Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958

WWP23051

1919 July 4

Letter from Jon Bouman to his family.

Gift of William C. and Evelina Suhler

Correspondence

Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920)

Rachel Dark

Denise Montgomery

Austin Shifflett

English

Evelina Suhler is the granddaughter of Jon Anthony Bouman and inherited the family collection of his letters from the years of World War I. She and her husband gave the letters to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum in 2013.

Dearest,

    I am sending you enclosed cheque for £20 which is all the cash I have here, and I will send you another one on my London bank for £10 presently. That will I hope carry you on till the end of the month and leave the original five quid in my bank that I came to London with 26 years ago this month. Of course I quite understand you had these extra expenses which while disappointing to both of us, were unavoidable. It is like everything else during the war and some time after. Anything in the way of displacement is excessively expensive; it is really only the working classes who can afford these things! I for one am not a bit surprised that you found your calculations going agley - mine would probably too if I had been there. So don't worry any more about it, dear.

    Thank Mary and Betty for their nice letters by which I see you have had Aunt Hannah to see you, of which I am glad. Escorted, I note, by the inevitable Herbert.

    I cannot give you any great hope that we will see each other soon, but I am going through all the formalities on the bare chance of a week or ten days in London before Mr. Roberts leaves for America. If it were to cost me any money I simply could not do it, but I think I am justified in charging up the fare, as the office won't have to keep me the time I would be away. I spent the whole morning at various British passport offices with hordes of other people all on the same business bent and then I had to come away without having accomplished anything. Tomorrow being my day off I intend spending the day there. I am afraid my prospective leave would be consumed in waiting for permits the same as at the Hague and then there's the same business to be gone through again in London. So don't be surprised if nothing comes of it. You remember it took me a month at the Hague in spite of diplomatic backing, and although the war is over now, the regulations affecting neutrals seem to have remained unaltered. It is very galling to be kept here another three months - I wouldn't mind if I could have had say three weeks off now. Roberts of course isn't very friendly to the idea although he has formally acquiesced, as my absence would cause considerable inconvenience to him, but I don't see why I should be always the victim. This afternoon when I wanted to go back to the British Consulate he loaded me up with so much work that I couldn't go. Of course if I had an American passport, things would work like greased lightning.

    We will see what happens tomorrow.

    That will be another day for junketing for some people, because it is the American Independence Day. The amount of banqueting going on nowadays is positively appalling. The AP gave a dinner last Saturday evening to the British press which cost the office something like £250, and the next evening the American press as a whole dined the others, costing £7 per head! Some who went to both were fit for nothing for days afterwards. I would have attended but was on night work, so I escaped those after effects which was just as well. Money seems to have lost all value, it is thrown about recklessly, yet everybody kicks at the high cost of living. And what it will all end in the Lord only knows ...

    Tell me now truly if you have had any return of those old pains, or any reactions since your homecoming? It always worries me if I don't hear from you for some days, and I always think you are not well. I hope however you are keeping fit. But tell me!

Letter

Bouman Family