prove a distant goal, and probably the most distinctive feature of our pro-
gramme is the proposal that until such a development becomes feasible, the
legislative function to which you refer in your address should be entrusted to
a completely impartial Tribunal. We fully admit that this Tribunal would not
be a perfect instrument, but we are convinced that it would be in?nitely more
suitable for the just settlement of non-judicial issues than either the Security
Council or the Permanent Court, bearing in mind that the former is made up
of politicians whose ?rst job is to further the interests of their own countries
and the latter of lawyers who have little knowledge or experience outside the
purely legal ?eld.
With regard to the Society itself, we di?er from ??? and other such
organisations in that we have always endeavoured to function as an inter-
national Movement in the sense that our activities have never been con?ned
to Great Britain. Before the war we had managed to build up embryonic
national sections of the Movement in most of the European countries, and
these were linked together in what we called our International Section. We
are now faced with the task of rebuilding this machinery, and there can be
no doubt that your visit to the Low Countries will be of the greatest value in
helping us to carry that task a stage further.
In Holland the foundations of a New Commonwealth Committee have
already been laid with Dr van de Coppello as its President and Dr Fortuin as its
Honorary Secretary. You will, of course, be meeting these gentlemen during
your visit, and it occurred to me that you might wish to be informed of their
special connection with the Movement. I should also like to mention the
names of Dr Peter de Kanter and his wife Mrs de Kanter van Hettinga Tromp
who are members of our Committee and who have always played a leading
part in New Commonwealth activity.
In Belgium we have not as yet been able to establish any sort of organism
though we hope to be able to do so in the near future.
In apologising for bothering you with this letter, may I say again how
the autobiography of bertrand russell 526deeply grateful we are to you for having consented to undertake this journey
on our behalf.
Yours sincerely
N. B. Foot
From the Netherlands Section of the New Commonwealth Society
Amsterdam, October 7th 1947
Beursgebouw, Damrak 62A
Dear Lord Russell
Now that your tour through the continent of Western Europe has come to
an end and you are back again in England, we want to express you once more
our great thankfulness for the lectures you delivered to the Netherlands
Section of The New Commonwealth in Amsterdam and The Hague. It was an
unforgettable event to hear you – whom many of us already knew by your
numerous important writings – speak about the question which occupies and
oppresses our mind: the centuries-old problem of war or peace. We cannot
say that your words have removed all our concern; on the contrary, to what-
ever we may have got used since the thirties, your supreme analysis of the
present situation has considerably increased our anxiety. But we know now
that you also joined those who are anxious to construct a state of international
justice which will aim at the establishment of rules of law and in which the
transgressor will be called to order by force, if necessary.
You will have learnt from the number of your auditors and the many
conversations you had that your visit to our country has been a great success.
There is no Dutch newspaper nor weekly that failed to mention your visit and
your lectures.
Thank you for coming, Lord Russell; we shall not forget your words!
Yours very truly
Dr van de Coppello
President
Dr Fortuin
Secretary
From Gilbert Murray
Yatscombe
Boar’s Hill Oxford
Sep. 12 1951
Dear Bertie
I was greatly touched by that letter you wrote to the Philosophic Society
Dinner about our ?fty years of close friendship. It is, I think, quite true about
the fundamental agreement; I always feel it – and am proud of it.
I had explained that I preferred you to other philosophers because, while
return to england 527they mostly tried to prove some horrible conclusion – like Hobbes, Hegel,
Marx etc, you were, I believe, content if you could really prove that 2+2 = 4,
and that conclusion, though sad, was at least bearable (‘To think that two and
two are four, and never ?ve or three The heart of man has long been sore And
long is like to be.’)
Have you read the life of Jos Wedgwood (The Last of the Radicals) by his niece?
He sent a questionnaire to a great list of people in which one question was:
‘To what cause do you attribute your failure?’ The only one who said he had
not failed was Ld Beaverbrook! Interesting and quite natural.
Providence has thought ?t to make me lame by giving me blisters on my
feet so that I can not wear shoes; a great nuisance.
Yours ever, and with real thanks for your letter, which made me for a
moment feel that I was not completely a failure.
G.M.
From General Sir Frank E. W. Simpson, ???, ???, ???
Imperial Defence College
Seaford House
37, Belgrave Square
S.W.1
16th July, 1952
Dear Lord Russell
May I introduce myself to you as the present Commandant of this College,
having taken over from Admiral Sir Charles Daniel at the beginning of this
year.
I am writing to ask whether you could possibly spare the time to visit us
again this year in December and give your excellent talk on ‘The Future of
Mankind’. Admiral Daniel has told me how valuable and stimulating your
talks to this College have been in recent years.
