ASQUITH'S LETTERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 301, 21 December 1933, Page 2

ASQUITH'S LETTERS

TO A WOMAN FRIEND. KEMAJIKABLE STATEMENTS. LONDON, Dec. 8. Tho remarkable letters which the late Lord Oxford and Asquith wrote to a woman confidant in the last years of his life 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. ” Ono letter criticises the late Earl Balfour for “jackalling” for Air. 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 because “the ritual was not to my taste.” Tho Sunday Dispatch identifies the confidant as Airs. Harrison, a war widow, residing at Barshill, Oxford. Tho correspondence began in 1925, when she was 27 and Lord Oxford 63. Desmond AleCarthy, editor of the book, writes; — “Tho friendship was a source of refreshment, rest, and delight to Lord Oxford, which his wife and family understood. Evidently the confidant, was the intimate woman friend that lie needed.” Lord Oxford’s friend is a charming brunette, with grey eyes. She told a Sunday Chrcniclo reporter that she was not attracted by his position or political power, but by his tremendous personality. “Nobody could fail to b<> interested in Lord Oxford as a man,” she said. “I often conducted him to art gal lerics, and wo played cards and chess together at my homo. When I realised what a perfect companion he was, not a man able to think only in terms of politics, h© was an inspiration to me.”