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Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, August 24, 1939 [2]

Geneva

24.VIII.39

Just to show you, dearest Mildred, that no international crisis, however grave, can make me forget any wish of yours, I send you off two photographs of myself taken by Boissonas,Frédéric Boissonnas (1858–1946), a Swiss photographer. whom I forbad to retouch them. I don’t like them . . . but I never do like photographs of myself.

Well . . . what will have happened by the time this reaches you?

What simpletons the British and French are, ever to imagine that they could count on any sincere support from the USSR, ever to have made plans a prime condition of the success of which was Russia’s sincerity!

Cela dit,“With that said.” Germany’s cynicism in throwing over the Anticomintern policy,The Anti-Comintern Pact, an anti-communist pact between Nazi Germany, Japan, and other fascist governments signed on November 25, 1936, and directed against the Communist International (the Comintern). in the name of which all her initiatives have been taken since HitlerAdolf Hitler (1889–1945), a German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party. He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. seized power, is so enormous, that one wonders whether it can succeed. Japan may not be the only power that feels cheated. It will be a still bigger and bitterer pill for Italy to swallow than any of the previous ones, and Yugoslavia and Hungary . . . or will they all be so terrified by this conjunction that they dare think no thoughts of their own?

Elisina spent two days here to see the Spanish pictures, and has returned to Antigny. Geneva is still packed to the rafters with people for the Prado show,After the fall of Catalonia in February 1939 during the Spanish Civil War, the recently created International Committee for the Rescue of Spanish Art Treasures wanted to avoid the risk of art being looted or destroyed. The Republican government committed itself to delivering the works of art to the care of the League of Nations with the provision that at the end of the war they would be returned to Spain.After the war in Spain ended (March 30, 1939), the Museum of Art and History in Geneva organised an exhibition of some of the works involved entitled “Masterpieces from the Museo del Prado.” which closes at the end of this month. To see the Prado at Geneva, in itself, was such a portent that one might have expected it to portend the end of the world.

Much love to you both

R. T.

 
Associated Places: Geneva [Genève] (Switzerland)