The date I have in mind is Thursday, 4th December next, and the time
10.15 a.m. You know our usual procedure.
I much hope that you will agree to come and that the above date will be
convenient for you.
Yours sincerely
F. E. W. Simpson
the autobiography of bertrand russell 528From the Manchester Guardian, 22nd April 1954
?????? ???????
Sir
In a leading article of your issue of April 20 you say: ‘The United States is
not so foolish or wicked as to ?re the ?rst shot in a war with atomic
weapons.’ This statement as it stands is ambiguous. If you mean that the
United States would not ?re the ?rst shot, the statement may be correct. But if
you mean that the United States would not be the ?rst to use atomic weapons,
you are almost certainly mistaken. The United States authorities have declared
that any aggression anywhere by Russia or China will be met by all-out
retaliation, which certainly means the bomb. It is apparently the opinion of
experts that in a world war the Western Powers will be defeated if they do not
use the bomb, but victorious if they use it. If this is the view of the Russian
authorities, they will abstain at the beginning of a war from using the bomb
and leave to our side the odium of its ?rst employment. Can anybody ser-
iously suggest that the Western Powers will prefer defeat? There is only one way
to prevent the necessity for this choice, and that is to prevent a world war.
Yours &c.
Bertrand Russell
[Our point was simply that China, knowing the scruples which limit American
action, could disregard an American threat to retaliate with atomic weapons
if China did not desist from intervening in Indo-China. With Lord Russell’s
general point we are in agreement. – Ed. Guard.]
From my cousin, Sir Claud Russell
Trematon Castle
Saltash, Cornwall
12 July ’52
Dear Bertie
I was given to read (in Vogue) by Flora your childhood’s Memories, which
I did with interest, and the more so, no doubt, as they evoked memories of
my own. There must be few survivors of the Pembroke Lodge days. I think
my parents went there fairly frequently on a Sunday, driving from London in
a hired one-horse brougham (they never owned a carriage in London) and
took one or two children with ’em. But I remember better an occasional
weekend there, and no doubt your grandmother and my parents thought,
with reason, that our association would be pleasant, and bene?cial, to both.
Your grandfather was dead before those days. I never saw him, but I remem-
ber my father telling my mother at breakfast in Audley Square ‘Uncle John is
dead’; and also that it fell to my father to return his ?? to the Queen, and that
return to england 529some important part of the insignia – the Star or the Garter – could not be
found, which my father had to tell the Queen, who said: ‘that doesn’t matter.’
I would like to see Pembroke Lodge again, and walk about the grounds.
I believe it is in a dilapidated state, and no longer the home of a deserving
servant of the State. I remember Windsor Castle, and that Henry VIII saw
from Richmond Hill the gun ?red that told him Anne Boleyn was executed.
I recall the family prayers, and my embarrassment at having to sing the hymn
audibly. I wonder in how many houses are family prayers now the rule? The
last I recall were at Sir Ernest Satow’s. He was my Chief in Peking, and I went
to see him in his retirement. He was a bachelor, an intellectual, who had read
all there is, and a man of encyclopaedic knowledge. Yet, I believe an undoubt-
ing Christian. I formed this impression of him from his demeanour in the
Legation Chapel at Peking, and the family prayers con?rmed it. His Japanese
butler, cook and housemaid, appeared after dinner, and he led the prayers.
My only unpleasant memory of Pembroke Lodge arises from two boy friends
of yours of the name of Logan. They conceived, I suppose, a measure of
contempt for me, and made no secret of it. Perhaps they thought me a ‘milk-
sop’, or ‘softy’. However, I didn’t see them often. Per contra, like you, I have a
happy memory of Annabel (Clara we called her)
5
and I was often at York
House. When her parents were in India, she came to us for her holidays (she
was at school) and I was much in love with her – I being then about 15–16
years old. I wonder what became of the furniture and pictures etc. at Pem-
broke Lodge. I suppose Agatha had them at Haslemere. I remember particu-
larly a statue, a life-size marble of a female nude, in the hall.
6
I think a gift
from the Italian people to your grandfather, in gratitude for his contribution
to the liberation and union of Italy. Like you, I owe to the Russells shyness,
and sensitiveness – great handicaps in life, but no metaphysics, tho’ I have
tried to feebly – my father and elder brother had the latter, but not profes-
sionally, like you. What I owe to my French progenitors I leave others to
judge. I noted lately in a volume of Lord Beacons?eld’s letters one written
from Woburn in 1865, to Queen Victoria, in which he says: ‘The predominant
feature and organic de?ciency of the Russell family is shyness. Even Hastings
is not free from it, though he tries to cover it with an air of uneasy gaiety.’ I
am much too shy for that.
