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Dictated

7, Audley Square, W.1.

16th July 1936.

My dear John,

You may be sure that many of us have been disturbed by the reports
of the last few days, but this morning's is much more encouraging.
We can all guess what has happened: public energy & private enterprise
between them are proving too great a burden, and there is a general
feeling here that you should be merciful to yourself and not overburden
the machine at the outset. For your programme of public work
is far-flung, has a long series of responsible years before it, while
the accounts which reach us of your activities indicate a degree of
burden which sounds difficult to carry. You have all our good wishes,
but our exhortations towards caution as well.

Politics are too disturbing for words, and I will send you
a line about domestic affairs. Firstly, let me tell you about Eton &
the Provostship. I confess that astonishment at Hugh Cecil's appointment
was universal, and in many quarters was succeeded by consternation.
To put Linkie into such a post seemed a most paradoxical experiment.
His own experience of Eton as a boy was confined to 12 or 18 months of
misery. Since then, one thing in which he has never shewn any interest
whatever is the education of boys, their sport, their recreations,
their evasive personality. I myself look upon the Provostship of Eton
as all-important. The Headmaster has a whole battalion of assistant
masters who require constant handling & supervision - so great are his
departmental duties that he is overwhelmed by administration, and can