us to bear the responsibility when the speaker is practically not under our control. Memorandum to L. F. Rushbrook Williams (E.S.D.) [31 December 1942?]
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Contacting Jones was a tactful, as well as practical approach to rectifying the situation for the Home Guard (and staying out of hot water at work).
Reflection
Uncovering documents in archives is always exciting. This letter to T.J. Jones is a fascinating one for a range of reasons and has led to many other questions. I assume the actual memorandum was sent to Griggs and possibly exists in the records from his time as Secretary of War (1942-1945).
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I travelled to Wales – which may seem like an unlikely place to pursue Orwell research – for several reasons.
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Fabulously, I had been invited by the current owners – who had been told of my interest in researching significant locations on ‘the Orwell trail – to visit their extraordinary 17th century home, in the Vale of Ffestiniog. Even without an Orwell connection, it would have been an interesting experience for any traveller. Orwell, whose wife had died tragically earlier in the year, stayed in this isolated farmhouse in North Wales with his baby son over Christmas 1945.
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There was also the exciting prospect of reading the letters from Siegfried Charoux held in the National Library of Wales. It was originally unclear why these letters were housed in this archive but I hoped they would add to the knowledge gained from the thirteen letters discovered last year. I now understand the significance of this archive and have read most of the relevant correspondence from Astor, Charoux and a host of other figures involved with the Observer newspaper.
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I found out much more than expected.
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My next post will explore these letters and the intellectual, political and creative friendship circles that emanated from David Astor’s idealistic endeavour to transform the Observer newspaper.
References
Cockett, Richard, David Astor and The Observer, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1992
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Crick, Bernard, George Orwell: A Life (Revised Edition), London: Secker & Warburg, 1981
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Grigg, P.J., Prejudice and Judgment, London : Jonathan Cape, 1948
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