I am happy to know of my family link with the heroic defender of
Gibraltar – my great aunt’s great uncle. Athenais and I have taken to spending
the winter at Gib. If ever, with advancing years, you want to escape the
English winter, I recommend it. A better climate than the Riviera, and in a
sterling area.
Excuse this long letter. One thing led to another.
Yours ever
Claud
the autobiography of bertrand russell 530Trematon Castle
Saltash, Cornwall
9 Aug. ’52
Dear Bertie
Thank you for your letter, and I fully share your indignation at the fate
of Pembroke Lodge. Can it be that what you call ‘Bumbledom’ is now the
Crown? All the same, I hope when I’m in London to go and see the old place
again, and may:
‘Fond memory bring the light’
‘Of other days around me’,
or will I (more probably):
‘Feel like one’
‘Who treads alone’
‘Some banquet hall deserted’
‘Whose lights are ?ed’ etc.
But did not Agatha wisely leave the Italia that I remember, to Newnham,
where such a work of art could excite admiration, but never, I trust, an unruly
thought.
I hope we may see you at Gib. next winter, if you want to escape the
English one. The climate is more equable and healthy than that of the Riviera,
and being British soil, if you have a bank balance at home, you can draw on
it – or overdraw, for that matter. The Gibraltarians, tho’ not typical English-
men, are amiable and loyal. They know which side their bread is buttered,
and there is no irredentism among them. O si sic omnes!
The Rock Hotel is the place to stay – well run, but not exactly cheap.
Yours ever
Claud
To and from Albert Einstein
41 Queen’s Road
Richmond
Surrey
20 June, 1953
Dear Einstein
I am in whole-hearted agreement with your contention that teachers called
before McCarthy’s inquisitors should refuse to testify. When The New York Times
had a leading article disagreeing with you about this, I wrote a letter to it
supporting you. But I am afraid they are not going to print it. I enclose a copy,
of which, if you feel so disposed, you may make use in any way you like.
Yours very sincerely
Bertrand Russell
return to england 531Translation
Princeton
28.vi.53
Dear Bertrand Russell
Your ?ne letter to The New York Times is a great contribution to a good cause.
All the intellectuals in this country, down to the youngest student, have
become completely intimidated. Virtually no one of ‘prominence’ besides
yourself has actually challenged these absurdities in which the politicians
have become engaged. Because they have succeeded in convincing the masses
that the Russians and the American Communists endanger the safety of the
country, these politicians consider themselves so powerful. The cruder the
tales they spread, the more assured they feel of their reelection by the mis-
guided population. This also explains why Eisenhower did not dare to com-
mute the death sentence of the two Rosenbergs, although he well knew how
much their execution would injure the name of the United States abroad.
I have read your latest publications, ‘Impact’ and ‘Satan . . .’, with great
care and real enjoyment. You should be given much credit for having used
your unique literary talent in the service of public enlightenment and educa-
tion. I am convinced that your literary work will exercise a great and lasting
in?uence particularly since you have resisted the temptation to gain some
short lived e?ects through paradoxes and exaggerations.
With cordial greetings and wishes,
Yours
A. Einstein
41 Queen’s Road
Richmond
Surrey
5 July, 1953
Dear Einstein
Thank you very much for your letter, which I found most encouraging.
Rather to my surprise The New York Times did at last print my letter about you. I
hope you will be able to have an in?uence upon liberal-minded academic
people in America. With warmest good wishes,
Yours very sincerely
Bertrand Russell
Albert Einstein on Russell – 1940 (time of College of the City of New York
row)
Es wiederholt sich immer wieder
In dieser Welt so fein und bieder
the autobiography of bertrand russell 532Der Pfaff den Poebel alarmiert
Der Genius wird executiert.
Translation
It keeps repeating itself
In this world, so ?ne and honest:
The Parson alarms the populace,
The genius is executed.
Albert Einstein on Russell’s History of Western Philosophy, 1946
Bertrand Russell’s ‘Geschichte der Philosophie’ ist eine koestliche Lektuere. Ich weiss nicht, ob
man die koestlische Frische und Originalitaet oder die Sensitivitaet der Einfuehlung in ferne Zeiten
und fremde Mentalitaet bei diesem grossen Denker mehr bewundern soll. Ich betrachte es als ein
Glueck, dass unsere so trockene und zugleich brutale Generation einen so weisen, ehrlichen, tapferen
und dabei humorvollen Mann aufzuweisen hat. Es ist ein in hoechstem Sinne paedagogisches Werk,
das ueber dem Streite der Parteien und Meinungen steht.
