ASQUITH'S LETTERS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 145, 16 December 1933, Page 9

ASQUITH'S LETTERS

TO A WOMAN FRIEND

REMARKABLE STATEMENTS

LONDON, December 8. Tho remarkable letters which the late Lord Oxford an 4 Asquith wrote to a woman confidant in tho last years of his lifo have been revealed in a book. The earlier communications .begin formally, while the last start with "Dearest Hilda." Some pay tribute to her "incomparable sweetness" as his salvation when he was "slandered and backbitten by unscrupulous enemies." One letter criticises the late Ear] Balfour for "jackalling" for Mr. Lloyd George, and another trounces "dunderhead Commoners" for visiting the Coalition premier "Nicodemus fashion. '' One of the most remarkable revelations is that Lord Oxford did not attend the Cenotaph ceremonies be«ause "the ritual was not to my taste." ' The "Sunday Dispatch," identifies the confidant as Mrs. Harrison, a war widow, residing at Barshill, Oxford. The correspondence began in 1925, when she was 27 and Lord Oxford 63. Desmond McCarthy, editor of tho book, writes:— "The friendship was a soufce of refreshment, rest,» and delight to Lord Oxford, which his wife and family understood. Evidently the confidant was the intimate woman friend that he needed." Lord Oxford's friend is a charming brunette, with, grey eyes. She told a "Sunday Chronicle" reporter that she was not attracted by hia position or political power, but by his tremendous personality. "Nobody could fail to be interested in Lord Oxford as a man," she said. "I often conducted him to art galleries, and we played cards and chess together at my home. When I realised what a perfect companion he was, not a man able to think only in terms of politics, he was an inspiration to me."