2110-7-8-19

112, EATON SQUARE, S.W.1.

SLOANE 1543 .

February 11th, 1936.

My dear John,

I enclose a copy of my talk on the Odyssey the other day. I got a great deal of pleasure from reading up the subject, and might almost as well have written a book as a short paper. You may be amused at my somewhat daring reconstruction of the historical background.

The session has begun here in a rather minor key after the moving events of the past few weeks. The big issue will be Defence, not only the actual estimates or loan policy, but also the co-ordination of the fighting Services. Italy and sanctions have, for the moment, receded into the background. I confess I can see no satisfactory solution of the tangle which we started when we insisted on trying to apply Article 16. No doubt there will be some attempted settlement more or less on the lines of the Hoare-Laval proposals. That may be best for the people concerned but a pretty humiliating thing for us.

We all had a very pleasant fortnight in the Tirol at a little place in the Zillertal called Gerlos. My ski-ing

was very bad for the first few days but recovered before the end. One of these days I must come out again in winter and you will take me for a run.

Yours ever, Leo