Translation
Bertrand Russell’s ‘History of Philosophy’ is a precious book. I don’t know
whether one should more admire the delightful freshness and originality or the
sensitivity of the sympathy with distant times and remote mentalities on the part of
this great thinker. I regard it as fortunate that our so dry and also brutal generation
can point to such a wise, honourable, bold and at the same time humorous man. It
is a work that is in the highest degree pedagogical which stands above the con?icts
of parties and opinions.
‘? ??????? ?????????’
7
by
Bertrand Russell
Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new
decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it. The
Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be
set forth as follows:
1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the
evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband
return to england 533or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not
by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and
illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary
authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if
you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted
was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for,
if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper
agreement than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more
inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s
paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
From the News Chronicle, 1st April, 1954
?? ???????? ??
In November, 1945, in a speech in the House of Lords on the atomic bomb,
Bertrand Russell said:
It is possible that some mechanism, analogous to the present atomic bomb,
could be used to set o? a much more violent explosion which would be
obtained if one could synthesise heavier elements out of hydrogen. All that
must take place if our scienti?c civilisation goes on, if it does not bring itself
to destruction: all that is bound to happen.
From the News Chronicle, 1st April 1954
??? ????:
????? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?????
Bertrand Russell, mathematician, philosopher, answers the questions that
everyone is asking (in an interview with Robert Waithman).
Bertrand Russell sat very upright in his armchair, smoking a curved pipe
and talking gently about the hydrogen bomb. But there was nothing gentle
about his conclusions.
Britain’s greatest living philosopher, whose mind and intellectual courage
have moved the twentieth century since its beginning, is now 81. His hair is
white and his voice is soft; and his opinions, as always, are expressed with a
memorable clarity. I put a succession of questions to him and he answered
them thus:
the autobiography of bertrand russell 534Is there any justi?cation for alarm at the thought that some disastrous miscalculation may
occur in the H-bomb tests?
Though, obviously, there will come a time when these experiments are
too dangerous, I don’t think we have reached that point yet.
If there were a hydrogen-bomb war it is quite clear that practically every-
body in London would perish. A shower of hydrogen bombs would almost
certainly sterilise large agricultural areas, and the resulting famine would be
fearful.
But we are talking of the current tests, in peace-time. I do not expect
disaster from them. I think those who may have been showered with
radio-active ash, whose ?shing catches have been damaged or destroyed,
undoubtedly have every right to complain.
But I do not foresee a rain of radio-active ash comparable with the phe-
nomena we saw after the explosion of the Krakatoa Volcano in 1883 (which I
remember well), I do not think that, so long as the explosions are few, marine
life will be grievously a?ected.
It is a?ected now by oil pollution, isn’t it – though that is much less
dramatic a story?
Do you think that a feeling of dread and uncertainty at the back of people’s minds might have
an evil social e?ect?
Well, you know, it isn’t an e?ect that lasts long. As with the atom bomb at
?rst, people get into a state; but after a little while they forget it.
If you have perpetually mounting crises, of course, it will be di?erent. The
truth is, though, that the thought of an old peril, however great, will not
distract people from their daily jobs.
You will have observed that since the ?rst atom bombs were exploded the
birth rate has continued to go up. That is a reliable test.
I should say that the fear of unemployment, which is something
everyone understands, has a much greater social e?ect than the fear of atom
bombs.
And the international e?ects? Do we seem to you to have reached a strategic stalemate? Is there
now a new basis for discussion between Russia and the West?
I think the existence of the hydrogen bomb presents a perfectly clear
alternative to all the Governments of the world. Will they submit to an
international authority, or shall the human race die out?
I am afraid that most Governments and most individuals will refuse to face
that alternative. They so dislike the idea of international government that they
dodge the issue whenever they can.
Ask the man in the street if he is prepared to have the British Navy partly
under the orders of Russians. His hair will stand on end.
Yet that is what we must think about.
You see no virtue in any proposal that the experiments should be stopped?
return to england 535None whatever, unless we have found a way of causing the Russian
experiments to be stopped, too.
In my opinion, there is only one way. It is to convince the Russians beyond
doubt that they can win no victory: that they cannot ever Communise the
world with the hydrogen bomb.
Perhaps they are beginning to feel that. It seems to me to be signi?cant that
the Russian leaders are now allowing the Russian people to know of the
devastation to be expected from an atomic war.
But I would hasten the process. I would invite all the Governments of
the world, and particularly the Russians, to send observers to see the results
of the American tests. It ought to be made as plain as it can be made.
There is one more thing we should do. We should diminish the anti-
Communist tirades that are now so freely indulged in. We should try hard
to bring about a return to international good manners. That would be a great
help.
And if – or when – the Russians are convinced?
I think it ought to be possible to lessen the tension and to satisfy the
